The

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 a ...

season was the 11th season overall and its first as part of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

. The team failed to improve on their previous season's 6–6–2 record, winning only three games. The Oilers started the season winning two of its first three games, both road wins against the Steelers and Bengals. The Oilers struggled the rest of the season, as they went 0-6-1 following the 2-1 start. In week five versus the Steelers in the

Astrodome The NRG Astrodome, also known as the Houston Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, is the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, located in Houston, Texas. It was financed and assisted in development by Roy Hofheinz, mayor of Houston ...

, starting quarterback

Charley Johnson Charley Lane Johnson (born November 22, 1938) is a former American football quarterback and retired professor of chemical engineering. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 years with three teams: the St. Louis Cardinals, Houst ...

suffered a broken

clavicle The clavicle, or collarbone, is a slender, S-shaped long bone approximately 6 inches (15 cm) long that serves as a strut between the shoulder blade and the sternum (breastbone). There are two clavicles, one on the left and one on the r ...

when he was clipped by Pittsburgh defensive tackle

Chuck Hinton Charles Edward Hinton Jr. (May 3, 1934 – January 27, 2013) was an American professional baseball player. An outfielder, Hinton played in Major League Baseball for the Washington Senators (1961–64), Cleveland Indians (1965–67, 1969–71) an ...

on an interception return. Johnson returned after missing four games, but was nowhere near as effective than before the injury. The Oilers won only one of their last 11 games, a 31-21 win over the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

, before losing their final 3 games of the season, including a 52-10 rout by in-state rival

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

in the finale, to finish the season 3-10-1. They missed the playoffs for the second time in three seasons, and for the first of eight consecutive seasons.

Offseason

NFL draft

Roster

Schedule

Standings

References

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

{{Americanfootball-season-stub