1994 Houston Oilers season
| 1994 Houston Oilers season | |
|---|---|
| Head coach | Jack Pardee (10 games) Jeff Fisher (final 6 games) |
| Home field | Astrodome |
| Results | |
| Record | 2–14 |
| Division place | 4th AFC Central |
| Playoff finish | did not qualify |
The 1994 Houston Oilers season was the 35th season overall and 25th with the National Football League (NFL).[1]
Despite finishing with a 12–4 record and a first round bye the previous season, team owner Bud Adams made good on a threat to break up the team if they did not win the Super Bowl. The two biggest losses the Oilers suffered were the trading of Warren Moon, the team's longtime starting quarterback, to the Minnesota Vikings and the departure of defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan, who was hired to coach the Arizona Cardinals. With Moon being replaced by career backup Cody Carlson and the defense left without its leader, the 1994 Oilers went into a tailspin despite returning several of their explosive offensive players such as Ernest Givins and Haywood Jeffires. The team started out with only one win in their first ten games, which led to the resignation of head coach Jack Pardee. When the season was over the Oilers stood at 2–14, tying their 1983 squad with the team's fewest wins in a sixteen game season and the second fewest overall, with the 1972 and 1973 squads only winning once each season. The ten-game swing is the worst season-to-season drop in games won in NFL history, which would later be tied by the 2013 Houston Texans. Seven of their fourteen losses came by three points or fewer.
Although the Oilers finished with the worst record that season, they did not receive the #1 pick in the 1995 NFL Draft due to the entry of the expansion Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars into the league (under NFL rules, a new team is automatically granted the first pick in their first draft, unless they decide to give it up as the Panthers would do). However, the news was not all negative. With the high pick the Oilers chose Steve McNair, who would go on to become one of the franchise's all-time great players, and after Pardee resigned his defensive coordinator Jeff Fisher was promoted to replace him. Fisher would go on to lead the franchise, which moved to Tennessee under his watch, for the remaining five games of the 1994 season and stay for the next sixteen seasons before he was fired following the 2010 season. In A Football Life: Houston 93 the narrator says of the 1994 season that, "1994 would be the first season with the salary cap, and owner Bud Adams followed through on his threat to dismantle the team," and, "Guttered by the (salary) cap, the Oilers started 1-9 in 1994, Jack Pardee was fired along with Kevin Gilbride."
Contents
Offseason
After having imploded in the playoffs against Kansas City in the 1993 playoffs, the Oilers traded long-time quarterback Warren Moon to Minnesota, leaving Cody Carlson as the starter for the 1994 season.
NFL Draft
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| 1994 Houston Oilers draft | |||||
| Round | Pick | Player | Position | College | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 26 | Henry Ford | Defensive tackle | Arkansas | |
| 2 | 60 | Jeremy Nunley | Defensive end | Alabama | |
| 3 | 101 | Malcolm Floyd | Wide receiver | Fresno State | |
| 4 | 119 | Mike Davis | Cornerback | Cincinnati | |
| 4 | 129 | Sean Jackson | Running back | Florida State | |
| 5 | 157 | Roderick Lewis | Tight end | Arizona | |
| 5 | 161 | Jim Reid | Offensive tackle | Virginia | |
| 6 | 187 | Lee Gissendaner | Wide receiver | Northwestern | |
| 6 | 194 | Barron Wortham | Linebacker | UTEP | |
| 7 | 220 | Lemanski Hall | Linebacker | Alabama | |
| Made roster | |||||
Personnel
Staff
| 1994 Houston Oilers staff | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Front office
Head coaches
Offensive coaches
|
Defensive coaches
Special teams coaches
Strength and conditioning
|
|||||
Roster
Regular season
Schedule
| Week | Date | Opponent | Result | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | September 4, 1994 | at Indianapolis Colts | L 45–21 |
|
| 2 | September 11, 1994 | at Dallas Cowboys | L 20–17 |
|
| 3 | September 18, 1994 | Buffalo Bills | L 15–7 |
|
| 4 | September 25, 1994 | Cincinnati Bengals | W 20–13 |
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| 5 | October 3, 1994 | at Pittsburgh Steelers | L 30–14 |
|
| 6 | Bye | |||
| 7 | October 13, 1994 | Cleveland Browns | L 11–8 |
|
| 8 | October 24, 1994 | at Philadelphia Eagles | L 21–6 |
|
| 9 | October 30, 1994 | at Los Angeles Raiders | L 17–14 |
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| 10 | November 6, 1994 | Pittsburgh Steelers | L 9–12 |
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| 11 | November 13, 1994 | at Cincinnati Bengals | L 34–31 |
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| 12 | November 21, 1994 | New York Giants | L 13–10 |
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| 13 | November 27, 1994 | at Cleveland Browns | L 34–10 |
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| 14 | December 4, 1994 | Arizona Cardinals | L 30–12 |
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| 15 | December 11, 1994 | Seattle Seahawks | L 16–14 |
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| 16 | December 18, 1994 | at Kansas City Chiefs | L 31–9 |
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| 17 | December 24, 1994 | New York Jets | W 24–10 |
|
Standings
| AFC Central | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | L | T | PCT | PF | PA | STK | |
| (1) Pittsburgh Steelers | 12 | 4 | 0 | .750 | 316 | 234 | L1 |
| (4) Cleveland Browns | 11 | 5 | 0 | .688 | 340 | 204 | W1 |
| Cincinnati Bengals | 3 | 13 | 0 | .188 | 276 | 406 | W1 |
| Houston Oilers | 2 | 14 | 0 | .125 | 226 | 352 | W1 |
References
- ↑ 1994 Houston Oilers
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
