1968 Pittsburgh Steelers season | |
---|---|
Head coach | Bill Austin |
Home field | Pitt Stadium |
Results | |
Record | 2–11–1 |
Division place | 4th NFL Century |
Playoff finish | Did not qualify |
Pro Bowlers | 3
|
AP All-Pros | Roy Jefferson (2nd team) |
The 1968 Pittsburgh Steelers season was the team's 36th in the National Football League.
1968 continued the team's descent in the NFL's basement, finishing with a third league-worst 2–11–1 record (Eagles and Falcons both 2-12) and the dismissal of head coach Bill Austin at the end of the season, leading to the eventual hiring of Chuck Noll. To this date, Austin is the last head coach to be fired by the Steelers.
The season is notable in that the Steelers had their last tied game before the NFL adopted the overtime rule in regular-season games in 1974 in Week 9 against the St. Louis Cardinals in a 28–28 stalemate; that game actually was the deciding game in the NFL Century Division that season, as the Cardinals had swept the Cleveland Browns but finished the season 9–4–1, 1/2 game behind the 10–4 Browns. Since that game, the Steelers have only had two tied games, both happening after the overtime rule took effect.
In addition, the Steelers lost to the Baltimore Colts at home, 41–7, in Week 3, as the Colts went on to play in Super Bowl III, in which they were upset by the AFL's New York Jets. After that loss, the Steelers would go another 40 years before losing to the Colts at home again, winning 12 straight (including three postseason meetings, among them the now-famous 1995 AFC Championship game as well as the 1975 Divisional Playoff Game that saw the introduction of the Terrible Towel) before losing to the now-Indianapolis Colts, 24–20, on November 10, 2008.[1]