NFL Old School Game of the Week: Oilers(Titans) Win First Game in Tennessee

Tennessee fans hold an welcome sign to the Oilers as they played their first game in the state on August 31, 1997.

Many NFL fans entered the 1997 season having to get used to the fact that after 37 seasons the Houston Oilers were no longer in Houston but were now in the state of Tennessee and were the Tennessee Oilers.
On August 31, 1997 as the 1997 season, the Tennessee Oilers played their first game in the state of Tennessee at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis as they hosted the Oakland Raiders.
The Oilers' move from Houston to Tennessee was announced by team owner Bud Adams following the 1995 season after Adams could not get the city to agree to pay for 75% of a new football-only stadium to replace the 30-year-old Astrodome.
Adams said the team would begin play in Nashville in 1998 but after a disastrous turnout in 1996 where the Oilers played games in front of crowds of almost 20,000 fans at the Astrodome, a frustrated Adams decided to move the team to Nashville for the 1997 season.
While Adams got the funds he wanted for the new stadium, the stadium would not be ready until 1999, meaning that the Oilers would have to find a stadium to play for the next two years.
The logical conclusion was Vanderbilt Stadium on the campus of Vanderbilt University located in Nashville, but Adams felt the stadium was not big enough for a NFL team as it held only 41,000 seats.
So, Adams decided that will the Oilers would practice in Nashville, they would play their home games for the 1997 and 1998 season at the nearly 60,000 seat Liberty Bowl in Memphis, which is 210 miles west of Nashville and nearly a three-and-half hour drive.
This decision would backfire as only 30,000 fans showed for the Oilers' home opener, with many of them actually there to see the Raiders.

The Liberty Bowl in Memphis was half-empty to see the Oilers face off with the Raiders in the 1997 NFL season opener.

The Raiders entered the 1997 season with a new head coach in Joe Bugel, who had gained fame for being the offensive line coach for the Washington Redskins during the 1980s and giving the offensive line the nickname the "Hogs.
Bugel had served as an assistant the previous two seasons in Oakland but was promoted to head coach for the 1997 season after his boss, Mike White, had been fired after going 15-17 the previous two seasons.
The Raiders also had a new starting quarterback in Jeff George, who had been traded to Oakland from Atlanta after being benched for most of the 1996 season following an infamous sideline argument with his head coach, June Jones.
The Oilers had also piled up a record of 15-17 the previous two seasons under head coach Jeff Fisher, who had been the team's head coach since the team's 11th game of the 1994 season, and had high hopes to reach the playoffs as third-year quarterback Steve McNair was now the team's starting quarterback to go along with second-year running back Eddie George, who had won the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award in 1996 after rushing for 1,368 yards in his rookie campaign.
So if both teams were going to their three-year long playoff droughts, an victory on Opening Day was very important.
After both teams punted on their opening possessions, the Raiders had the ball at their nine-yard-line when disaster struck as running back Napoleon Kaufman fumbled the ball following a catch, with Tennessee linebacker Lonnie Marts recovering the loose ball at the Oakland 20-yard-line.
However, the Oilers could not get a 1st down and were forced to settle a field goal which Al Del Greco made from 30 yards out to give the Oilers their first ever points in Tennessee and a 3-0 lead with 4:44 left in the first quarter.
Following a three-and-out by the Raiders, the Oilers would get the ball at their 37-yard-line and proceeded to drive into Oakland territory as McNair hit Willie Davis for a 21-yard pass play to put Tennessee at the Raiders 38-yard-line.
However on the next play, McNair would be called for intentional grounding pushing the Oilers back 15 yards to their 47-yard-line where they faced a 2nd-and-25.
Tennessee would get back into Raiders territory as George would pick up five yards on the next play to set up 3rd-and-20 at the Oakland 48-yard-line.
That is when McNair and fired a bomb for wide receiver Chris Sanders, who beat his man in cornerback and former Super Bowl MVP Larry Brown, to make the catch on a deep fly pattern to score a 48-yard touchdown, which increased the Oilers' lead to 10-0 as the first quarter came to a close.

Eddie George(27) would carry the ball 13 times for 88 yards in the first half, but he was just getting warmed up.

The Oilers looked to keep the momentum going as the second quarter began by forcing another Oakland punt to get the ball back at their 29-yard-line.
But on 3rd-and-14 from their 37-yard-line, the Oilers committed their first turnover of the game as McNair was intercepted by Oakland strong safety James Trapp on a pass intended for tight end Frank Wycheck, to give the Raiders the ball in Oilers territory at the Tennessee 49-yard-line.
Once again though, the Oilers defense would rise up and force another Raider punt to get the ball back at their two-yard-line.
The Oilers ran the ball four straight times for 32 yards, with George carrying it on three of the four plays for 19 yards, until Tennessee decided to put the ball in the air on 3rd-and-2 at their 34-yard-line.
The play seemed to work as Derrick Mason caught McNair's pass for 11 yards, only to have Mason fumble the ball with Oakland linebacker Mike Morton recovering it for the Raiders at the Oilers' 47-yard-line.
But for the second consecutive possession, the Raiders could not convert an Oiler turnover into points as they were forced to go three-and-out and punt the ball back to Tennessee.
Neither team would mount another scoring chance for the rest of the first half as the Oilers went into the locker room with a 10-0 lead after the first 30 minutes of play and would get the ball to start the second half.
That is when Eddie George began to assert himself on the Oilers' first drive of the second half as he carried the ball six times for 39 yards on a 14-play, 47-yard drive on a drive that took over 10 minutes and culminated with a 37-yard field goal by Del Greco to increase the Tennessee lead to 13-0.
Needing two touchdowns and only 20 minutes to play, the Raiders offense needed to wake up as they began their opening drive of the second half at their 29-yard-line.
That is when Jeff George decided to go to all-pro wide receiver Tim Brown, who did not catch a pass in the first half, as he made a 12-yard reception on the first play from scrimmage, then made a juke move on Oilers cornerback Steve Jackson to get open and make a 59-yard touchdown reception that cut the Tennessee lead to 13-7 with 3:43 left in the third quarter.

After catching zero passes in the first half, Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown would finish the day with eight receptions for 153 yards and three touchdowns.

The Raiders kept the momentum gained from the touchdown as they forced a three-and-out to get the ball back at their 25-yard-line when Jeff George caught fire as he completed five of seven passes for 69 yards, three of those passes to Brown for 59 yards, including the 27-yard touchdown to end the nine-play, 75-yard drive that with Cole Ford's extra point gave the Raiders their first lead of the game, 14-13 with 11:46 left in the fourth quarter.
After both teams went three-and-out on their ensuing possessions, the Oilers got the ball at their 10-yard-line with 9:09 left in regulation, needing at least a field goal.
Just like they did on their opening drive of the second half, the Oilers called upon Eddie George to move them down the field, as he would carry the ball eight times on the Oilers' 13-play, 90-yard touchdown drive that took up seven minutes.
George would get some help from third-down specialist Ronnie Harmon, as the running back picked 11 yards on 3rd-and-9 at the Tennessee 11-yard-line, then caught a 15-yard pass from McNair on 3rd-and-5 to put the Oilers at their 43-yard-line.
That is when Eddie took over as the former Heisman Trophy winner would carry the ball the next six plays for the remaining 57 yards of the drive, with George crossing the 200-yard rushing mark when he scored on a 29-yard touchdown run to give the Oilers a 19-14 lead with 2:09 left.
Knowing an extra point would only give them a six-point lead, the Oilers went for two and once again went to Eddie, who would get in the end zone for the successful two-point conversion to make it a one-touchdown game, 21-14.

Eddie George holds the ball up in the air after his 29-yard touchdown run gave the Oilers the lead and gave him more than 200 rushing yards for the day.

After a 34-yard return on Tim Hall on the kickoff, the Raiders took over at their 47-yard-line, needing a touchdown and an extra point to tie the game.
Jeff George began the drive by completing his first four passes for 37 yards until an incomplete pass intended for James Jett left the Raiders with a 3rd-and-5 at the Oilers' 16-yard-line.
That is when Oakland surprised the Tennessee defense by handing the ball off to running back Derrick Fenner, who picked up seven yards to set up a 1st-and-goal at the Tennessee nine-yard-line.
But back-to-back incomplete passes, a delay of game, and a sack, pushed the Raiders back seven yards, forcing a do-or-die 4th-and-goal from the 16-yard-line and needing a touchdown to have any chance of sending the game.
That is when George fired a pass toward the middle of the end zone, that was caught by Brown with 22 seconds left to make it a one-point game with 22 seconds left in regulation
The Raiders tied it with Cole Ford's extra point and McNair took a knee on the final play of regulation, the first NFL game in the state of Tennessee was going into overtime with the score tied at 21.
Oakland got the ball to start the extra period but failed to get a 1st down and punted the ball back to the Oilers who took over at their 35-yard-line.
After a two-yard-run by George on 1st down, McNair faked a handoff to Eddie on 2nd down and found Wycheck for a 20-yard pass completion that put the Oilers at the Raiders' 42-yard-line.
Still not in field goal range, McNair connected with Wycheck again on 2nd-and-10 for 10 yards that put Tennessee at the Oakland 32-yard-line.
Then after a 11-yard run by McNair and a six-yard run by George on his 35th and final carry, Fisher called on Del Greco to attempt the game-winning field goal from 33 yards out.
Bugel called a timeout in hopes of icing Del Greco, but it was to no avail as Del Greco made the 33-yard field goal to give the Oilers a 24-21 overtime win and thier first victory in Tennessee.
The loss would set the tone for the Raiders season as Brown would shine while the team didn't.
Brown became the first receiver in Raiders history to catch at least 100 passes in a season as he caught 104 passes for 1,408 yards while George broke the record for passing yards in a season with 3,917, but the team went 4-12 because their defense was one of the worst in the league, which lead to Bugel's firing after just one season, but paving the way for Jon Gruden to become the team's head coach to who would eventually lead the Raiders to a short-term resurgence in the early 2000s.

Eddie George would finish with the fourth highest total for a running back in a NFL season opener as his 216 yards on 35 carries propelled the Oilers to their first ever win in Tennessee.

As for the Oilers, the Opening Day win was the highlight of their inaugural season in Tennessee as the team dropped thier next four games and eventually finished the season 8-8.
While the team wasn't that bad, the attendance to watch was worse as less fans came to see the team play than the year before in Houston, with only one game attracting more than 30,000 fans, and that was their regular season finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers, which was played in front of 50,677 fans, but most of them rooting for the Steelers as they defeated the Oilers 19-6.
Frustrated, Adams decided to have the Oilers play at Vanderbilt for the 1998 season as the team went 8-8 again, before finally moving into their new stadium, Adelphia Coliseum(now Nissan Stadium) and changed the nickname from "Oilers" to "Titans".
The 1999 season would be a historic one for the Titans as they finished 13-3 and made it to their first ever Super Bowl, where they came up one yard short of sending the game into overtime as they lost to the Rams 23-16.
But ever since that the season, the Titans have averaged at least over 60,000 fans per game in Nashville, proving that Adams' move was the right one.
As for the city of Houston, they would get a new team called the Texans with a football-only stadium that began play in 2002.