1968 Pittsburgh Steelers season
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 that saw the introduction of the Terrible Towel) before losing to the now-Indianapolis Colts, 24–20, on November 10, 2008. Offseason. No major player transactions happened in the offseason, although the team would draft Notre Dame running back Rocky Bleier with their last pick (16th round) in the 1968 draft. Bleier's drafting  by the team was mainly at the insistence of Steelers owner Art Rooney, who thought Bleier was Catholic for attending Notre Dame, even though Bleier was actually Presbyterian. Bleier would play ten games for the Steelers before being drafted again—this time by the military to fight in Vietnam. Despite being wounded the following summer, Bleier would go on to be a major contributor to the Steelers' success in the 1970s. The most notable offseason change happened with the team's uniforms. After just two seasons, the team ditched the so-called "Batman"-themed uniforms and adopted a modified version of  their pre-1966 black design for both jerseys. The team brought back the Northwestern-style stripes on the sleeves, but put a white stripe in between each gold stripe on the black jerseys and black trim on each of the stripes on the white jerseys. The team also adopted white numbers on the home jerseys (the lone carryover from the "Batman" jerseys), while the team retained the gold pants from the "Batman" uniforms as well as the team's helmet, which was adopted in 1963. Save for wearing white pants with the white jerseys in 1970 and '71, as well as  changing the font of the jersey numbers in 1997, these uniforms remain in use as of 2020. Regular season. Game summaries. Week 1 (Sunday September 15, 1968): New York Giants. "at Pitt Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" Scoring Drives: Week 2 (Sunday September 22, 1968): Los Angeles Rams. "at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles" Scoring Drives: Week 3 (Sunday September 29, 1968): Baltimore Colts. "at Pitt Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" Scoring Drives: Week 4 (Saturday October 5, 1968): Cleveland Browns. "at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Cleveland, Ohio" Scoring Drives: Week 5 (Sunday October 13, 1968): Washington Redskins. "at D.C. Stadium, Washington, D.C." Scoring  Drives: Week 6 (Sunday October 20, 1968): New Orleans Saints. "at Pitt Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" Scoring Drives: Week 7 (Sunday October 27, 1968): Philadelphia Eagles. "at Pitt Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" Scoring Drives: Week 8 (Sunday November 3, 1968): Atlanta Falcons. "at Atlanta Stadium, Atlanta" Scoring Drives: Week 9 (Sunday November 10, 1968): St. Louis Cardinals. "at Busch Memorial Stadium, St. Louis, Missouri" Scoring Drives: Week 10 (Sunday November 17, 1968): Cleveland Browns. "at Pitt Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" Scoring Drives: Week 11 (Sunday November 24, 1968): San Francisco 49ers. "at Pitt Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" Scoring Drives: Week 12 (Sunday December 1 , 1968): St. Louis Cardinals. "at Pitt Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" Scoring Drives: Week 13 (Sunday December 8, 1968): Dallas Cowboys. "at Cotton Bowl, Dallas, Texas" Scoring Drives: Week 14 (Sunday December 15, 1968): New Orleans Saints. "at Tulane Stadium, New Orleans, Louisiana" Scoring Drives: