Heat treatable coated article with chromium nitride ir reflecting layer and method of making same

A coated article is provided so as to include a solar control coating having an infrared (IR) blocking (reflecting and/or absorbing) layer sandwiched between at least a pair of dielectric layers. The IR reflecting layer includes chromium nitride (CrxNy) in certain example embodiments. The use of chromium nitride enables the coated article to have good corrosion resistance to acid(s), good mechanical performance such as scratch resistance, and/or good color stability (i.e., a low DeltaE* value(s)) upon heat treatment (HT). The coated article may be heat treated (e.g., thermally tempered) in certain example embodiments of the invention.