Bengal history week 8

[fredtoast]

Continuing series to honor Bengals 50th season

 

1969....In their second season the Bengals only won 4 games.  That same year the Raiders only lost one regular season game.  Their roster included that years AFL Player of the Year (QB Darryl Lamonica), 10 Pro Bowl players, 5 All Pro players, 4 future Hall of Fame players (WR Fred Biletnikof, OG Gene Upshaw, OC Jim Otto, CB Willie Brown) and Hall of Fame head coach John Madden.  But Bengal QB Greg Cook threw 2 tds passes (both to Chip Meyers) and posted a 104.9 passer rating while Lamonica threw 5 picks with a 43.5 rating. Jess Phillips added 150 rushing yards and another td for the Bengals as they took a 24-0 halftime lead and held on to win31-17.

 

2000....The Broncos would win the AFC West thanks mainly to a tough defense (#2 overall, #3 against the run).  They came into Riverfront with a rush defense that had only allowed 76 yards per game, 3.4 yards per carry, and 3 rushing tds in 7 games.  On the other hand the Bengals were looking like one of the worst teams in the history of the league.  They were 0-6, had been shut out 3 times, and their offense had only scored 3 tds for the entire season while averaging a measly 205.7 total yards per game.  In one of the most shocking games in my personal memory the Bengals rushed for a team record 407 yards (107 yards more than the second best performance in team history) on 37 carries (team record 11.0 avg per carry) and 4 tds.  Corey Dillon was tackled for a loss 4 times and almost half of his carries (10 of 22) went for 1 yard or less, but on his other 12 carries he gained 280 yards on his way to an NFL record 278 yards (still the 4th highest mark in league history).  Peter Warrick added a 77 yard td run and the Bengals won 31-21 on a day when their QBs only completed 2 of 14 passes for 20 passing yards.

 

1988...In order to make it to the Super Bowl the Bengals first had to fight their way through the tough AFC Central which featured 3 playoff teams.  One of those was the Houston Oilers.  The Bengals and Oilers were the two top scoring offenses in the league.  In week 15 the Oilers blew out the Bengals 41-6, but the week 8 match up in Riverfront was a battle for first place between the one-loss Bengals and the two-loss Oilers.  The Bengals exploded out of the gate and took a 28-0 lead in the first quarter.  Then they rode their dominating run game (222 yards 5 tds) to a 44-21 victory.  James Brooks had 102 rushing yards and three tds.  The defense shut down the Oilers high powered offense (only 205 total yards) behind solid performances from Jim Skow (2 sacks), Eric Thomas (2 ints) and Leo Barker (1 sack and a fumble return td).

 

1995...The Stealers would make it to the Super Bowl with the #3 ranked defense and #6 offense while the Bengals would only win 7 games with a defense that finished dead last in the league.  But the Bengals did have a Pro Bowl QB (Jeff Blake) and WR (Carl Pickens with team record 99 receptions and 17 tds).  Blake would find Pickens 8 times for 108 yards including a 41 yd td.  Blake would also throw tds to Darnay Scott (47 yds) and TE Tony McGee to finish with an almost perfect 158.3 passer rating..  The Bengal defense would give up 468 yards, but amazingly held the Stealers to 3 FGs (the only time that year they did not score a td) in a relatively easy 27-9 victory.

 

2014...The Bengals had not won a game in over a month and the Ravens came to town 5-2 in first place in the AFC North.  Justin Tucker kicked a 53 yard FG with less than 4 minutes left in the fourth quarter to give the Ravens a 24-20 lead.  Dalton then led the Bengals on a 10 play 80 yard drive converting two third downs with passes to Sanu and Greg Little before rushing for the game winning TD on 4th down with less than a minute left.  Dalton completed 75% of his passes (21-28) for 266 yards and rushed for 2 tds.  The win sparked a 7-3 finish to the season that got the Bengals into the playoffs for the fourth straight year.