As the crowds marched into Paul Brown stadium looking to oust their playoff demons the smell in the air was palpable; no, not the marijuana smoke that the Raiders faithful smuggled in from California and Nevada, the smell of renewed opportunity. The Bengals looked to finally win a playoff game since January 13th 1991. Ever since the 90’s the Bengals have tried to recreate that success and most of that time was wasted by Marvin Lewis and his overly-conservative play. Ever since the Bengals began the Zac Taylor era, they have been trying to shirk the ghost of Marvins past and create a new identity and recently they have found it in upstart QB and Ohio native Joe Burrow. The week following the Bengals last playoff win they lost 10-20 against the LA Raiders which would kick off a 31 year playoff victory drought that lasted until the 2022 Wild Card round. The streak began and ended against the Raiders in a poetic and climactic finish.
Bengals fans for nearly 20 years now have begun to associate the playoffs with defeat and misery as each attempt in the 2000’s and 2010’s resulted in a cornucopia of confounding losses. These losses varied in the type of heartbreak endured. From the blowout games against the Steelers in ’05 and the Texans in ’11, to the second half collapses against the Chargers and Colts in ’13 and ’14 respectively, to the games that were in hand only to slip away such as the 2012 matchup against the Texans or the unforgettable Jeremy Hill fumble, the Bengals kept evading that coveted playoff victory.
As the night wore on and the game still had the potential for a gut-wrenching loss, the fanbase could be heard yelling out dramatic cries of complaint and angst and harkened back to previous playoff losses. One fan blurted out: “This is just like the Pittsburgh game, God dammit!” and others groaned and shivered silently as an NFL Frankenstein officiating crew aided to the overall uneasiness the fans felt. At times it felt like the Bengals were going to get content with a 10-point lead and settle in to the accustomed playoff mediocrity.
That all changed against the Raiders as Zac Taylor and crew (about whom this outlet was completely wrong when it wrote this: Zac Taylor is fool’s gold) called an impressively aggressive game for Joe Burrow and company which included a 4th down sweep to receiver Jamar Chase and various deep passes that let Joe Burrow be the kind of quarterback the Bengals were lacking in the playoffs. Most notably this pass to TE C.J. Uzomah took big ones to let rip, but that is the kind of play that Taylor trusts his QB and TE to make. What made this win so poetic is that any other Bengals playoff team from the last 30 years would have figured out a way to cough up a loss. Yet, this team, while lacking talent and experience in certain areas, most notably the offensive and defensive lines, has the composure necessary to overcome obstacles and find wins where in the past they may have only found despair.
The moment Joe Burrow kneeled and ended the Raiders playoff lives, Paul Brown stadium radiated with joy and a palpable sense of relief floated into the air like mist from the chilly Ohio river. The Crowd vibrated with life and energy as the realization of a new dawn rising in Cincinnati football. The crowds later filed out like penguins in a national geographic documentary huddling together for warmth as they smiled and jeered and chanted “Who Dey!”. The wait was over and it was all due to a coach and quarterback who refused to play scared and when courage was needed, they stood tall and delivered.