Super Bowl LVI: Bengals Have Been Down This Path Before

Perhaps football fans should not be so surprised. For the third consecutive year and the sixth time in seven seasons, an NFL team is in the Super Bowl after finishing .500 or below. On five of those six occasions, the club rebounded from a losing campaign to suit up on Super Sunday.

The latest example are the current AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals. In 2020, Zac Taylor’s club was the only team in the AFC North that did not go to the playoffs thanks to a dismal 4-11-1 showing. But the team went through its ups and downs this year and the positives outweighed the negatives.

There were sweeps of the division-rival Steelers and Ravens. There was a Week 17 win over the red-hot Kansas City Chiefs. And an organization that owned a 5-14 playoff record and the NFL’s worst postseason winning percentage (.263) entering in 2021 knocked off the Raiders at home and then went to Tennessee and Kansas City and pulled off upsets. The latter victories were the first two road playoff wins in the franchise’s history.

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Been There, Done That

What is even more fascinating is that this is will be the Bengals’ third Super Bowl appearance. And this year like the previous two, the franchise is coming off a below-.500 campaign. Way back in 1981, the head coach was Forrest Gregg and the quarterback was Ken Anderson. The latter would win league MVP honors and led the team to Super Bowl XVI – this after the club finished 6-10 in 1980.

Seven years later, the sideline boss was Sam Wyche and quarterback Boomer Esiason wound up being named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player. The Bengals finished 12-4 in 1988 and reached Super Bowl XXIII. The previous season, one shortened by a game due to a strike and featuring replacement players, Cincinnati was a dismal 4-11.

Of course, both of those previous trips to the Super Bowl resulted in narrow losses to the San Francisco 49ers. And if the Los Angeles Rams hadn’t rallied from a 17-7 deficit in the NFC title game, the Bengals would have suffered from an astounding case of déjà vu.

On Super Bowl Sunday, Taylor, quarterback Joe Burrow, electrifying rookie wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase and a physical defense led by ends Trey Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard hope to bring the franchise its first NFL championship. And perhaps a year from now, the team from the Queen City will be coming off a very different kind of season.