A comprehensive breakdown of how long it has been since the Cincinnati Bengals last won in playoffs
25 Sep 1988: Quarterback Boomer Esiason of the Cincinnati Bengals (left) prepares to hand off the ball during a game against the Cleveland Browns at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Browns won the game, 23-16.
Posted: 01/06/2013
It’s been 22 years since Boomer Esiason led the Bengals to their last playoff victory on Jan. 6, 1991.
Many fans were optimistic that this year’s version of the Orange and Black would be able to snap the team's longest playoff drought in NFL history. However, those playoff dreamers were rudely awakened Saturday when the Bengals fell to the Houston Texans, 19-13, in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs.
To help pour salt in the collective wounds of Bengals fans everywhere, USA Today's Chris Chase put together a comprehensive breakdown of what’s taken place over the past 22 years to help put the team's postseason futility into perspective.
Days
8,035
Games played
357
Now-defunct team played in last playoff win
Houston Oilers
Starting quarterbacks for the Bengals
15 (Boomer Esiason, David Hollas, Erik Wilhelm, David Klingler, Jay Schroeder, Jeff Blake, Neil O'Donnell, Paul Justin, Akili Smith, Scott Mitchell, Jon Kitna, Gus Frerrote, Carson Palmer, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Andy Dalton)
Guys named "Johnson" on team roster
15 (Brandon, Chad, Donnell, Doug, James, Jeremi, John, Landon, Larry, Lee, Michael, Riall, Rudi, Tank, Tim)
Playoff victories by teams that didn't exist in 1991
25
Current Pro Football Hall of Famers whose careers hadn't yet started
3 (Marshall Faulk, Curtis Martin, Willie Roaf)
Average annual retail price of gas
$1.14
Things that hadn't happened yet
- Gulf War
- Mikhail Gorbachev left power
- Dow Jones topped 3,000
- Magic Johnson announced he has HIV
- Comedy Central, Super Nintendo, Crystal Pepsi launched
Past events that were closer to the Bengals' last playoff win than today
- Moon landing
- Woodstock
- "The Godfather" released (the book)
- Beatles break up
- Floppy disk, Post-It Notes, bar-code scanner invented
Still alive in '91
Red Grange, Paul Brown, Miles Davis, Freddie Mercury
Not born
Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Lautner, Orson Charles (youngest player on Bengals roster)
No. 1s
Song — "Justify My Love," Madonna
Album — "To The Extreme, " Vanilla Ice
Movie — "Home Alone"
TV show — "Cheers"
College football — Colorado (AP), Georgia Tech (UPI)
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