The 2015 playoff game against the Steelers is easily the most painful loss I've ever watched. I will never forget how upset I was, and how much my mood had changed within a span of just a few minutes. I jumped up and down full of excitement on Burfict's pick.. and then could just feel the season ending as soon as the penalty flag was thrown as AB hit the ground.

It's because of this game that I'm still split on my feelings of Burfict, and still don't like Pacman on the team.

Heck, before this, the most annoying loss was probably the memory of "Stokley! Down the sideline!"

BUT, I never got the chance to discuss this topic, and thought it might be kinda nice considering where our franchise is now. So, let's say Hill didn't screw us over, and the defense didn't completely melt down.. do you think we could have made it?

The 2015 Bengals team is the ONLY Bengals team that I confidently felt could go to the big game. That defense was BRUTAL, and man could we put points on the board. Dalton was set to come back the next game (I believe), and he was a front-runner for MVP at one point.

What do you think? Would we have made the big game? If so, do you think we could have won?

And if you don't think we would've made it, why not? Who would've ended our season?

Well it was the REFs that f'd us over that game....

Hill was down by contact.

Gios fumble was on a illegal hit

Bryant did not get both feet down for a TD..

they were screwing us from the onset.


of course if the offense had done ANYTHING the first 45 minutes of the game that last drive would have been irrelavent

It was never said when Dalton could've returned, but I was guessing AFC championship.

While I'm still pissed we blew a shot at a W, we weren't beating Denver at Mile High and we certainly weren't beating the Patriots at Gillette.

Btw, could you imagine if McCarron got a W and we put Dalton back in, only to lose? Or if we kept Dalton on the bench and McCarron lost the next week?

We would've been stuck with that "what if" forever.

(09-21-2017, 11:47 AM)thillan Wrote: The 2015 playoff game against the Steelers is easily the most painful loss I've ever watched. I will never forget how upset I was, and how much my mood had changed within a span of just a few minutes. I jumped up and down full of excitement on Burfict's pick.. and then could just feel the season ending as soon as the penalty flag was thrown as AB hit the ground.

It's because of this game that I'm still split on my feelings of Burfict, and still don't like Pacman on the team.

Heck, before this, the most annoying loss was probably the memory of "Stokley! Down the sideline!"

BUT, I never got the chance to discuss this topic, and thought it might be kinda nice considering where our franchise is now. So, let's say Hill didn't screw us over, and the defense didn't completely melt down.. do you think we could have made it?

The 2015 Bengals team is the ONLY Bengals team that I confidently felt could go to the big game. That defense was BRUTAL, and man could we put points on the board. Dalton was set to come back the next game (I believe), and he was a front-runner for MVP at one point.

What do you think? Would we have made the big game? If so, do you think we could have won?

And if you don't think we would've made it, why not? Who would've ended our season?

Dalton was not ready to come back the next week. I'm sure we could've rushed him back, but I think the earliest he could've reasonably come back would have been if we made it to the AFCCG. Considering that AJM was not lights out, I think we should've beaten the Steelers and we would've lost the following week without a healthy Dalton.

(09-21-2017, 12:31 PM)PhilHos Wrote: Dalton was not ready to come back the next week. I'm sure we could've rushed him back, but I think the earliest he could've reasonably come back would have been if we made it to the AFCCG. Considering that AJM was not lights out, I think we should've beaten the Steelers and we would've lost the following week without a healthy Dalton.

Denver would've went straight back to that zone they used in the 2nd half of the regular season game. McCarron really struggled against it.

We weren't going to beat NE, Dalton or otherwise.

Ah OK, for some reason I thought Dalton was in discussion to come back the next game.

I think that we could've taken a run at the Pats, but I'm not sure about Denver. I probably would've been doubtful about a W there.

Amazing that this team was only a few years ago!

The 2005 playoff loss hurt me more than this one did. By 2015 I fully expected Marvin to lose it with a backup QB no matter how close it seemed. I was watching it with a buddy of mine who is a Packers fan and he was like "Wow, finally a playoff win. Congrats." And I told him I wouldn't believe it until the Bengals were still ahead and the clock was at 0:00.

To each his own, but after 4 straight playoff losses I just didn't see why I should assume they'd win this one, no matter how "over" it seemed. Remember, we got a preview of how to lose a lead in an instant with bad defense and bad penalties in the Arizona game earlier that year.

(09-21-2017, 11:56 AM)XenoMorph Wrote: Well it was the REFs that f'd us over that game....

Hill was down by contact. (No)

Gios fumble was on a illegal hit (Yes)

Bryant did not get both feet down for a TD.. (Yes)

they were screwing us from the onset.


of course if the offense had done ANYTHING the first 45 minutes of the game   that last drive would have been irrelavent (Yes)

3 our of 4 isn't so bad.

It was a fumble.

Oh I think it would've been entirely possible that we could've went all the way. The 9-7 Giants did it in 2011. If a team gets hot at the right time, who knows?

I know that I sure felt amazing for a very brief moment there. I can't even imagine how the players felt as they were about to break our terrible playoff drought. If we win that game, they would've been on one hell of high.

On another note, if AJM quarterbacks us to that win, no way do they rush Dalton back to take over.

Arguably the two best teams in the Marvin Lewis era were 2005 and 2015.
Coincidence that both QBs suffer critical injuries so late in the season (to the Steelers no less) to affect playoff success? I THINK NOT!

The league does not want the Bengals to win.

(09-21-2017, 02:05 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Coincidence that both QBs suffer critical injuries so late in the season to affect playoff success? I THINK NOT!

It's not like both QBs suffered critical injuries at the hands of the same team. 

(09-21-2017, 02:06 PM)PhilHos Wrote: It's not like both QBs suffered critical injuries at the hands of the same team. 

I just edited my post to reflect that lol

(09-21-2017, 01:26 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: 3 our of 4 isn't so bad.

It was a fumble.

Yep the Hill play was clearly a fumble. Just as clear as the Bryant TD not being a TD, Gio fumbling from an illegal hit, and the offense and AJ McCarron doing less than nothing the first 3 qtrs until Burfict took the game over 

Fun fact: I actually was at a small event with Michael Johnson a few days before that game, and got to talk to him for a bit. Kept it away from football, but some people did ask him what it's like.

If only I knew what was to come..

(09-21-2017, 02:21 PM)leonardfan40 Wrote: Yep the Hill play was clearly a fumble. Just as clear as the Bryant TD not being a TD, Gio fumbling from an illegal hit, and the offense and AJ McCarron doing less than nothing the first 3 qtrs until Burfict took the game over 

Yep.

And on Burfict: This is why I'm so split on him.. My biggest annoyance is that he gets himself hurt too often. But it felt like Burfict finally gave us someone who scared Pitt and Baltimore. We could match their intensity.. definitely a big impact player.

(09-21-2017, 12:28 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: It was never said when Dalton could've returned, but I was guessing AFC championship.

While I'm still pissed we blew a shot at a W, we weren't beating Denver at Mile High and we certainly weren't beating the Patriots at Gillette.

Btw, could you imagine if McCarron got a W and we put Dalton back in, only to lose? Or if we kept Dalton on the bench and McCarron lost the next week?

We would've been stuck with that "what if" forever.

Well, "What if" is the franchise's battle cry, so it would have just been one more of them on the huge pile.

(09-21-2017, 03:38 PM)McC Wrote: Well, "What if" is the franchise's battle cry, so it would have just been one more of them on the huge pile.

I could've swore I read an article in which Dalton still couldn't grip a football the week of the Super Bowl that year.

(09-21-2017, 11:47 AM)thillan Wrote: The 2015 playoff game against the Steelers is easily the most painful loss I've ever watched. I will never forget how upset I was, and how much my mood had changed within a span of just a few minutes. I jumped up and down full of excitement on Burfict's pick.. and then could just feel the season ending as soon as the penalty flag was thrown as AB hit the ground.

It's because of this game that I'm still split on my feelings of Burfict, and still don't like Pacman on the team.

Heck, before this, the most annoying loss was probably the memory of "Stokley! Down the sideline!"

BUT, I never got the chance to discuss this topic, and thought it might be kinda nice considering where our franchise is now. So, let's say Hill didn't screw us over, and the defense didn't completely melt down.. do you think we could have made it?

The 2015 Bengals team is the ONLY Bengals team that I confidently felt could go to the big game. That defense was BRUTAL, and man could we put points on the board. Dalton was set to come back the next game (I believe), and he was a front-runner for MVP at one point.

What do you think? Would we have made the big game? If so, do you think we could have won?

And if you don't think we would've made it, why not? Who would've ended our season?

In that game...we did nothing for about 45 minutes...remember totally couldn't score. The Steelers had a backup RB shred us.

But, the meltdown started before the game. We were in the drivers seat for the #1 seed in the AFC and couldn't win a game to get that.

No. We would never have beat NE in NE. We would not have beat Denver in Denver. No way.

Then, after we beat NE or Denver...we would have had to face the other.