Last week's Divisional Games

[*rfaulk34*]

(01-08-2022, 12:39 AM)BengalYankee Wrote: Yes, I was talking about the game between the Bengals and the Vikings on Christmas that had HUGE repercussions for teams in the AFC and NFC.


Unfortunately, the Bengals lost.



"Minnesota won the NFC Central with the resulting 10-6 record but lost badly to the 49ers in the Divisional playoff. At 8-8, Cincinnati ended up not only out of the postseason but at the bottom of the AFC Central (the three other teams all made it into the playoffs, although Houston and Pittsburgh were only a game better than the Bengals at 9-7. The Steelers would have been eliminated had Cincinnati won)."


So for an AFC point of view this game affected the AFC Central. For a NFC point of view it affected a number of teams as well.

I went back and watched that game after posting and it's crazy...as bad as officiating is now, it's so much better than it was back then. 

Two weeks before the Minnesota game, the Bengals hosted the Seahawks in the infamous "You don't live in Cleveland..." game. Late in that game it was tied and the Seahawks (who were pretty bad at that moment) were driving. They had a first and goal inside the 3. Bengals stuff them on 2 runs, then on 3rd down, Fulcher breaks through and tackles the RB for a 1 yd loss. 4th and goal right? Nope. Ref had thrown a flag for a legit false start on the 'hawks but after a ref conference, they said the guy on the end of the line "was allowed to move". WTF?? Even an eligible receiver isn't allowed to lurch forward...

So, no flag, no down, let's do 3rd all over again and wouldn'tyaknowit. They score a TD. Bengals drive down at the end of the game but can't punch it in and their record drops to 7-7. Crush the Oilers 61-7 the next week only to drop the Vikings game in one of the most frustrating games to end a frustrating season. 

In that season, they dropped the opener and then won 4 straight. Did a 2L/1W twice in a row before finishing alternating W/L to end up 8-8. In that Vikes game they turned the ball over 5 times, Ricky Dixon dropped a sure pick 6, right in his hands, on the opening Vikes drive and just kept shooting themselves in the foot time after time--throwing a TD right before the end that would have made it 29-28 but was called back on a sketchy tripping call. Speaking of sketchy calls--getting back to my point about how bad the reffing was then--Vikes receiver Hassan Reddick got upended on the sideline, came down with his arm out of bounds, half his shoulder out of bounds, landed on his head and the ball came out right as he hit the ground, out of bounds, but they called it a catch. Late in the game they were driving, up 22-21 and their fullback fumbled the pitch, picked it up, fumbled again before going down where Carl Zander picked it out of the pile and would have gone the other way for 6, but the ref's called him down and they didn't bother to replay it (replay was also very sketchy back then and no one knew when or if a play would even be reviewed) so the Vikes ended up scoring on that drive to go up 29-21. 

OK! Back to your point *whew*. Yes, Bengals and Vikes went into that game 'win and in, lose and out'. It was a Monday night game and they had cameras in a Packers player's house and a Steelers player's house and they even interviewed them as the game went on. 

If the Bengals had won, they would have hosted the Oilers in the first round and knocked the Steelers out of the playoffs and the Vikings would have been knocked out, allowing GB in. That game was so long ago but it and the season in total were sooooooo frustrating and in some ways, it doesn't feel that long ago.