When the Cincinnati Bengals host the Las Vegas Raiders in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs on Saturday, it will be the first time the two teams have met in the playoffs since a Jan. 13, 1991 AFC divisional game.
This year's game is scheduled to kickoff at 4:30 p.m. on NBC. The Bengals (10-7) qualified for the playoffs by virtue of winning the AFC North. The Raiders (10-7) got in as a wild card following a win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
The 1991 game has become infamous, as it was the final NFL game of Bo Jackson's career. The two-sport star was injured on a tackle by Bengals linebacker Kevin Walker, leading to the end of his football career.
Here is a look back at the 1991 Raiders vs. Bengals game
How did the Bengals and Raiders get to the 1991 AFC divisional game?
The Bengals, under head coach Sam Wyche, finished the regular season at 9-7. They beat the Houston Oilers and Cleveland Browns in back-to-back weeks to earn the AFC Central division championship over the Oilers and Pittsburgh Steelers, who both also finished 9-7.
The Bengals beat the Oilers 41-14 in the first round of the playoffs to advance to play the Raiders.
The Raiders, coached by Art Shell and playing in Los Angeles then, finished the regular season 12-4 and won the AFC West. By virtue of having the second-best record in the AFC, the Raiders had a first round bye.
Who played for the Bengals and Raiders in 1991?
There was plenty of star power in the game. The Bengals had stalwarts such as Boomer Esiason, Eddie Brown, Tim McGee, Rodney Holman, Bruce Kozerski and Joe Walter starting on offense, with Ickey Woods at fullback and an ailing James Brooks playing running back.
Tim Krumrie, Carl Zander, James Francis along with defensive backs Lewis Billups, Eric Thomas, David Fulcher and Barney Bussey led the Cincinnati defense.
The Raiders offense had Willie Gault, Steve Wisniewski, Don Mosebar and Jay Schroeder, along with the duo of Marcus Allen and Bo Jackson sharing carries at running back. There was even a future 'Survivor' contestant, Steve Wright, on the offensive line.
The offensive line also featured ex-Bengal Max Montoya.
The Los Angeles defense included such named as Howie Long, Bob Golic, Greg Townsend and Terry McDaniel.
No Anthony Muñoz? Injuries affected the Bengals offensive line
Notably absent from the list of Bengals starters was Hall of Famer Anthony Muñoz. Cincinnati was without both its left tackle and left guard for the game as Bruce Reimers joined Muñoz on the bench.
Muñoz tore the rotator cuff in his left shoulder and Reimers severely sprained his left ankle.
Cincinnati vs. Los Angeles = Kings Island vs. Disneyland?
There was some unusual trash talk before the game that included… amusement parks?
From a Jan. 13, 1991 Enquirer article previewing the game:
Greg Townsend, Raiders defensive end, told a Los Angeles TV reporter last week that the Bengals should visit Disneyland or some TV studios while they were in L.A. because that was about as much fun as they could expect to have there.
Coach Sam Wyche took offense and said that kind of talk meant he has had to do less to motivate his team.
"To have some of them invite us to go on a Disney tour hasn't hurt at all," Wyche said. "It's probably reasonable for them to think they should win this ball game. They probably feel they should walk all over us.
"We'll see. We've got passes to Kings Island if things go our way."
What happened in the Bengals vs. Raiders game?
From the Enquirer report of the game:
After hanging tough for 3½ quarters, the Bengals were done in by a quick strike, 41-yard touchdown reception by Raider tight end Ethan Horton midway through the fourth quarter. That score gave the Raiders a 17-10 lead with 8:52 to play, and kicker Jeff Jaeger added a 25-yard field goals with 29 seconds to play for the final 20-10 margin before 92,045 raucous fans at L.A. Coliseum.
The Bengals offense only managed 182 yards in the game, while the Raiders gained 389.
So about that Bo Jack injury… are the Bengals cursed?
The Bengals have not won a playoff game since beating the Oilers the week before the Raiders game. Is the Curse of Bo Jackson for real?
Though, Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty has a different take on things. Enter former Bengal Montoya, who as mentioned earlier started for the Raiders in that game:
The Curse of Max Montoya.
You know what I’m talking about. Pedro Borbon’s ill wishes were Tom Sawyer stuff – toss that salt over your shoulder, Huck! – compared with the Curse of Max. It is real, it is verifiable and it has stood the test of time. Thirty years, to be precise.
That’s when Mike Brown decided that free-agent Max, 33 years old and coming off consecutive Pro Bowl appearances, was not worthy of a new contract. Montoya left for the L.A. Raiders where he played five more years and made another Pro Bowl, at the age of 37.
"Mike didn’t even have to match what the Raiders were giving," Montoya said this week. "All I wanted was a phone call. Please call me and talk me out of this. Nobody called, but (Boomer Esiason). "Not (Brown), not my offensive line coach," Jim McNally.
You know what happened next.
Doc:Forget Bo Jackson, we need Max Montoya to lift the curse on the Bengals.
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