Thirty-one years ago, the Cincinnati Bengals won their last playoff game.
Since, they’ve suffered from the Curse of Bo.
In the 1990 playoffs, the Bengals won a wild-card round encounter with the Oilers, 41-14, then lost in the divisional round to the Raiders, 20-10. In the process, Raiders superstar Bo Jackson left with what seemed to be a minor hip injury after a routine hit by Kevin Walker — it turned out to be a career-ending one.
Since, the Bengals have suffered under the weight of the curse, losing all eight playoff appearances from 1990-2020:
- 1990: 20-10 loss to Raiders
- 2005: 31-17 loss to Steelers
- 2009: 24-14 loss to Jets
- 2011: 31-10 loss to Texans
- 2012: 19-13 loss to Texans
- 2013: 27-10 loss to Chargers
- 2014: 26-10 loss to Colts
- 2015: 18-16 loss to Steelers
And now, almost poetically, the Bengals will get a chance to shatter the Curse of Bo against those very same Raiders that started it all. It seemed almost as if willed, too, considering the Raiders needed every second of overtime in Week 18 to even qualify for the playoffs. Anything besides a win would’ve meant the Bengals played somebody else.
If there’s a team perfectly equipped to end the curse, it’s these Bengals led by Joe Burrow — the guy who, in his second season, has won on primetime, swept both Pittsburgh and Baltimore and outgunned Patrick Mahomes to claim the AFC North crown.
And the locker room isn’t sweating the team’s past playoff reputation.
“They don’t feel that pressure. They don’t think about that stuff at all,” Zac Taylor said, per Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “It’s more just stories and people that maybe have been here longer than we have that talked about it.”
The stage? Paul Brown Stadium at 4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. The stakes? Cincinnati’s first playoff win since 1990.
