The Cincinnati Bengals broke this Saturday a streak of 31 years without a win in a postseason game by winning by 25-20 to the Las Vegas Raiders to advance to the next round at the start of the NFL playoffs.
Cincinnati’s most recent victory in this instance before this Saturday was in 1991, when they beat to the Houston Oilers with two touchdown passes from that year’s quarterback Bommer Esiason.
This was a matchup between a pair of rookie postseason quarterbacks; Derek Carr, of 30 years for the Raiders; Joe Barrow, 25 years, with the Bengals, winner in 2019 of the Heisman trophy that was Gives the best college football player in the USA.
Barrow finished the game with 244 passing yards and two touchdowns; Carr passed for 310 yards and a TD.
The Raiders took the lead with a field goal on their opening drive of the first quarter.
Cincinnati responded with an attack in which Barrow led them for 75 yards in 12 plays that culminated in tight end Christopher Uzomah going into the end zone to give them a 7-3 lead.
The Bengals defense returned to the field at Barrow when Trey Hendrickson hit Derek Carr and caused a fumble that Larry Ogunjobi recovered inside the yard 20 from Las Vegas; the local offense capitalized on it with three points, 10-3.
In the second quarter coach Zac Taylor’s squad extended to 13-3 the distance with another field goal that Las Vegas countered to get closer 13-6.
Two minutes before the break, the wearer of jersey number nine of the Bengals got their second touchdown pass of the game by connecting with Tylor Boyd to pull away 20-6.
The Raiders closed the first half with a pass from Carr to Zay Jones that sent the game to rest 20-13.
At the start of the third quarter Cincinnati added three more points, 23-13; and in the last period the marker was placed 26-19 after a field goal from the Bengals and a couple from Las Vegas.
The Raiders tried to tie their last offense with just under two minutes left, without times out. Carr led his team to the Cincinnati nine-yard line, but failed to reach the end zone. EFE