The 2005 Cincinnati Bengals season was the franchise's 36th season in the National Football League (NFL), the 38th overall, and the third under head coach Marvin Lewis. It was the team's first season with a winning record, playoff berth, and division title since 1990. In the fourteen seasons and 224 games in between (1991–2004), the Bengals' record was 71–153, a 0.317 winning percentage.Pro-Football-Reference.com: In multiple seasons, from 1991 to 2004, playing for the Cincinnati Bengals, in the regular season, sorted by descending Date. It would be the Bengals' lone playoff appearance in a span of 18 years (1991–2008). Quarterback Carson Palmer got off to a strong start on his way to a solid 3836-yard season with 32 touchdown passes, earning a trip to the Pro Bowl. Receiving many of Palmer's passes was Chad Johnson, who followed teammate Palmer to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii, racking up an impressive 1,432 yards in receiving with nine touchdowns, many of which were followed by unique celebrations that made him a regular star on the sports highlight shows.
Following a 42–29 win over the Baltimore Ravens, the Bengals faced the Pittsburgh Steelers, this time in Pittsburgh, where the Bengals offense continued to fly behind Carson Palmer, who had three touchdown passes and 227 yards passing in an impressive 38–31 win that gave the Bengals first place in the AFC North at 9–3. The Bengals would not relinquish first place, winning the next two games to clinch the division with two weeks to go. On December 18, with a 41–17 win over the Detroit Lions, the Bengals clinched a playoff spot. After clinching the division the Bengals played cautiously and dropped their final two games to finish with an 11–5 record, beating out the eventual Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, who finished with an identical record, on a tiebreaker situation.
However, a costly loss to the Steelers in the wild card round extended their playoff win drought to 16 years.
Offseason Additions SubtractionsLB Hannibal Navies (Packers) WR Peter Warrick (Seahawks)DT Bryan Robinson (Dolphins) LB Frank Chamberlin (Texans)S Ifeanyi Ohalete (Cardinals) FB Nick Luchey (Packers)
NFL draft
Undrafted free agents
+ 2005 undrafted free agents of notePlayerPositionCollegeLyonel AndersonTight endKansasPatrick BodyCornerbackToledoHerana-Daze JonesSafetyIndianaCedric SullivanLinebackerTroyKyle TakavitzGuardCincinnatiJeremy ThomasFullbackGeorgiaSteven VieiraGuardUCLABen WilkersonCenterLSU
Personnel
Roster
Regular season In addition to their regular games with AFC North rivals, the Bengals played teams from the AFC South and NFC North as per the schedule rotation, and also played intraconference games against the Bills and the Chiefs based on divisional positions from 2004.
Schedule Week Date Opponent Result Record Venue Recap 1 September 11at Cleveland Browns W 27–13 1–0 Cleveland Browns Stadium Recap 2 September 18 Minnesota Vikings W 37–8 2–0 Paul Brown Stadium Recap 3 September 25 at Chicago Bears W 24–7 3–0 Soldier Field Recap 4 October 2 Houston Texans W 16–10 4–0 Paul Brown Stadium Recap 5 October 9 at Jacksonville Jaguars L 20–23 4–1 Alltel Stadium Recap 6 October 16 at Tennessee Titans W 31–23 5–1 The Coliseum Recap 7 October 23 Pittsburgh Steelers L 13–27 5–2 Paul Brown Stadium Recap 8 October 30 Green Bay Packers W 21–14 6–2 Paul Brown StadiumRecap 9 November 6 at Baltimore Ravens W 21–9 7–2 M&T Bank Stadium Recap 10 Bye 11 November 20 Indianapolis Colts L 37–45 7–3 Paul Brown StadiumRecap 12 November 27 Baltimore Ravens W 42–29 8–3 Paul Brown Stadium Recap 13 December 4 at Pittsburgh Steelers W 38–31 9–3 Heinz FieldRecap 14 December 11 Cleveland Browns W 23–20 10–3 Paul Brown StadiumRecap 15 December 18 at Detroit Lions W 41–17 11–3 Ford Field Recap 16 December 24 Buffalo Bills L 27–37 11–4 Paul Brown Stadium Recap 17 January 1 at Kansas City Chiefs L 3–37 11–5 Arrowhead Stadium Recap
Note: Intra-divisional opponents are in bold text
Week 1
Rudi Johnson 26 Rush, 126 Yds
The Football Database. Retrieved 2016-Sep-16.
Week 8 vs Packers
Standings
Postseason Wild Card vs Steelers
On January 8, 2006, the Cincinnati Bengals took on the Pittsburgh Steelers in the opening round of the playoffs, making it the Bengals’ first playoff appearance of the decade. Early in the game, disaster struck for the Bengals when Steelers lineman Kimo von Oelhoffen hit Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer's knee, resulting in a tear of Palmer's anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Backup quarterback Jon Kitna took over and did very well, giving Cincinnati leads of 10–0 and 17–7 at points of the game. All seemed well for the Bengals until the Steelers came back with 24 unanswered points and upset the Cincinnati Bengals with a final score of 31–17. The Steelers went on to win the Super Bowl.
With the costly loss, the Bengals season ended at 11–6, thus once again it extended their playoff win drought to 16 years.
Team leaders
Passing Player Att Comp Yds TD INT Rating Carson Palmer 509 345 3836 32 12 101.1
Rushing Player Att Yds YPC Long TD Rudi Johnson 337 1458 4.3 33 12
Receiving Player Rec Yds Avg Long TD Chad Johnson 97 1432 14.8 70 9
Defensive Player Tackles Sacks INTs FF FR Odell Thurman 148 1.5 5 4 0 Justin Smith 92 6.0 0 1 1Deltha O'Neal 63 0.0 10 0 1
Kicking and punting Player FGA FGM FG% XPA XPM XP% Points Shayne Graham 32 28 87.5% 47 47 100.0% 131 Player Punts Yards Long Blkd Avg. Kyle Larson 60 2591 75 1 43.2
Special teams Player KR KRYards KRAvg KRLong KRTD PR PRYards PRAvg PRLong PRTD Tab Perry 64 1562 24.4 94 0 0 0 0.0 0 0 Keiwan Ratliff 0 0 0.0 0 0 28 157 5.6 13 0
Awards and records
Pro Bowl selections Carson Palmer QB, AFC Pro Bowl selection Rudi Johnson RB, AFC Pro Bowl selection Chad Johnson WR, AFC Pro Bowl selection Willie Anderson RT, AFC Pro Bowl selection Deltha O'Neal CB, AFC Pro Bowl selection
All-Pro selections Chad Johnson WR, first-team All-Pro Willie Anderson RT, first-team All-Pro Deltha O'Neal CB, first-team All-Pro
Milestones Carson Palmer's first six starts of the season, combined with his last three starts of 2004, made him only the second passer in NFL history to post nine straight games with a passer rating of 100 or more (Peyton Manning, 2004) Carson Palmer led the NFL in three major passing categories – TD passes (32), completion percentage (67.8) and TD-INT differential (32–12) Rudi Johnson, 2nd 1000 yard rushing season (1,458 yards) Chad Johnson 4th 1000 yard receiving season Tab Perry, 1st 1000-yard return season (1,562 yards)
Records Cincinnati Bengals Chad Johnson and T. J. Houshmandzadeh set Bengals records for most receptions (175) and receiving yards (2,388) by a duo. The Bengals established a home season attendance record of 526,469 to break the mark of 524,248 set a season earlier.
References
External links
2005 Cincinnati Bengals at Pro-Football-Reference.com