Cincinnati Bengals | History, Notable Players, & Facts | Britannica

Struggles in the 1990s and 2000s

Throughout the 1990s the Bengals were widely regarded as one of the worst franchises in the four major North American professional sports leagues. They lost more games than any other NFL team during that decade and were plagued by a series of poor draft choices. The team did not have a winning record for 14 consecutive seasons beginning in 1991 (Wyche’s last year as coach). A high point of this period was the play of Pro Bowl running back Corey Dillon, but his presence was not enough to prevent the Bengals from losing at least 10 games in each season between 1998 and 2002. In 2000 the Bengals moved into a football-only venue, Paul Brown Stadium.

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season record playoffs
2020 4–11–1 missed playoffs
2021 10–7 lost Super Bowl
2022 12–4 lost in conference championship
2023 9–8 missed playoffs
2024 9–8 missed playoffs

Cincinnati broke out of its 14-year postseason drought in 2005 as a team featuring quarterback Carson Palmer and wide receiver Chad Johnson won a divisional title before losing to the eventual champion Pittsburgh Steelers in the playoffs. The Bengals captured a division championship in 2009 and qualified for the playoffs for five straight years, a first in franchise history, from 2011 to 2015, but the team lost its opening game in each postseason—extending the NFL’s longest active streak without a playoff victory, which began in 1991. Cincinnati then began a stretch of losing seasons that reached a nadir in 2019, when the team tied a franchise-worst record by finishing the season 2–14.

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