NASHVILLE – Maybe, just maybe, these young Cincinnati Bengals really are that good.
Especially with the way they keep ending postseason droughts. Their latest victory puts the franchise in the AFC championship game for the first time in 33 years – and a win away from a third try at Cincinnati’s first Super Bowl victory.
Rookie kicker Evan McPherson made a 52-yard field goal as time expired, lifting the fourth-seeded Bengals past the top-seeded Tennessee Titans 19-16 in a divisional round playoff game Saturday at Nissan Stadium. And with that, the NFL’s longest active road skid in the postseason came to a sudden end.
“He’s got ice in his veins,” Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor said of McPherson, a native of Fort Payne, Alabama, who starred for the Florida Gators and was a fifth-round draft pick last spring. “There’s not much more to be said. He’s just as cool as it gets.”
A week after snapping a 31-year drought without a playoff victory by getting past the Las Vegas Raiders in the wild-card round, the Bengals finally earned their first postseason road win; they had been 0-7 in the playoffs away from Cincinnati. They used home wins to reached the Super Bowls to cap the 1981 and 1988 seasons, losing to the San Francisco 49ers in the big game both times.