One of the special things about this team, of many we should note, is this team's apparent disregard for long-standing losing streaks. They're too young to remember that they're not supposed to beat the Bills, too impressionable to care if they're in Jacksonville and recognize an opportunity when it surfaces against the Indianapolis Colts.
These losing streaks, many of which began while I was still in high school, includes a ten-game losing streak against the Buffalo Bills coming to an end with Mike Nugent's field goal as game expired. You're not supposed to beat the Bills, Bengals players -- it hasn't been done since before many of you were even born. Or the first win over the Jaguars in Jacksonville since the late-90s, snapping a seven-game losing streak. Or the first win over the Indianapolis Colts since 1997, the season before Peyton Manning blessed the world with his talents. It's like the Bengals players have total disregard for streaks and traditions, many of them born in the 90s. We have two more this weekend.
Cincinnati's upcoming game against the Seattle Seahawks this Sunday will be Marvin Lewis' ninth game coming out of a bye week, sporting a 2-5-1 record dating back to 2003. Both wins came against the Baltimore Ravens at Paul Brown Stadium. Worse still is that the Bengals have never won a game on the road coming out of a bye with losses to the Cleveland Browns (2004), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2006), Kansas City Chiefs (2007) and the Atlanta Falcons (2010).
That's not all.
The Cincinnati Bengals haven't beaten the Seahawks in Seattle since a 20-17 overtime win on November 6, 1994. It was Jeff Blake's second career start, completing 31 of 43 passes for 387 yards passing as Doug Pelfrey converted six field goals and Alfred Williams posted a two-point safety after sacking Seahawks quarterback Rick Mirer in the endzone (hence, safety).
The Seahawks won the overtime coin toss, but both teams would go three-and-out before Bengals punter Lee Johnson crushed a 64-yard punt to the Seahawks two-yard line. Seattle would go on a ten-play but a three-yard loss on a quarterback sack by Dan Wilkinson forced Seattle to punt. On the very next play, Jeff Blake connected with Darney Scott on a 76-yard pass to the Seahawks seven-yard line. Doug Pelfrey converted the 26-yard field goal to win the game.
That was 17 years ago -- the last time the Bengals beat the Seahawks in Seattle.
Put it in this perspective, the last time the Bengals beat the Seahawks, they were still in the AFC West.