CINCINNATI — Ahead of the matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Bills WCPO9 anchor Craig McKee sat down with former WCPO9 sports director John Popovich to discuss the Bengals' historic 1981 season and whether that success could be duplicated Monday.
The Bengals will take on the Buffalo Bills at Paycor Stadium during the Monday Night Football game, airing on WCPO9. Pre-game coverage starts at 7:00 p.m. and the game kicks off at 8:30 p.m.
The Bengals and Bills also went head-to-head almost 41 years ago to the day and that game launched the Bengals toward their chance at the Vince Lombardi trophy.
During the interview, Popovich reflected on highlights from the January 3rd, 1982 game and the perfect recipe of players, coaches and fans who made the Bengals first playoff run possible.
CRAIG MCKEE: When you looked at this clip, what kind of memories or what floods back to you about that Bengals team that season?
JOHN POPOVICH: I think what I thought about was, what a group of guys that was. They had been 4 and 12, 4 and 12, 6 and 10 and all of a sudden they were the best team in the NFL. They turned it around and a lot of it had to do with Forrest Gregg.
They went from a very soft approach to football, and he was no-nonsense. But they also got a guy like Anderson, who was a terrific quarterback. A lot of people thought he was near the end of his term. But then all of a sudden he started to have the same success like a Joe Burrow has because he had Isaac Curtis, he had Cris Collinsworth, he had Steve Kreider, he had ML Harris, he had Dan Ross, a lot of targets.
And then he had a couple of good running backs Charles Alexander, Pete Johnson, Archie Griffin, they were able to do a lot of different things just like this Bengals team is able to do now. So, they were able to attack you in a lot of different ways.
CM: So, to make a comparison, you spoke about the seasons leading up to this particular season. It mirrors really what the Bengals I think were kind of going through because they were like, alright, we're never gonna get to the playoffs again. We're never gonna get back and then all of a sudden Burrow comes along and you end up at the Super Bowl.
JP: Yeah, it's funny. You just need a couple of people to make a difference — Burrow obviously and Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins and these guys make a big difference here. (Then) it was Anthony Munoz coming and joining the team in '80 and then Collinsworth, Verser and some of the guys just matured.
The Bengals in those days, they had had a lot of high draft picks. They had good players they just didn't seem to come together. But it was in this year Hank Bullough came in and led the defense Lindy Infante was a very creative, offensive mind. They were able to do some things they hadn't done in the past. And again, there was discipline there that Forrest Gregg brought that this team didn't have in the past.
CM: You talk about that perfect recipe, you know, it sometimes can be just that one play that turns the tide or that one player, or maybe it's that one coach that really that really changes the whole recipe and it goes from 'that was a decent pancake, but...' to a 'oh my god, this is the best pancake I've ever eaten in my life.'
JP: Yeah, you’re right. Collinsworth not only added a good receiving threat — because the Isaac Curtis was one of the best receivers in football — but Collinsworth all of a sudden gave new life, plus he gave this team some personality and that was one of the things they had.
I’ve never seen this city as electric as it was this year, the 1981 season. The Bengals came from nowhere, all of a sudden, they were the number one seed in the AFC and it kept getting better and better. And you just saw it building inside the stadium outside the stadium, just everybody talking about the Bengals.
They couldn't get enough. But you're right, there's just certain people that come in and again, you you you add the best left tackle maybe in the history of football with Munoz and then you put Collinsworth in the mix at some other guys, Kenny Anderson had targets then.
It happened the same way, the Bengals were decent, Joe Burrow came in. And then all of a sudden, a lot of things started to mature here too.
CM: The buzz began to build here. We started seeing large crowds gathering, the fans wanted to hang out after the game to wave at the players when they left the stadium, instead of you know, the grumbling at the bar because they lost again. They had a buzz about them.
JP: (The 1980 team) was the same time that Jeff Ruby opened The Precinct. And so every Sunday night, we had a reporter at The Precinct because that's where the players would show up.
That's where a lot of the, you know, the glitz and the glam of the Bengals. And, you know, there hadn't been any glitz and glam. But as that season went on you everybody wanted to be part of that whole see scene there.
CM: And this was a major milestone in the history of the franchise.
JP: Yeah, it was the first playoff game they had ever won. And that was, you know, that was a real hump to get over. They had had some success in the years of Paul Brown. They never had won a playoff game.
So, I think even though the Bengals started the season, and I don't know what our expectations were, I seem to recall that we were hoping they were going to be a 500 team. They weren't going to be a Super Bowl team though. But as it as it went on, all of a sudden, you realize this is a team that's really good.
So they were the number one seed in the AFC going into the playoffs. But you still thought 'when are they going to fall on their face?' because during the course of that season, I think they had won their first two games that they lost to Cleveland. Then they won a few games.
Then they went down and lost to a bad New Orleans team, lost to Houston, I think, but then came November five straight wins in November. They call it 'the November to remember.'
And all of a sudden they picked up a pace and they barely lost again. They were they were really terrific. But it's that momentum that you get. It's almost like what you're seeing of this team right now. They seem like they found them, that they're on pace, they found a rhythm and even though they've lost some of their top players here, they've managed to overcome that.
CM: The parallel — you can't ignore it. I mean, what you're talking about, 'a November to remember' — we've gone through the November to remember, sliding into December clearly with the momentum and the most recent win psychologically to get over the Cleveland Browns hump.
You talk about getting over a playoff hump and winning a playoff. I almost feel like the Bengals and Joe Burrow himself, they needed to win against Cleveland that was a major hump to psychologically get past and not only beat them but beat them at home.
JP: Beat them at home is important and you can never minimize the Battle of Ohio. I think that you have to hit that you want to win, that you want to show that you've made progress, and you're better than you were and it has to be certain players. You were mentioning this earlier.
They've had a couple of receivers with Jamar Chase being down, they've had a couple of receivers who have made really big plays. I never even heard of these guys in the last couple of weeks ... but I was watching this clip and I remembered Steve Kreider.
Steve Kreider was a guy, I think out of Colgate. And he caught a couple of big passes. One big pass in this game that went for about 25 yards led to the winning touchdown. There were guys like that that. You don't even think of them on the roster in a lot of cases. But they come up with a big play and they helped make that season really memorable.
CM: Irwin or Hayden Hurst suddenly started getting a lot of headlines. And that's what you do. Right, the quarterbacks, you have to have a target, you still have to play even if you have injuries down and you still have to hopefully win.
JP: There's the Kreider play right there and he goes and then right after this Kenny Anderson steps up here hits Collingsworth for the touchdown coming across and he waits just waits right time to hit him.
To get open and he goes in for the touchdown. This is when I really first started to hear the noise of the Bengals Stadium and the yelling and the banners, this was the first season I had seen it.
CM: Because those fans were energized.
JP: Oh my gosh, yeah, it was like it was all pent up. There was a play toward the end of this game. The Bengals had scored they had gone ahead 28 to 21 And then the Bills, it was still quite a bit of time left in the fourth period. They're working their way down they got to about the 20 yard line of the Bengals. Fourth down and four. They go in, throw a little pass to the sidelines, Joe Ferguson throws a pass, I forget to who, but it was a first down.
Flag goes down, called for too much time — they had they let the clock run down and they couldn't hear the snap count because of the noise in the stadium. They moved it back five yards.
It was fourth and nine, he misses on the fourth down there that gave the ball back to the Bengals and they were able to pretty much run out the clock after that. But that was it — I remember because I remember watching this thing — and afterwards, and it was fourth down and four and the Bills and the place was getting noisy and Dick and Bergen Merlin Olsen were doing the game on NBC and Dick Enberg said something like 'here comes the 12th — man listen to that.' At the stadium it got really, really loud. And sure enough, it played a part in that game.
CM: Can we see a replay essentially of the 82 game here? Do you think that's possible? The Bills are pretty tough.
JP: The Bills are very tough and they have a great quarterback. I think the Bengals feel very comfortable playing at home right now. The Bills always seemed to be in the Bengals way.
There's been a couple of other playoff seasons where the Bills seem to be the team that the Bengals end up matching up against. A lot of people, to begin this season, thought the Bills were the best team in the NFL. I think right now a lot of people think the Bengals are the best team in the NFL, the Bills somewhere went sideways. And whether they are able to get it back, we'll have to see.
CM: Hopefully tonight the Bengals go home with a win.
JP: Let’s hope so.
CM: To have back-to-back Super Bowls?
JP: It's an amazing thing to do. I mean that — you're talking about a thing that, you know, only the Packers did or only the Patriots did or the 49ers were able to do, some of the best teams you've ever seen.
Now you got to win it. That's the key now. The Bengals have been there three times in a row and three. They got to go and win one of these things.
That I'd love to see. I want to see the explosion. I want to see the parade. I want to see the fun in this town.
