Sunday, January 08, 2006

The Worst 66-Yard Pass of All Time



Can you recall a 66-yard pass play with more negative fallout than the Carson Plamer-to-Chris Henry hookup from today's AFC Wild Card game? Not only did Henry suffer a knee injury and miss the remainder of the game, the Bengals saw their franchise player go down in a heap. Carson Palmer tore his ACL and MCL. He threw only one pass in his first playoff game. Jon Kitna had to play. I mean, this was a horrific injury. 66 yards on one play is pretty good, right? Safe to say that the numbers lied on this one.

6 comments:

Obob said...

Dude, I'm with you. It kinda sums up the Bengals, tragically.

Adam Hoff said...

The worst part is that for a while it appeared the Bengals might find a way to survive their bad luck, only to have Pittsburgh remember that Jon Kitna was playing quarterback, which led to one blitz after another and the eventual return of the Bungals that we knew and loved for so many years.

Anonymous said...

How does this impact Chad Johnson ridiculous promises? You know, "we will win the Super Bowl, we will score 30 or more in every game, etc." Does he get a free pass since it was Kitna playing QB?

Adam Hoff said...

Yeah, I would say he gets a free pass. Judging by the way Cinci moved the ball all year long, they probably would have scored 30 on the Steelers and anyone else they played. However, in a high-scoring game, the Steeles probably would have hung about 45 on that awful defense. I'll let Chad off the hook, but there is no way that they were winning the Super Bowl. Maybe if they can get a few safeties with the talent and smarts of rookie Odell Thurman there defense will actual make a few stops.

Jeff Dritz said...

Being forgotten is the fact that the "improved" Bengals D gave up 31 points. You can't allow that much scoring and expect to win a playoff game, high-powered offense or not. The problem with the Bengals D was that they are a big-play defense, looking to take the ball away with picks or fumbles. This sort of D wasn't going to succeed against a Steelers offense that was going to pound it out with the Bus.

Adam Hoff said...

True, but part of the reason all those points were scored is that the Steelers were playing with a short field due to Kitna's picks. I think Palmer would have kept them in much better field position. You are right about their defense being of the big play variety, but they were probably even more inclined then normal to gun for game-changing plays with Carson out. I still think they would have won the game if he hadn't gotten hurt. Not only that, but the news just keeps getting worse. His injury was called "potentially career-ending" today. Yikes.