Round 2: '76-Bengals outlast '67-Jets

This game shaped up as an excellent passing team with no running game against a very good running team with a mediocre passing game. Guess which team is which? Cincy received the opening kick, went nowhere and NY took advantage of a nice return to start on the Bengals' 28. Three plays later it was 7-0 Jets. I knew I was in for a long day. However a71 yard kick return resulted in a quick Cincy score and a 7-7 tie. 87 yards and 11 plays later it was 14-7 New York. I was playing for the deep ball and Scott was being patient on offense. Cincy took advanatge of an INT and move 46 yards near the end of the half to go in ties. I felt very lucky.

Well, let's keep this brief. Namath kept passing (38-58-433) and NY kept moving the ball. They had no 3 and outs the entire second half. I was lucky to hold them to one TD, one FG and two failed 4th down conversions in my territory. Those were NY's four possessions of the second half.But Cincy managed TD drives of 65 and 61 yards. It took a 4th and 1plunge from Boobie Clark to score the first TD NY held on three plays from their two. So it's 28-24, Cincy.

Did I say those were all of NY's drives in the second half? Not so fast.They had one last chance starting at their own 16 with just 95 secs to play and one time out. I figured they had to run out of time as long as they didn't make any big plays. Well Namath kept it short and moved right down the field. he completed 8 of 10 passes and moved down to the Cincy 9 yard line with 17 secs to play. Incomplete to Mathis. Incompleteto Maynard. Time for one last play. Incomplete to Boozer. Bengals advance 28-24 in a thriller. I'm too old for this.

-contributed by Wayne Poniewaz-