Originally published on Dec. 24, 2022
By Zane Miller
On December 12th, 1993, the Cincinnati
Bengals and New England Patriots faced off in a late-season matchup, as the
Bengals traveled to Foxborough, Massachusetts with just four games remaining
for both teams. However, the two sides would have more in common than just that
for the 1993 campaign, as they were both hoping for a quick and painless end to
miserable seasons.
As far as playoff aspirations are concerned, it’s hard
to think of a more meaningless game than this one, as both teams had been dead
in the water for a long time prior to December. The Bengals held a 1-11 record coming
into the afternoon, thanks in large part to an atrocious offense which would go
on to rank last in the NFL by season’s end with just 187 points scored, or 11.7
points per game. With their defense not faring much better, as they would also
be ranked in the bottom 10 teams in the league, they sought to at least get
some positive momentum going into 1994 in their final remaining contests.
The Patriots, who were also saddled with a 1-11
showing at this point in the year, were looking to jumpstart their anemic offensive
play as well. In fact, at this juncture, the team had scored exactly 11.7
points per game, further adding to the dubious comparisons between themselves
and Cincinnati. This embarrassing offensive output spoiled a solid production
from their defense, as they would take 11th in the 28-team league in
points allowed with 286, or 17.9 points per game.
As for the starting quarterbacks, the Bengals would
send in David Klingler, whom the team had taken sixth overall in the 1992 draft
and was getting his first opportunity as full-time starter following the
departure of longtime quarterback Boomer Esiason. However, his 1993 season had
not gone according to plan, as he had thrown only three touchdowns with eight
interceptions and did not claim his first win of the season until late November.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Klingler was forced to miss two games with a back
injury at the midway point of the year.
For New England, they would be starting a young
first-round pick of their own, with rookie and first overall pick of the 1993
draft Drew Bledsoe taking the reins of a disastrous organization which had gone
2-14 the previous season. After being thrown straight into the deep end, Bledsoe
had unsurprisingly struggled in his debut year, throwing seven touchdowns and
13 interceptions leading up to the matchup against Cincinnati. Like Klingler,
Bledsoe also suffered an injury which forced him to miss a significant amount
of time, as he sat out three games to recover from a sprained knee. With that, the
roughly half-capacity crowd at Foxboro Stadium was likely expecting a
low-scoring affair. However, they had no idea of the horror show which would
unfold before their very eyes.
The first quarter provided a preview of what was to
come for much of the afternoon, as both teams tried fruitlessly to pass the
ball in the windy conditions, leading to a scoreless opening frame. While both
offenses continued to sputter for the remainder of the half, the Patriots would
gather a bit of good fortune as Bledsoe hit tight end Ben Coates for an
eight-yard touchdown pass with 25 seconds remaining, making it a 7-0 score at
halftime. However, this would be the only offensive score of the entire game.
The second half saw a continuation of the sloppy play,
as evidenced by one of the only ‘highlights’ from the half coming on a botched
punt attempt by the Patriots. New England punter Mike Saxon bobbled the snap,
which would set up the Bengals inside Patriots’ territory, however they would
be unable to do anything with the opportunity. After both sides went scoreless
through the third and most of the fourth quarter, Cincinnati would have one
final chance to tie the game up, sitting with a fourth and goal at the 1-yard
line. However, defensive linemen Mike Pitts and Ray Agnew would make the
biggest defensive play of the game, stopping backup running back Eric Ball to
force a turnover on downs with less than a minute to go. Although the Patriots
had the ball back and only needed to run out the last 53 seconds, the game
would not end so easily as the Bengals were able to burn their timeouts to
force the Patriots to punt them the ball back for a last-ditch effort to send
the game into overtime. Or so it seemed.
With New England lined up in punt formation, head
coach and future Hall of Famer Bill Parcells had long snapper Marv Cook snap
the ball over the head of Saxon and out of the end zone, resulting in the
Bengals being awarded a safety with 20 seconds left. This would be of little
consolation for Cincinnati, who would be pinned back in their own territory following
the free kick. A miracle drive at a game-winning touchdown would not gather
much traction, as the Patriots held on for the 7-2 win. In case you’re wondering,
this game was not a Scorigami, as the 7-2 score had occurred twice previously,
coincidentally both involving wins by the 1926 Kansas City Cowboys, as they
took down the Hartford Blues 7-2 on October 31st of that year before
doing the same to the Chicago (now Arizona) Cardinals less than a month later
on November 28th.
While the game would be notable as Bledsoe’s first
career win at home, there isn’t much information to go off of as to how this
game played out, with it being mostly lost to time with no play-by-play data
and limited video footage available. However, the minute-long postgame recap definitely
sheds light on how absolutely sloppy the game was. Out of the six highlight
clips shown, three of them involve dropped passes (four including a dropped
interception after the initial deflection) which should have easily been made.
While you may be thinking that there were at least a lot of turnovers forced by
the defense, this was also not the case as
Link to stats database: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/199312120nwe.htm
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