1982 AFC DIVISIONAL PLAYOFF

Cincinnati, January 3, 1982 - It was a mild 48 degrees in Cincy, but it was damp and rainy as the Bills and Bengals clashed in this divisional playoff game. The Bengals won their first playoff game in history as they took advantage of a long punt return and a pickoff of a Joe Ferguson pass to beat Buffalo 28-21.

Bills punter Greg Carter punted to Mark Fuller after the Bills were stopped on their first possession of the game. Fuller returned the punt 27 yards to the Bills 42 yard line. From there, the Bengals drove down to the Buffalo 4-yard line in six plays and Charles Alexander plunged in from there to open the scoring.

On the Bills next drive, Bills QB Joe Ferguson passed right into the hands of Bengals' Ken Riley, and Cincy drove down again on 8 plays to score. This time it was Pete Johnson who blasted into paydirt from one yard out to up the Bengals lead to 14-0.

Ferguson was able to connect with Jerry Butler for 54 yards before the end of the first half to set up Bills' running back Joe Cribbs and his one yard TD run.

The Bills continued the momentum into the second half as Cribbs danced 44-yards for the tying touchdown. However, Cribbs injured a knee on that play and had to sit out the rest of the game after attempting one run after that.

The Bengals came back and scored when Alexander burst through for a 20-yard TD run , but the Bills answered that when Fergy hit Butler for another big play, this time a 21-yard touchdown strike. This made the game 21-all.

Cincinnati quarterback Ken Anderson went to work on the Bills secondary when he threaded a 21-yard scoring strike to Cris Collinsworth to put the wild cats up 28-21.

Fergy drove the Bills down to the Cincy 20 yard line as the clock was ticking down. Ferguson, on third down, connected to Lou Piccone for the first down, but a much contested delay-of-game penalty nullified the play. Then on 4th down, Ferguson passed to Roland Hooks in the endzone, but the ball was not in his reach and the Bills season came to an abrupt halt.

The final score was a result of the two quarterbacks in this contest. Ken Anderson threw 21 times, completed 14 for 192 yards and one touchdown. Ferguson had a little more yardage with 202 yards while completing 15 out of 31 and one TD. But the real story was the interceptions. Fergy had two stolen, while Anderson had none.

Even though the Bills lost, it marked a couple of playoff firsts for the team. Joe Cribbs, by scoring 2 touchdowns in the game, became the first Bills to do so in a playoff contest. This also marked the most playoff games in one season for Buffalo, two! The Bills had previously beaten the New York Jets, 31-27 in the Wild Card game in order to meet Cincinnati.

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