1972 Cincinnati Bengals

The 1972 Cincinnati Bengals season was the team's fifth year in professional football and its third with the National Football League. Starting off the 1972 season winning 5 of 7 games, this looked to be the Bengals break out year, that was until the away game at Pittsburgh, the Bengals suffered a devastating 40–17 loss, then coupled with 2 fairly close loses at home against Oakland (20–14) and Baltimore 20–19, the 1971 season was in a tail spin. Paul Brown gave his rookie quarterback Ken Anderson the starting job, winning 3 out of the last 4 games giving the Bengals an over all 8–6 season, but not good enough for the playoffs once again.

Three times in their history, the Bengals have won without scoring a touchdown, including Sept. 24, 1972 when K Horst Muhlmann's five field goals (41, 32, 20, 32, 34) fueled a 15–10 victory over Pittsburgh at Riverfront Stadium (later renamed Cinergy Field).

Twice in Bengals history, two Cincinnati players have broken the 100-yard rushing mark in the same game, with the first coming Oct. 29, 1972 when RB Doug Dressler gained 110 yards and HB Essex Johnson ran for 103 yards in a 30–7 win vs. Houston.

The latest-drafted player ever to make the Bengals roster for a regular-season game was K-P Dave Green of Ohio University. Green was the 418th selection in the 1972 draft, taken in the 17th round. He didn't make the roster in 1972, and had a brief stint (no games played) with Houston in '73 before being re-acquired by Cincinnati.

Team leaders

 * Passing: Ken Anderson (301 Att, 171 Comp, 1918 Yds, 56.8 Pct, 7 TD, 7 Int, 74.0 Rating)
 * Rushing: Essex Johnson (212 Att, 825 Yds, 3.9 Avg, 19 Long, 4 TD)
 * Receiving: Chip Myers (57 Rec, 792 Yds, 13.9 Avg, 42 Long, 3 TD)
 * Scoring: Horst Muhlmann, 111 points (27 FG; 30 PAT)

Pro Bowl Selections

 * DT Mike Reid
 * WR Chip Myers