2005 Cincinnati Bengals season

The 2005 Cincinnati Bengals season was the team's 38th year in professional football and its 36th with the National Football League.

Postseason
On January 8, 2006, the Cincinnati Bengals took on the Pittsburgh Steelers in the opening round of the playoffs making it the Bengals first playoff appearance of the decade. Disaster started early for the Bengals when Bengals quarterback (Carson Palmer) was hit on just the second play of the game, resulting in a tear of his ACL (Anterior cruciate ligament). Backup quarterback Jon Kitna took over and did very well, giving Cincinnati leads of 10–0 and 17–7 at points of the game. All seemed well for the Bengals until the Steelers came back with 24 unanswered points and knocked the Cincinnati Bengals out of the playoffs with a final score of 31–17.

Milestones

 * Cincinnati Bengals Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh set Bengals records for most receptions (175) and receiving yards (2,388) by a duo.


 * The Bengals established a home season attendance record of 526,469 to break the mark of 524,248 set a season earlier.


 * Palmer's first six starts of the season, combined with his last three starts of 2004, made him only the second passer in NFL history to post nine straight games with a passer rating of 100 or more (Peyton Manning, 2004)


 * Carson Palmer led the NFL in three major passing categories – TD passes (32), completion percentage (67.8) and TD-INT differential (32–12)