1972 Cincinnati Bengals season

The 1972 Cincinnati Bengals season was the team's fifth year in professional football and its 3rd 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