Cincinnati led by Andy Wienrib came into this game with a very well rounded offense. Due to that, it made the case of defending them that much harder. Washington though led by Bill Vogt had made a commitment to first stopping the pass then worry about the run. For the first three quarters that strategy paid off.Washington (8-1-1) would win the toss and get the ball first. “To be honest I was hoping to lose the toss and get the ball first to start the second half” said Coach V. Washington would start its opening possession at its own 31 yard line. As has been the M.O. of this team all season long they went to their star RB Larry Brown (23-122 rushing and 8-73 receiving) went off tackle for a 6 yard gain. Later in the drive with the Skins at the Bengals 35 he would rumble 26 yards to the 9. Sonny Jurgensen (19-22-264-2 TD) would then go play action and find his go to receiver Jerry Smith (8-130) to put the Skins up early 7-0. “Brown is such a great running back that if you give him an inch
of space he can go all the way” said LB Al Beauchamp. Then throw in the threat of Jurgensen passing it makes it even more difficult to defend these Skins” he added. Cincinnati on its opening possession would begin at its 35 and on its first play RB Essex Johnson (13-111) would rumble 17 yards to the 48 of the Skins. On the next play though, Doug Dressler would turn the ball over after a 2 yard gain setting the Skins up with great field position. “Turnovers are the one thing we couldn’t afford in this game” said QB and the games MVP Kenny Anderson (12-24-143). Cincinnati though to its credit stood tall on defense and forced the Skins to punt the ball back. Washington though would get it back 5 plays later after Cincinnati was forced to punt again. Setting up shop at its own 32, the Skins went to work behind the running of Brown and the passing game by Jurgensen. “He was dead on tonight and hardly ever missed his receivers” stated Coach Weinrib. Brown would start this drive out by gashing over the left side and racing 25 yards to the Cincinnati 43. Two plays later Jurgensen would connect with Smith for another 21 yard gain putting the Skins at the Bengals 21. Three 
plays after that Jurgensen would hook up with Brown who sneaked out of the backfield to get wide open and race into the endzone from 11 yards out. The quarter would end with Washington leading 14-0.In the second quarter neither team done much until at the 6+ minute mark when Washington would put together a 10-play 64 yard drive capped off by Curt Knights 23 yard field goal with only 23 seconds left to allow the Skins to head to the locker room up 17-0. “A 17 point lead is not safe in this league” stated Jurgensen when asked if they felt comfortable with the lead.
In the 3rd quarter Washington would extend that lead to 20-0 at the 6:12 mark as Knight added his 2nd of 3 field goals on the day from 16 yards out. On the ensuing kickoff though Washington forgot how to tackle and Bernard F Jackson went 68 yards to the Skins 26 before he was finally tackled. “At that point we thought that the momentum had shifted our way” said Anderson. Two plays later Anderson connected with Chip Myers from 26 yards out and the lead was cut to 20-7. “No doubt the kickoff return gave the boys the confidents they needed” stated Coach W. With the quarter coming to a close the Skins would add another Knight field-goal from 38 yards out to give them a 3 score lead.
The 4th quarter would be a gut wrenching time for Skin fans and
even the players. The Bengal fans were sensing an unbelievable comeback by them. With 9:52 left in the game, Cincinnati would start an 11 play 47 yard drive that would eat up 5:43 on the clock that ended up with a Bengal 19 yard field goal to make it a 23-10 affair. Washington knowing that the onside was coming sent in the all hands team. A perfect kick though by Cincinnati would allow them to recover the onside kick and give them great field position. “Crap, I can’t believe they recovered the ball” said Brown. It didn’t take Cincinnati long to make the Skins pay for that mistake. With 2:09 left, Washington called the correct defense along with the proper key but was burned by Anderson and Myers for a 31 yard touchdown. (They got a UP11 roll on the reception) Now down only 23-17, they once again tried the onside and this time it was Washington who came up with it. Now all Washington had to do was kill the final 2:03 on the clock with the Bengals still having all 3 timeouts left. On the first play QB Jurgensen would be called for intentional grounding moving the ball back 15 yards and putting them in a 2nd and 25 situation. On the next play Brown was stopped for a 1 yard loss making it now 3rd and an almost improbable situation of converting the first down. Sonny Jurgensen though would make the play of the game. As he dropped back to pass his 
intended receiver was Brown on a screen to just get some yards and have his team punt. With Brown being covered tightly Jurgensen found John Henderson open in the middle of the field and he would rumble 43 yards to the Bengals 23. “Unbelievable” Jurgensen would say afterwards. The Bengal coaches though were very animated at the breakdown by its defense. (This would in my opinion even better Green Bays defense vs. Philadelphia in a playoff game where they converted a 4th and 24 with the game on the line). “We have no one to blame but ourselves” said Beauchamp. “Jurgensen made a great play and the receiver found the open spot” he added. Had Cincinnati gotten the ball back we will never know if they could have finished off a spectacular comeback.Great game and congrats to Andy on a well called game.
