I'm going to the NFL Hall of Fame on Saturday, so I was on their site which has articles on football including one on the top receiving yards in a game record for each team. I saw for the Chargers that it was Wes Chandler against the Bengals in Dec. 1982. I got thinking as I knew I probably saw that game being such a Bengals fan back then.
The Bengals and the Chargers were kind of a mini-rivalry for a year or so there playing really 3 classic games over a couple of seasons. This time period is really one of the highlight time periods for both clubs.
The Bengals and the Chargers around 81-82 were both along with the 49ers the big high powered offenses of the time. Big time passing games for all three clubs, really kind of the beginning of the modern passing attack.
This first game from 1981 was a big meeting between Bengals and Chargers, both playoff bound to meet later on. Bengals went out to SD and rolled them including a long 102 yard interception by Louis Breeden, which I remember very well.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198111080sdg.htm
They then met in the AFC title game in Cincy in one of the coldest games ever, week after the Chargers won one of the most epic OT playoff games ever against the Dolphins. Cincy won and went on to lose the Super Bowl to the new upstart San Francisco 49ers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freezer_Bowl
The next season the Chargers and Bengals met up again as a re-match and this was a crazy passing shootout, especially for the 80s with the Chargers winning 50-34. This was the game where Wes Chandler caught 10 balls for 260 yards and 2 TDs. Both the Bengals and Chargers returned to the playoffs again this season. Chargers beat the Steelers then got beat in a rematch with the Dolphins (who went and lost Superbowl to Washington). Bengals flopped in playoffs getting stomped by the NY Sack Exchange Jets.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198212200sdg.htm
― earlnash, Friday, 30 August 2013 05:38 (eleven years ago)