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.