By GEOFF HOBSON(Bengals.com)
January 8, 2006
Posted: 10:45 p.m.
In a stunning opening and close to the Bengals’ postseason, quarterback Carson Palmer was lost on the second play of the game with a season-ending knee injury on a questionable hit and the playoff savvy Steelers regrouped in the second half on the way to rolling up 24 unanswered points in ending the Bengals’ season three hours later, 31-17.
“The season went down the drain in 30 minutes,” said running back Rudi Johnson after the Steelers punched their ticket to Indianapolis to next week’s AFC Divisional game.
Defensive tackle John Thornton, who saw his defense allow several long back-breaking passes from Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, could only shake his head after the 11-6 Bengals lost their third straight game to end their break-through season in their first playoff game in 15 seasons.
"We've got to play as a team," Thornton said. "We still have to learn that. We're not a complete team.. . .We imploded."
But the black cloud, unbelievably hovered again. On his second snap and first pass of the game, their Pro Bowl quarterback, their franchise guy, the guy who led them back from the desert, somehow, some way, got blown up, and is looking at reconstructive surgery that may or may not get him back to training camp by the time it starts.
The Bengals would confirm only an anterior cruciate ligament tear, but CBS reported he also tore the medial collateral ligament.
Pro Bowl right tackle Willie Anderson, who had waited 10 seasons and 158 regular-season games for this playoff game, saw his quarterback go down in the first 4:21.
"I don't believe in luck," Anderson said. "But how many teams does that happen to?"
After unleashing a 66-yard bomb to wide receiver Chris Henry from his own 12 to the Steelers 22, Steelers defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen, (how could it not be a former Bengal?) crashed into Palmer’s left knee after he threw the ball to Henry running past cornerback Deshea Townsend. With Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis calling for a penalty, Palmer’s left knee was elevated on the cart. It’s the same knee in which he sprained his medial collateral ligament last season and missed the final three games.
Palmer left PBS before the game on crutches and wearing a knee brace with a date for surgery yet to be determined. Players with ACL surgery typically don’t reach their top form for another year, but that could be speeded up for a quarterback. A rehab usually takes six to eight months, which takes him out of all of the spring camps and puts arrival at training camp in question.
“I knew right away it was bad,” Palmer said in a statement through the Bengals public relations department. “I felt my whole knee pop. I didn’t feel a lot of pain. It wasn’t really painful. It was just a sickening feeling because I knew what it was and my season was over.
“I’ve never had an injury this serious in my career. I know it’s going to be a long road back, but it’s a long way until the next training camp. I’m going to work my butt off and come back better than ever. It’s over, but I’m looking forward to next season. I believe we have a great team, and we had a season that’s something to build on. I feel bad right now for what happened, for our team and for our fans, but at the same time I’m excited thinking about next year.”
von Oelhoffen, a 1994 Bengals sixth-round draft pick who went to Pittsburgh as a free agent after the 1999 season, apologized. “To him and to his family and the Bengals. I wish it didn’t happen to him, but that’s the wish we all take when we play this game.
“I was playing football and he was playing football. No more, no less. That’s all it is,” von Oelhoffen said when asked if the Bengals accused him of a cheap shot. “They can say what they want. They had every right to be upset. They lost their best player, but I hope he gets better. He’s a hell of a football player. There are going to be some wars the next few years against this team.”
Most Bengals approached after the game said they like von Oelhoffen, as does center Rich Braham, who played with him here. So did Willie Anderson, who said it wasn’t cheap. But wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh disagreed.
“I think the play was a cheap shot, but I don’t think he’s the kind of guy to do that. I think it was a dirty play, but it wasn’t purposeful,” Houshmandzadeh said.
Lewis would only say he wanted a penalty flag for roughing the quarterback. But he was clearly upset because he brought up Roethlisberger’s “cheap shot” comment last month on Bengals middle linebacker Odell Thurman when he hit him in the knees.
“Gee whiz, the guy got hurt. You can’t get it back,’ Lewis said. “To sit there and baby and cry like their quarterback, it’s ridiculous.”
Thornton said players admire von Oelhoffen because he plays hard, but he felt the hit could have been avoided because, "he had a few seconds not to gto that low.
"It's unfortunate," Thornton said. "I don't think the game would have turned out that way."
Palmer didn’t leave PBS until some of his teammates came into the training room to check on him at halftime, and they were amazed to find him acting no differently.
“I couldn’t tell if he got hurt or if he got thrown out of the game,” said backup quarterback Jon Kitna, who brought a 17-14 lead into the locker room. “He told me to just keep doing it.”
Then, a few plays later, Henry collapsed away from the play, and had to be helped off the field with a right knee injury and was also ruled out of the game.
In front of the first Paul Brown Stadium crowd ever to see a playoff game, the 20th straight sellout of 65,870 erupted in a din screaming with joy and rage as the Bengals still broke to a 17-7 lead behind Kitna’s swashbuckling relief performance.
