The Bengals and Bills will meet in Sunday's AFC divisional playoff game in a matchup between two of the NFL's best quarterbacks in Joe Burrow and Josh Allen.
Now imagine those two quarterbacks being told they couldn't run a no-huddle offense. That was a real-life controversy that happened the last time the Bengals and Bills met in the playoffs.
A matchup that featured two outspoken coaches in Sam Wyche and Marv Levy and MVP-caliber quarterbacks in Jim Kelly and Boomer Esiason forced the no-huddle issue and changed the trajectory of both franchises ahead of the 1990s.
MORE: Best QB in the NFL right now? Breaking down the Mahomes vs. Burrow vs. Allen debate
Sporting News looks back at that 1988 AFC championship, the no-huddle controversy, and a reignited rivalry between two franchises still looking for their first Super Bowl championship.
Bills vs. Bengals playoff history
This year's matchup is the third postseason meeting between the Bills and Bengals. Cincinnati beat Buffalo 28-21 in the AFC divisional playoffs on Jan. 3, 1982. The other meeting was in the 1988 AFC championship game.
Bills vs. Bengals in 1988 playoffs
The Bills had a breakthrough season in 1988 under Levy. The offense was led by a core that featured Kelly, Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed, and Bruce Smith and Cornelius Bennett totaled 20.5 sacks on defense. Buffalo finished 12-4, but the Bengals beat the Bills 35-21 in Week 13.
The Bengals got home-field advantage in the AFC under Wyche. Esiason won the Associated Press NFL MVP award, and the "Ickey Shuffle" was popular because of running back Ickey Woods. Hall of Fame tackle Anthony Munoz and defensive stars Tim Krumrie and David Fulcher were part of a loaded roster.
Cincinnati beat Seattle 21-13 and Buffalo knocked off Houston 17-10 in the AFC divisional playoffs to set up the AFC championship rematch on Jan. 8, 1989.
Bills vs. Bengals no-huddle controversy
Wyche's offense used a no-huddle during that season, which was not a common practice at the time. In an interview with Newsday in 2013, Wyche said then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle told him two hours before kickoff that the Bengals would be penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct if they ran a no-huddle offense against the Bills. Levy had petitioned the NFL to outlaw the no-huddle offense that week.
"We'd been using it for five years, that's all we used all season long, we had the No. 1 offense in football, that's all we practiced all week long, that's how we got to the AFC championship," Wyche said in the interview. "And then two hours before he said, 'You can't use that.'"
The league reached a compromise before kickoff that entailed two rules, via the Los Angeles Times:
- "Neither team will feign injuries."
- "An offensive play that occurs before the two-minute period of each half will be nullified and replayed if it is deemed by the game officials that the offense gained an unreasonable and unfair advantage by a quick snap of the ball."
Imagine how that would go over in today's game.
Bills vs. Bengals AFC championship game
The Bengals didn't need the no-huddle to win the AFC championship game. Wyche used a withering rushing attack that totaled 50 attempts for 175 yards behind Woods, who had 29 carries for 102 yards and two TDs.
The teams were tied at 7-7 at halftime, but Esiason broke the tie with a third-quarter TD pass to James Brooks. Woods scored his second touchdown in the fourth quarter, but he had to run to the sideline before doing the "Ickey Shuffle" to avoid a penalty.
The no-huddle ruling was still a popular topic afterward.
"I think we might have done them a favor," said Levy via the Los Angeles Times. "This way they just played good football, without all that jazzed-up stuff."
Wyche was still fired up in the postgame press conference.
"If they're going to announce that, do it Monday, before the Bengals practice it all week," Wyche said. "It would have been the same as if they went to Buffalo and said, 'You can't give the ball to Robb Riddick down there by the goal line.'"
Bills vs. Bengals: No-huddle aftermath
The Bengals lost Super Bowl 23 in heart-breaking fashion to San Francisco when 49ers quarterback Joe Montana hit John Taylor for the game-winning touchdown in the final minutes for a 20-16 victory.
Cincinnati reached the playoffs under Wyche two seasons later before hitting a playoff drought that extended to 2005. Wyche passed away in 2020.
He addressed the no-huddle topic several times after the 1988 AFC championship game. The Athletic revisited that game with an oral history on Jan. 2 and included Wyche's comments from an interview with NFL Films.
"Marv and I laugh about it,” Wyche said on NFL Films. "Marv's a good friend of mine. I've got on my website a newspaper clipping of Marv's headline saying, 'The no-huddle is no fair.' This was right after the '88 season. The next year, of course, they're running it. Actually, the next year is when they 'invented' it.
That much is true. Buffalo rode the "K-Gun” offense to four Super Bowl appearances in the 1990s. Kelly, Thomas, Reed and Smith are all members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and that up-tempo offense was a huge reason for their success.
"We admired it,” Levy told The Athletic. "We learned a lot and it helped us maybe a year later to say, 'Hey, this no-huddle, maybe this is it.'”
