Cincinnati Bengals Trivia
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This Bengals trivia quiz has 49 free questions with answers and covers the whole history of the Cincinnati Bengals, from Paul Brown's 1968 expansion team at Nippert Stadium to the Joe Burrow era at Paycor. You will get the tiger-stripe helmets of 1981, the Freezer Bowl, two Super Bowl losses to San Francisco, the Ickey Shuffle, the 'Bungles' years, Marvin Lewis, Ochocinco and Corey Dillon's record day, then the 2021 run that ended the NFL's longest playoff-win drought and Super Bowl LVI. It works for a Who Dey watch party, a Cincinnati bar trivia round or a quick argument-settler in the group chat. The easy questions any fan can hit; the hard ones ask about draft slots, MVP seasons, stadium history and the coaches behind the no-huddle. Every answer was checked against Pro Football Reference-grade encyclopedic sources before publishing, and each question explains itself as soon as you answer.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Hall of Fame coach founded the Bengals and led them from the sideline for their first eight seasons?
Paul Brown
Paul Brown had been fired by Cleveland in January 1963; he got back into the game by founding a rival team in the same state, and he ran it until his death in 1991.
Q 02The Bengals began play in 1968 as a member of which league?
The American Football League
The American Football League was a way in: its merger with the NFL had been agreed before Cincinnati was awarded a team in 1967, so the Bengals spent only two seasons there before the leagues combined.
Q 03The Bengals' first home, still used by the Cincinnati Bearcats, was which venue?
Nippert Stadium
Nippert Stadium, the University of Cincinnati's ground, was a two-year stopgap while Riverfront Stadium was being built, and the 1968 Bengals won their first two home games there.
Q 04What replaced the word BENGALS on Cincinnati's helmets in 1981?
Tiger stripes
Tiger stripes arrived in the same season the Bengals reached their first Super Bowl, and the helmet has survived every uniform redesign since.
Q 05Which future television analyst spent his whole playing career, 1981 to 1988, catching passes for the Bengals?
Cris Collinsworth
Cris Collinsworth was a high-school quarterback and state sprint champion who switched to receiver in college; as a Bengals rookie in 1981 he became the team's first 1,000-yard receiver.
Q 06Where was Super Bowl XVI, the Bengals' first and the first in a cold-weather city, held?
Pontiac Silverdome, Michigan
The Pontiac Silverdome's roof kept out a Michigan January, and inside it the Bengals gained 356 yards to their opponents' 275 yet still lost, undone by four turnovers.
Q 07The Bengals' AFC title win in January 1982 is known by which nickname?
The Freezer Bowl
The Freezer Bowl kicked off at 9 below zero with a wind chill of −59°F, eleven degrees worse than the Ice Bowl's, though the thermometer itself read a few degrees warmer than at that Green Bay game.
Q 08Which Bengals quarterback was named NFL MVP in 1981 after playing college ball at tiny Augustana College?
Ken Anderson
Ken Anderson began that MVP season on the bench: pulled from the opener after two first-half interceptions and only 39 yards passing, he watched a third-stringer rally the Bengals to victory.
Q 09Which left-handed Bengals quarterback won the NFL MVP award in 1988?
Boomer Esiason
Boomer Esiason's MVP year turned the Bengals around completely: 4–11 the season before, they went 12–4 and came within 34 seconds of winning the Super Bowl.
Q 10Which Bengals head coach made the no-huddle a full-time offense during the 1988 Super Bowl season?
Sam Wyche
Sam Wyche's no-huddle let his offence threaten to snap at any moment, so defences had no time to send on substitutes, and a beaten rival soon copied the idea.
Q 11Bengals rookie Elbert Woods scored 15 rushing touchdowns in 1988 and marked each one with which celebration?
The Ickey Shuffle
The Ickey Shuffle had a short run: after 15 touchdowns as a rookie, Woods was hurt two games into the next season and managed only 12 more before injuries ended his career in 1991.
Q 12Jerry Rice was MVP of Super Bowl XXIII, but which 49ers receiver caught the winning touchdown with 34 seconds left?
John Taylor
John Taylor's winning touchdown was his only catch of the game; that season he had made his name as the NFL's leading punt returner rather than as a receiver.
Q 13Super Bowl XXIII, the Bengals' second Super Bowl, was played in January 1989 at which stadium?
Joe Robbie Stadium
Q 21Chad Johnson and TJ Houshmandzadeh were teammates at which college before the Bengals drafted both?
Oregon State
Oregon State had the pair for one season, 2000; the Bengals then took Johnson in the second round and Houshmandzadeh in the seventh, and they stayed teammates for eight more years.
Q 22Which Cincinnati company bought the naming rights to the Bengals' stadium in 2022?
Paycor
Paycor, a payroll-software firm based in the city, put its name on the stadium in August 2022, ending 22 seasons in which it had carried the name of the team's founder instead of a sponsor's.
Q 23What is the nickname of the Bengals' home stadium?
The Jungle
The Jungle comes with a ready-made anthem: the Bengals play Guns N' Roses' 'Welcome to the Jungle' before kickoff, and their 2021 slogan urged fans to 'Rule The Jungle'.
Joe Robbie Stadium nearly saw a kicker named Super Bowl MVP: Jim Breech's three field goals had the Bengals ahead 16–13 until the final minute.
Q 14Which offensive tackle did the Bengals draft third overall from USC in 1980 and watch make 11 straight Pro Bowls?
Anthony Munoz
Anthony Munoz had missed nearly all of his final college season with a knee injury, yet the Bengals still took him third overall and he started all 16 games as a rookie.
Q 15Which nickname mocked the Bengals during 14 straight seasons without a winning record?
The Bungles
The Bungles was the coinage of Pittsburgh broadcaster Myron Cope, and the results backed him up: the Bengals lost 13 games in four of those seasons and never finished better than 8–8.
Q 16Which Bengals cornerback intercepted 65 passes from 1969 to 1983 but reached the Hall of Fame only in 2023, after his death?
Ken Riley
Ken Riley had been a college quarterback at Florida A&M before the Bengals moved him to cornerback, where he intercepted at least one pass in every one of his 15 seasons.
Q 17Corey Dillon's 278 rushing yards for the Bengals in 2000 broke whose 23-year-old NFL record?
Walter Payton
Walter Payton had needed 40 carries for his 275 yards in 1977; Dillon passed him on just 22, but his own record lasted only three years before Jamal Lewis ran for 295.
Q 18Bengals back Corey Dillon ran for a then-record 278 yards against which team in 2000?
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos lost 31–21 even though Cincinnati completed just two passes all afternoon, and it was the Bengals' first regular-season win in their new stadium.
Q 19Which head coach, hired in 2003, led the Bengals for 16 seasons without a playoff win?
Marvin Lewis
Marvin Lewis won 131 games, more than twice the club record he inherited, yet his seven playoff teams all lost their first game.
Q 20Bengals receiver Chad Johnson legally changed his surname in 2008 to what?
Ochocinco
Ochocinco, his run-together Spanish for the eight and five on his jersey, lasted four years: he went back to Johnson in 2012, by which time he had caught 751 passes for the Bengals.
Q 24The Bengals' official mascot, a Bengal tiger, is named what?
Who Dey
Who Dey takes his name from the fans' chant, 'Who dey think gonna beat dem Bengals?', which took hold in the 1981 Super Bowl season; its origin is disputed, and one theory credits stadium beer vendors.
Q 25The Bengals' rivalry with the Cleveland Browns is often called what?
The Battle of Ohio
The Battle of Ohio began in 1970 with a 30–27 Cleveland win, but Cincinnati took the rematch during a seven-game winning run that carried it from 1–6 to the division title.
Q 26Which coach, hired by the Bengals in 2019, took them to Super Bowl LVI in his third season?
Zac Taylor
Zac Taylor was hired from the Rams, where he had coached quarterbacks under Sean McVay, and the Super Bowl he reached three years later was against McVay's Rams.
Q 27Joe Burrow won the 2019 Heisman Trophy playing for which university?
LSU
LSU got him as a graduate transfer after three years as an Ohio State backup; in his second season there he threw a record 60 touchdown passes and won the national title unbeaten.
Q 28With which pick of the 2020 NFL draft did the Bengals select Joe Burrow?
First overall
First overall was the Bengals' reward for the NFL's worst record in 2019, and it sent him home: Burrow grew up in Athens, Ohio, about two and a half hours from Cincinnati.
Q 29Joe Burrow attended high school in The Plains, Ohio, but he was born in which state?
Iowa
Iowa came first: he was born in Ames, and the family later spent two years in Fargo, North Dakota, before his father's coaching career took them to Ohio University in 2005.
Q 30Which NFL honour did Joe Burrow win for both the 2021 and 2024 seasons?
Comeback Player of the Year
Comeback Player of the Year came first after torn knee ligaments ended his rookie season, and again after a wrist injury ended his 2023; in between he took the Bengals to a Super Bowl.