Former Steelers' AFC North Rival Chad Johnson Confident Bengals Win Super Bowl In 2005 With Healthy Carson Palmer

For fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers, 2005 was a storybook year straight out of some hardly-believable Hollywood script. Everyone knows where they were when Indianapolis Colts kicker, Mike Vanderjagt missed the field goal, and when Ben Roethlisberger did his "six-shooter celebration" during an AFC Championship beatdown of the Denver Broncos. None of those moments would have happened without the Steelers first making it past the Cincinnati Bengals. However, according to legendary former Bengals Pro Bowler, Chad Johnson, that game stole a sure Super Bowl title from Cincinnati.

Steelers Refused To Be Denied In 2005

The Steelers team in late-2005 was hardly the historic squad we now know them to be. They were 7-5, looking at the playoffs from the outside in, and unsure how anything good would come from the remaining four games. There was a lack of identity, and the dynamic energy that fueled Roethlisberger's 2004 rookie year seemed missing.

Cincinnati was on the other end of the NFL spectrum, leading the division confidently thanks to a high-flying offense. Quarterback, Carson Palmer, lit up defenses with 32 touchdowns and nearly 4,000 yards. Johnson, who was already a household name, brought in nine touchdowns and over 1,400 yards, while bruising running back, Rudi Johnson, racked up 12 touchdowns behind a truly impressive 1,458 yards. It was an offensive attack that few defenses knew how to handle.

The Bengals had already wrapped up the AFC North division title with two games left. While the Steelers were under immense pressure in every single contest, Cincinnati was able to rest players in the season finale ahead of their Wild Card game. The general view of the surprising AFC Wild Card matchup between the Steelers and Bengals was that the Bengals had too much firepower and the Steelers, while impressive, had spent their good fortune simply making the playoffs.

When the clock reached zero, the Steelers were the ones who would continue their playoff journey, while the Bengals found themselves crashing back down to earth. From a Pittsburgh perspective, it was the next step in what seemed like a fairytale. For the Bengals, Johnson especially, it was a robbery and the untimely ending to a season that was meant for so much more.

It all shattered to pieces when, on the Bengals' second offensive play, the dreamlike season fueled by offensive fire fell into ice water. Palmer dropped back and launched a deep pass that was completed to Chris Henry, but after the Bengals quarterback released the ball, Steelers defensive lineman, Kimo von Oelhoffen, fell during his move at the line and it took him right into the left knee of Palmer. The quarterback writhing on the field signaled the end to what Johnson had been watching grow and build all year.

The MCL and ACL were torn and Dr. Lonnie Paulos, who performed the surgery on Palmer, would describe the injury as incredibly difficult to come back from and that the good news was that not everything was torn beyond repair. Palmer would return to play for the Bengals and later on for the Arizona Cardinals, but the energy and dynamic fire that the 2005 campaign had never returned in the same capacity. Maybe Johnson was right, and that something had been taken that was more than simply a playoff loss.

Steelers Won The Bengals' Super Bowl According To Johnson

Johnson, a generational receiver who lived through that rollercoaster experience, had first-hand knowledge of not just the special kind of season he felt his Bengals were putting together, but the pain that came from losing it. According to Geoff Hobson, Senior Writer for the Bengals, Johnson didn't just have high hopes for that Bengals squad, he saw them as a team destined to reach and win the Super Bowl.

"I think if Carson was able to stay upright and the situation didn't happen, we would have won a Lombardi. I don't think there's a player or coach on that team who doesn't believe that. We were cooking with gas."

When you play for 11 seasons in the NFL, you experience pretty much everything the game can throw at you. Johnson felt the sting of loss more than he did the sweet scent of victory, but that doesn't mean he didn't come close. In his career, Johnson played in the postseason four times, twice with the Bengals and twice with the New England Patriots, but each time ended up being a loss. For Johnson, one would think that the loss with the Patriots when they lost the Super Bowl to the New York Giants would have left the worst memory, but for Johnson, it's still 2005.

Were the Bengals robbed of their Super Bowl destiny in 2005?