The march to the first Super Bowl starts off quietly and obscurely on Sept. 6 in front of an intimate gathering of 41,177 at Riverfront in the 1981 regular season opener. With his team trailing Seattle 21-0 late in the first quarter, head coach Forrest Gregg doesn't bat an eye in pulling franchise quarterback Ken Anderson after watching him complete just five of 15 passes for 39 yards.
With Anderson's projected successor Jack Thompson hurting, Gregg improbably turns to second-year Stanford quarterback Turk Schonert in what may save the season before it even starts. After fumbling away a snap, Schonert completes just nine of his first 18 NFL passes for 130 yards but doesn't throw an interception and swashbuckles to 41 yards on seven bolts from the pocket as he rallies the Bengals to a 27-21 victory.