The Bengals are in the NFL playoff division round. Here's how they've done in the past

The Cincinnati Bengals are in the playoffs for the 15th time in franchise history and on Jan. 15 the players in orange and back stripes won the franchise's sixth playoff game.

It was also the first win in the playoffs in 31 years, which was well-documented last week in the city of Cincinnati.

But now?

Now the Bengals are looking for their first playoff winning streak since 1988 when they travel to Nashville to play the Tennessee Titans on Saturday. Yes, 1988 was the Super Bowl XXIII season. But how have the Bengals fared in the second round of the playoffs, also known as the division round?

The Bengals have played in six division round games, including the first playoff game in team history before the first of three NFL playoff expansions happened in 1978.

Before 1978, only eight teams made the NFL playoffs. Then 10 did (1978) then 12 (1990) and now 14 (2020).

Here's a look at the Bengals NFL division round playoff history

1970 season: Bengals vs. Baltimore Colts

The 8-6 AFC Central champion Bengals, in year two as an organization, made the postseason. But then they lost 17-0 to Johnny Unitas and eventual Super Bowl V champion Colts.

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1973: Bengals vs. Miami Dolphins

Three years later, with Ken Anderson as the quarterback and coach Paul Brown still at the helm, the Bengals returned to the playoffs after a 10-4 season.

Horst Muhlmann's 24-yard field goal is the first playoff points scored in Bengals playoff history, while Neal Craig's 45-yard interception return for a touchdown is the first touchdown in franchise postseason history.

But the Bengals lost again to an eventual Super Bowl champion. The Dolphins went 12-2 in 1973, winning Super Bowl VIII

1975: Bengals vs. Raiders

John Madden's Raiders beat the Bengals 31-28 as the Bengals' fourth quarter rally after trailing 31-14 early in the quarter came up short. Anderson threw a pair of touchdown passes in the final quarter on the road in Oakland.

Get this, Bengals fans: The Bengals had a chance to get the ball back to possibly tie or take the lead with less than a minute to play. But they were flagged for running into the kicker on a Raiders punt that essentially sealed the game for Oakland. (See, dumb things didn't just happen in the 2016 Steelers playoff game).

The Raiders would lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers the following week.

1982: Bengals vs. Buffalo Bills

The first division round win came in the first bye the Bengals earned for their regular season record. The Bengals went 12-4, won the AFC Central Division and finished with the conference's best record. Ken Anderson won the MVP that season.

This wasn't the Bills team that the Bengals would play at the end of the 1980s often. Chuck Knox Buffalo's head coach and Joe Ferguson was the quarterback. The Bills were 10-6 in the regular season and defeated the New York Jets in the wild-card round.

The first playoff win in franchise history, Anderson threw for 192 yards and a touchdown despite being sacked four times. Charles Alexander scored two touchdowns as the Bengals won 28-21.

1989: Bengals vs. Seattle Seahawks

That's right, the Seahawks used to be in the AFC.

The Bengals went 12-4 that year and had the tiebreaker over the Bills, also 12-4, for the top seed in the AFC. That helped because the Bills team you do remember, with Jim Kelly, Bruce Smith and Thurman Thomas, had to come to Cincinnati for the AFC Championship game. The Bengals obviously won that game and then Joe Montana saw John Candy in the Super Bowl and that's that.

But against the Seahawks, Stanley Wilson scored a pair of touchdowns and Ickey Woods added another as the Bengals won 21-13. Boomer Esiason threw for just 108 yards in the game. The Bengals also had two interceptions of Seahawks quarterback Dave Krieg.

The 1989 playoffs is the last time the Bengals received a bye week in the postseason.

1991: Bengals vs. Raiders

This game was written about plenty before Cincinnati's victory in 2022 over the now Las Vegas Raiders. The curse of Bo Jackson game -- the Los Angeles Raiders star was just 28 when he suffered a career-ending hip injury in the Raiders' 20-10 win.

The Bengals wouldn't even play in a playoff game for another 15 years and didn't win another game in the playoffs for 31.

The game was actually tied 10-10 in the fourth quarter until a 41-yard pass by Jay Schroeder to Ethan Horton swung the game to Los Angeles

The Raiders lost in Buffalo the next week 51-21.

What's the 2022 NFL playoff bracket look like?

Here's the playoff schedule this week:

AFC:

• Bengals at Titans, 4:30 p.m., Saturday on CBS

• Buffalo Bills at Kansas City Chiefs, 6:30 p.m. Sunday on CBS

NFC:

• San Francisco 49ers at Green Bay Packers, 8:15 p.m. Saturday on Fox

• Los Angeles Rams at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 3:05 p.m. Sunday on NBC

Cincinnati Bengals schedule

• Week 1: Bengals 27, Minnesota Vikings 24

• Week 2: Chicago Bears 20, Bengals 17

• Week 3: Bengals 24, Steelers 10

• Week 4: Bengals 24, Jacksonville Jaguars 21

• Week 5: Green Bay Packers 25, Bengals 22

• Week 6: Bengals 34, Detroit Lions 11

• Week 7: Bengals 41, Baltimore Ravens 17

• Week 8: New York Jets 34, Bengals 31

• Week 9: Cleveland Browns 41, Bengals 16

• Week 11: Bengals 32, Raiders 13

• Week 12: Bengals 41, Steelers 10

• Week 13: Los Angeles Chargers 41, Bengals 22

• Week 14: San Francisco 49ers 26, Bengals 23

• Week 15: Bengals 15, Denver Broncos 10

• Week 16: Bengals 41, Ravens 21

• Week 17: Bengals 34, Kansas City Chiefs 31

• Week 18: Browns 21, Bengals 16

• Wild-card round: Bengals 26, Raiders 19

• Divisional round: Bengals at Tennessee Titans, 4:30 p.m., Jan.22

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Bengals playoff history before division round against Titans