Today's Bengals-Browns game is the first one that has mattered since 1989.

        The teams' combined winning percentage of .625 entering the game is the highest for a Cincinnati-Cleveland game since Week3 that year, when Cleveland was 2-0 and Cincinnati was 1-1.

        Game 13 of 1989 also was significant. Both the 6-6 Bengals and 7-4-1 Browns were in the hunt for a playoff spot. Cincinnati, the defending AFC Champion, won 21-0 at Municipal Stadium but lost two of its last three to finish out of the playoffs at 8-8. The Browns won the division at 9-6-1.

        “This is the first time in 11 or 12 years that both teams have gone into a game where they didn't have losing records,” said Bengals president Mike Brown, whose father, Paul Brown, founded both the Browns in 1946 and the Bengals in 1967.

        The Bengals haven't had a winning season since their last playoff year, 1990, when they were 9-7. The franchise is 49-115 since the start of the 1991 season.

        “Lord knows we've been through a down time. They may have been through one as well, along with the fact they were literally out of business for a few years,” Mike Brown said.

        Today, the Browns are aiming for their first 4-1 start since 1994 when they finished 11-5 with a wild-card playoff berth. The Bengals are trying to move to 3-2 for the first time since they were 4-1 in 1990.

        Both organizations would like to heighten interest in the so-called “Battle of Ohio,” a rivalry that has been largely meaningless for a decade.

        “That's the secret to the rivalry is getting two teams that are pretty good and playing each other when it matters for a few years,” Brown said. “Then it generates a head of steam.”

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