A shot of "Blake-mania" livened a 3-13 overall season. Due to injuries to QBs David Klingler and Donald Hollas, late-August waiver pickup Jeff Blake got a chance to start on Oct. 30 against Dallas, the two-time defending Super Bowl champions. Blake couldn't engineer the season's first win, but he threw for two TDs and had the Bengals up 20-17 until late in the third quarter of an eventual 23-20 loss. Blake went on to lead wins the next two weeks, at Seattle and vs. Houston. He remained the starter despite Klingler's return to health, and finished the year as a huge fan favorite, leading the NFL in pass completions of 50 or more yards (eight). In a nationally televised Oct. 2 Sunday night game at Riverfront, Miami's Don Shula and Cincinnati's Dave Shula became the first father and son to oppose one another as head coaches in North American major pro sports. The Dolphins won, 23-7. The Bengals closed the season with a unique comeback, beating Philadelphia 33-30 when Doug Pelfrey kicked two FGs in the last :03 of the fourth quarter. He connected from 22 yards at :03 to tie the score, then kicked a 54-yarder at :01, after the Bengals kickoff team recovered an Eagles muff at the Philadelphia 37. Though there is no official NFL record for multiple FGs in the waning seconds of a game, the Elias Sports Bureau confirms that from 1970 through 2017, no other player has kicked two in the last :03. On May 5, the Bengals signed Ohio State DT Dan Wilkinson, the first overall pick in the '94 draft. Wilkinson was the first player ever drafted No. 1 overall by the Bengals (later to be joined in 1995 by RB Ki-Jana Carter and in 2003 by QB Carson Palmer). In December, fan favorite Tim Krumrie, a two-time Pro Bowler, announced his retirement, effective at season's end. Krumrie was honored by the team at the regular-season finale, and shortly after the season he was hired to the coaching staff. He served as a defensive assistant in 1995 and was promoted to defensive line coach in 1996. The two-point conversion was added to NFL rules prior to the '94 season, with the Bengals among 23 teams voting in favor, and in the first preseason game, when Cincinnati played against Tampa Bay and former head coach Sam Wyche, a Buccaneers two-point conversion was the deciding play in a 17-16 Tampa Bay win. Much debate and some controversy continued through the year as the Bengals and baseball's Reds negotiated with Cincinnati leaders about the need for a new stadium, or even two. As co-tenants with the Bengals at Riverfront, the Reds balked at parts of an agreement the Bengals had reached in 1993 for interim improvements at Riverfront, and in an attempt to resolve issues, a city/county Stadium Task Force was formed, led by Cincinnati mayor Roxanne Qualls and Hamilton County Commission president Guy Guckenberger. The Bengals meanwhile agreed to share the cost of major improvements to Spinney Field, the team's city-owned practice facility.
