The Bengals lost MVP candidate Andy Dalton on his first drive with a fractured throwing thumb and the Steelers stifled backup quarterback AJ McCarron with two interceptions on the way to spoiling Sunday’s AFC North clincher when they beat Cincinnati, 33-20, at sold-out Paul Brown Stadium.
The NFL’s healthiest team of the first half of the season, the Bengals went through Sunday like Washington at Valley Forge and battled uphill all day. They also lost tight end Tyler Eifert, the NFL’s leading scorer, on the same drive with a concussion and later in the first half starting safety George Iloka exited when he re-aggravated his groin injury.
The 8-5 Steelers cut the 10-3 Bengals lead in the North to two games with three games left and dealt them a blow to secure one of the two top seeds in the AFC play-off chase with back-to-back games looming in San Francisco and Denver.
And Dalton will miss his first start ever next week in Frisco and pending a Monday exam might be out the rest of the year.
McCarron threw two touchdowns and had two interceptions in the most extensive action of his career. His five-yard back-shoulder throw to running back Rex Burkhead with 1:03 left for a TD cut it to 33-20 and left McCarron 22 of 32 for 280 yards and a 90.6 passer rating.
After completing a 23-yard pass over the middle to wide receiver Mohamed Sanu and an 18-yard run from running back Giovani Bernard, McCarron had a first down at the Steelers 8, down 26-10, early in the fourth quarter. But the Steelers, so tough in the red zone, did it again. On third down, they dropped eight men and still sacked McCarron when he couldn’t go anywhere with the ball and Mike Nugent’s 27-yard field goal with 10:06 left in the game cut it to 26-13.
Then safety Reggie Nelson gave the Bengals a pulse with 7:28 left when he intercepted Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on a deep ball at the Bengals 4. It was Nelson’s club-tying fifth straight game with an interception and his sixth pick of Roethlisberger. And the Bengals got a drive going, but they appeared to be the victim of a phantom holding call on left tackle Andrew Whitworth against outside linebacker James Harrison that wiped out tight end Tyler Kroft’s 13-yard catch.
Harrison slipped on the rush and on the next snap McCarron overthrew Sanu and it was intercepted by safety Robert Golden with 5:14 left for a 27-yard return to the Bengals 16. That set up running back DeAngelo Williams’ one-yard touchdown run with 3:49 left that made it 33-13.
The Bengals hung in there, even when they were sent reeling 50 seconds into the second half on Steelers cornerback William Gay’s 23-yard interception return that made it 23-7. McCarron tried to back-pedal away from Harrison steaming in from McCarron’s left. McCarron threw falling away, unable to get any zip on the ball and had nothing on a throw to the sideline. Gay jumped it and ran it in.
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