AJ McCarron gets ready to try to end Bengals’ 25-year slump

But McCarron has been responsible with the ball, save for an overtime fumble that led to a 20-17 loss in Denver on December 28. “We want to return the ball, get what we can get, and let’s go”.

The Teams: The Steelers needed some help to get into the playoffs, and they got it, and the Bengals have faded a bit from being a possible Super Bowl contender earlier in the year to a team chugging along slowly with a backup quarterback. The two games couldn’t have been more different. That was the game when Kimo von Oelhoffen hit Carson Palmer low in the first half and tore his ACL.

A little more than a month earlier, it was a tackle by Burfict that ended the season of Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell.

“Many wanted the Steelers out of the top 10 following the Week 16 hiccup in Baltimore”.

Since that opening game against Pittsburgh, McCarron played true to his word.

Moreover, at this stage, Dalton has still not thrown a football since injuring his right thumb back on December 13, thus making his status for Saturday night’s Wild Card Game against the Steelers iffy, at best.

Over the last three games, the Bengals are plus-5 in the turnover battle and the Steelers are minus-2 in the same department. That’s three starts without a single interception.

“I told Big Ben after the last game I remember being a young kid and going to the GMAC Bowl in Mobile and watching Big Ben play when he was out of Miami (Ohio)”, McCarron related at his Tuesday afternoon press conference, “and after the game I went under the stadium to the locker room, met his mom, his dad, his sister and him”. In three starts since taking over for injured Andy Dalton he has yet to throw an interception.

“He needs to understand that, and this is coming from love from me and other guys, that this time of year, you’ve got to toughen up”. Despite his recent progress, the Bengals are still expecting to start AJ McCarron in the wild-card playoff game against the Steelers on Saturday.

Lewis said everything McCarron had done demonstrated the former Alabama All-American was ready to play when the Bengals called on him.

They have done what’s necessary in 10 straight games for one of the great turnarounds in National Football League history. Linebacker Vincent Rey added, “We’ll be ready”.

“First of all they have a lot of good players and they have a really good coaching staff. That combination is tough”, Texans coach Bill O’Brien said. These two teams have proved the doubters wrong all season long.

“The first couple of snaps kind of reminded me of my first high school game playing Carver-Montgomery”, McCarron said, “and I jokingly came to the sideline after two possessions or something and asked my offensive coordinator if they had more than 11 people on the field”. It appears the Bengals will have to beat the Steelers with McCarron in order to give Dalton a chance to put his personal streak on the line later in the playoffs. Ben Roethlisberger and this offense are firing on all cylinders. Their four losses have all been to playoff teams. It sounds obvious, but between these two teams there is absolutely no guarantee of success.

Beating the Steelers alone would be a breakthrough, as Pittsburgh is 14-3 all time at Paul Brown Stadium.