Bengals’ winless postseason streak continues in 18-16 loss to Steelers

Cincinnati had a pair of personal fouls that moved Pittsburgh into position for Chris Boswell’s 35-yard field goal with 14 seconds to play Saturday night and an 18-16 victory, adding another blow-to-the-gut moment to the Bengals’ playoff history.

Cincinnati got the first turnover of the game midway through the second quarter when linebacker Vontaze Burfict forced Pittsburgh wide receiver Markus Wheaton to fumble at the Bengals 47, where safety George Iloka recovered it.

It appeared as if Cincinnati had finally ended its playoff drought when, with 1 minute 56 seconds to play, rookie AJ McCarron connected with A.J. Green on a 25-yard touchdown pass to go up, 16-15. But running back Jeremy Hill’s fumble gave the ball back to Pittsburgh.

Boswell drilled his fourth field goal of the game on the next snap to give the Steelers their first playoff win since the 2010 AFC Championship Game. When Landry Jones was intercepted by Vontaze Burfict on the subsequent possession, it looked like the Bengals would get head coach Marvin Lewis his first playoff win in seven tries. But it hasn’t yielded the woebegone franchise any playoff glory, nor has it done any favors for Coach Marvin Lewis, who now falls to 0-7 in his playoff career. That successful three-pointer cut Pittsburgh’s lead to 15-10 with 5:12 left in the game.

The Steelers advance to play the Broncos in Denver, who finished the regular-season with the league’s No. 1-ranked defense. The hit might have cost the Bengals the game, but unfortunately for the Steelers it had the side effect of possibly taking out their best offensive playmaker. His fourth-quarter sack of Roethlisberger knocked the Steelers quarterback out of the game.

With the outcome, the Kansas City Chiefs, who blanked the Texans earlier, discovered they will be playing at Gillette Stadium next Saturday against the Patriots.

Cincinnati might want to do the same after somehow losing despite rallying from a 15-point deficit to have the lead and the in Pittsburgh territory and the lead with 1:30 to go. But the Steelers missed a two-point conversion, keeping it a two-point game.

Roethlisberger was carted off the field after injuring his right shoulder. Defensively, the Pittsburgh Steelers yield 271.9 yards in passing and 91.2 yards in rushing.

“We won the game, that’s all that matters”, Roethlisberger said.

Then Jeremy Hill was stripped of the ball by Ryan Shazier while trying to run out the clock.

The fumble occurred after the Bengals had a first down at the Steelers’ 29 because Hill ran 38 yards on the previous play.

The Bengals managed 56 yards in the first half.

The Steelers are heading to Denver. The Bengals got a field goal the next time they had the ball to cut the lead to 15-10. As NFL.com noted, it was clear that Roethlisberger was far from 100 percent when he returned for the final drive, as he stuck mostly to short passes and seemed in pain, so his availability for next week’s game will be one of the biggest stories in the coming week.

Early in the third quarter, Steelers receiver MARTAVIS BRYANT took a reverse 44 yards down the right sideline to the CIN 20 yard line where he was nudged out of bounds by Bengals cornerback DRE KIRKPATRICK.