McCarron leads playoff-bound Bengals over Ravens 24-16

AJ McCarron overcame a slow start to toss two touchdown passes and running back Jeremy Hill rushed for 96 yards and a TD, helping the Cincinnati Bengals wrap up the regular season with a 24-16 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium.

The Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers had quite the split series between them during the 2015 National Football League regular season.

Seeing Dalton sporting a black cast on his right hand while watching helplessly from the sideline for the remainder of that game was perfectly indicative of the gloomy fate that the Bengals seemed destined for as a result of his injury.

His right thumb will likely prevent it.

If the Bengals defeat the Steelers, there is a chance Dalton could be ready for the Divisional round of the playoffs, but McCarron is Cincinnati’s guy for the fourth straight week.

The Bengals last met the Steelers in the playoffs in 2005 – a 31-17 Steelers win at Paul Brown Stadium. He’s 2-1 as a starter since Dalton has been out.

According to a report by Bob Holtzman of ESPN on Tuesday, the two-time Pro Bowler is now out of his cast, but his status for Saturday’s Wild Card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers remains unknown.

Also, he hasn’t practiced in three weeks, leaving him rusty – a bad combination for playoff time.

But perhaps, more importantly, it meant the Bengals will nearly certainly have to try to break the playoff drought with AJ McCarron at quarterback.

“We’ve been there before”, said Bengals Coach Marvin Lewis after his team’s 24-16 win over Baltimore on Sunday. Receiver Mohamed Sanu has taken snaps in wildcat formations and could be an emergency quarterback. “Largely the things they are asking A.J.to do are no different than the things they ask Andy to do”. Heated exchanges between players on both rosters ahead of the rematch in Cincinnati set off a pre-game scrum.

“As much work as I put in, I felt comfortable”, Mallett said. First off, as noted above, Dalton broke his hand while playing the same Steelers team.

“He started dying laughing”, McCarron said. In those two games, Atkins had one sack and three tackles. He has thrown for over 300 yards six times in that span and has thrown 17 touchdowns. His only loss came in overtime against the Denver Broncos, who are now the No. 1 seed in the AFC. Kansas City is on an NFL-best 10-game winning streak, and their only victory prior to Week 7 came against the Texans. So you have to believe Lewis when he says the crackdown on the extracurricular stuff has already happened. That a spot in the playoffs – any spot really – is all they required to prove they were as good as the sum of their considerably talented if occasionally erratic parts. In the two games, he was 58 of 97 for 566 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, a solid showing for someone learning the offense on the fly. But the defense needs to shoulder some of the blame, particularly in these games, when the offense’s lack of scoring was not mitigated by the defense keeping its opponents from scoring.

The close defeats and major injuries piled up for the Ravens week by week, leaving them to play out a lost season. They signed LB Jayson DiManche to the practice squad.

He can make big plays at any point and turn an entire game around.

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