It’s been almost 10 years since the Pittsburgh Steelers won a playoff game. That drought has left the team and its fans frustrated. Their last postseason win came during the 2016 season. They won two playoff games that year. The year before, the Steelers also won a playoff game, beating the Cincinnati Bengals in a wild battle. That game featured a lot of ups and downs, and former NFL quarterback A.J. McCarron looks back at that matchup with some regret.
“I think if we won that playoff game against Pittsburgh, I think my career is different of some sort,” McCarron said recently on the Glory Daze podcast. “Because whether it’s ending up being the quarterback there or somewhere else. I could get a better shot than what I ended up getting later.
“I kind of got stashed there for a couple years after that. We all know, the NFL is based off of what are you doing right now. If you play well and you get traded, then you get a good contract. But if you have to sit there for a while, people forget about what you did that season when you actually did play and take them to the playoffs.”
McCarron was a fifth-round draft pick by the Bengals in 2014. However, Cincinnati already had its starting quarterback in place in Andy Dalton. The 2015 season was shaping up to be one of his best, too. Unfortunately for the Bengals, Dalton got hurt in their Week 14 game against the Steelers.
That left McCarron as their starting quarterback. He went 2-1 as the Bengals’ starter that year, helping them finish in first place in the AFC North. The team was in the middle of a playoff drought over two decades long, and in the first round, they found themselves facing the Steelers.
McCarron performed admirably in that playoff game. He threw for 212 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. That includes helping the Bengals storm back in the fourth quarter, scoring 16 points to take the lead.
However, the Bengals couldn’t stay out of their own way. They totally imploded to end the game. On the Steelers’ final drive, Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict got called for an unnecessary roughness penalty, followed by corner Adam Jones getting called for unsportsmanlike conduct. Those penalties set the Steelers up for a game-winning field goal.
It’s hard to blame McCarron for the Bengals’ failures that day. Yes, he turned the ball over, but he wasn’t part of their complete collapse. He played as well as any backup could’ve in that moment.
Following that loss, McCarron only recorded one other NFL start in his career. While he bounced around the league until 2023, he never reached the same heights as he did during the 2015 season.
Had the Bengals won that game, perhaps that would’ve changed. They likely weren’t moving on from McCarron, but perhaps another team would’ve taken a shot on him. It’s just another example of how that loss negatively impacted the Bengals.
