True North

It’s been quite some time — in Steelers years anyway — since the AFC North Division championship arrived back in Pittsburgh, and this one came with some additional pain.

The Steelers beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 27-17, Sunday night at Heinz Field but might have lost their MVP, Le’Veon Bell, for their first playoff game in the process.

Bell left the field with a hyperextended knee after a low but legal tackle by Cincinnati safety Reggie Nelson in the third quarter. His availability for an AFC wild-card playoff game at 8:15 p.m. Saturday at Heinz Field against the Baltimore Ravens is in question.

Coach Mike Tomlin said there was no structural damage but with only six days to heal, Bell might miss their first playoff game.

Nevertheless, the Steelers were a happy if somewhat subdued bunch after they swept the Bengals to finish 11-5 and claim their first division title in four years.

“This is what we’re supposed to do,” tackle Kelvin Beachum said. “We’re supposed to win the North. We got a [championship] hat and shirt, put them in our bag and we’ll go and get ready for Baltimore.”

The Bengals (10-5-1) will play at Indianapolis as three of the four AFC North teams made the playoffs.

“Hopefully, the journey is not over,” said quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who threw up several times in the locker room before the game with a stomach virus.

His offense was not in top form Sunday and he threw his first interception in four games that helped the Bengals claw within three points in the fourth quarter. But he threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Martavis Bryant in the second quarter and a 63-yard touchdown pass to Antonio Brown with 2:50 left to seal the victory.

Brown also started the scoring with a 71-yard punt return for a touchdown.

“Whoa, got an excited group in there,” were Tomlin’s first words at his news conference after leaving the victorious locker room. “It hadn’t been an easy journey for us.”

Neither was their victory Sunday night, which completed a sweep of Cincinnati this season with possibly a third game on the horizon.

It appeared the Bengals, trailing by three, might be on their way to tying or taking the lead when cornerback Antwon Blake ripped the ball out of the hands of wide receiver A.J. Green at the Steelers 30 and recovered the fumble with 3:51 left.

Roethlisberger followed with his touchdown pass to Brown, who beat Dre Kirkpatrick on a short route and ran the rest of the way home.

It was the third turnover forced by their secondary in another game in which their defense overshadowed their more renowned offense. Cornerback Brice McCain intercepted two Andy Dalton passes.

“I wanted to make the tackle but I also wanted to go for the ball,” Blake said of his forced fumble.

Until Blake’s big play, the Steelers looked to be in trouble. Cincinnati was driving when Green caught a 17-yard pass. It would have put the Bengals at least within field-goal range of tying it, but the fumble changed everything.

The Bengals drove 89 yards for a touchdown after Nelson intercepted a Roethlisberger pass deep in Cincinnati territory. That cut the Steelers’ lead to 20-17 early in the fourth quarter. It took Cincinnati 15 plays to score on Dalton’s 5-yard pass to tight end Jermaine Gresham.

After that, on fourth-and-9 at the Cincinnati 45, punter Brad Wing tried to throw a pass to safety Will Allen that Tomlin said he ordered. Instead, the Bengals’ Dan Sanzenbacher intercepted it to give them a first down at their 41. There was 5:43 left in the game.

Cincinnati took over and looked to be moving to at least tie it when Blake stripped Green of the ball and the Bengals of the AFC North title.

The Steelers took a 20-10 halftime lead after Cincinnati went ahead, 10-7, early in the second quarter. The Steelers responded with three scores on two field goals and a touchdown pass in that quarter.

McCain intercepted two passes in the first half — one ended a Cincinnati threat and the other led to a Steelers touchdown.

A Steelers fumble led to Mike Nugent’s 39-yard field goal in the second quarter to give Cincinnati its first lead, 10-7.

That came after Maurkice Pouncey’s snap was low in the shotgun formation and Roethlisberger could not handle it. Wallace Gilberry recovered at the Steelers 34.

Two big plays in the middle of the next drive helped the Steelers tie the score on Shaun Suisham’s 29-yard field goal, 10-10. On third down, Roethlisberger stepped up into the pocket and hit Heath Miller over the middle for 20 yards to the Cincinnati 42. On the next play, Roethlisberger scrambled away from pressure, dumped a short pass to Bell and he picked up 26 yards to the 16.

But the Steelers again failed in the red zone, reaching the 11 before Suisham’s kick.

But then McCain intercepted his second pass of the game, returned it 31 yards and the Steelers had the ball at the Bengals 28.

There was no red-zone failure this time. Two plays later, Roethlisberger threw a screen pass on the right to rookie Bryant, who caught it at the 23 and was sprung by two perfect blocks from Miller and Markus Wheaton.

Bryant ran through the block and untouched into the end zone for a 21-yard touchdown, his eighth, giving the Steelers a 17-10 lead.

That stretched to 20-10 on Suisham’s 25-yard field goal (the ball hitting the left upright and going through) with 40 seconds left.