It will be the second-consecutive year Cincinnati has played a 1 p.m. Sunday first-round game. They lost to San Diego in last year’s opener.
Their four previous playoff games under Marvin Lewis were later starts. They played Pittsburgh at 4:30 on the Sunday of Wild Card weekend in 2005, then played at 4:30 on Saturday of Wild Card weekend in 2009 against the New York Jets and in 2011 and 2012 at Houston.
Primetime player: Bengals running back Giovani Bernard scored the team's first points Sunday night on a 17-yard shovel pass from Andy Dalton. The Steelers led the Bengals 20-10 at halftime.
It was Bernard's 15th career touchdown, with four of them coming in primetime games against Pittsburgh. Bernard scored twice in last year's 20-10 win against Pittsburgh on Monday Night Football and again in the 30-20 loss on Sunday Night Football at Heinz Field.
Seven of Bernard’s 15 TDs have come under the lights. He also had two in the 22-20 overtime loss at Miami last year on Thursday night, and another last Monday in the 37-28 win against Denver.
Return redux: Pittsburgh's Antonio Brown opened the scoring Sunday with a 71-yard punt return for a touchdown. Brown has three career punt return touchdowns, all of which have come against the Bengals, and all at Heinz Field.
Cincinnati appeared to have good coverage on the return, forcing Brown to retreat backward and to his left after finding nothing to the right. But the Steelers had blocking set up and Brown only had to beat one slight tackle attempt by punter Kevin Huber on his race to the end zone.
Brown had a 67-yard touchdown last year in a 30-20 win and a 60-yarder in a 35-7 win.
The longest punt return the Bengals had allowed prior to Sunday was 11 yards.
Newman nixed: Bengals cornerback Terence Newman, who had been ill all week, was unable to go Sunday night at Pittsbugh and was replaced in the starting lineup by Dre Kirkpatrick.
Newman was one of four Bengals listed as questionable with illness on the team’s injury report, but all three of the others – cornerbacks Adam Jones and Chris Lewis-Harris and safety Reggie Nelson – were active.
For the Steelers, cornerback Ike Taylor, who was torched by A.J. Green for 224 yards in the Dec. 7 game at Paul Brown Stadium, was a healthy scratch, while safety Troy Polamalu was inactive with a knee injury.
Brice McCain started for Taylor and picked off an Andy Dalton pass at the Pittsburgh 2 midway through the first quarter and another one at the Pittsburgh 41. McCain returned the second one 31 yards to set up a 21-yard touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Martavis Bryant, giving the Steelers a 17-10 lead with 5:52 left in the first half.
Nugent nails: Bengals kicker Mike Nugent made a 39-yard field in the second quarter Sunday night to extend his streak of successful kicks to 15.
The last field goal Nugent missed was a 35-yarder at the end of overtime against Carolina.