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Hey, you can’t say the karma isn’t great.
When AJ McCarron makes his first NFL start Sunday in San Francisco (4:25 p.m.-Cincinnati’s Channel 12), it will be 45 years to the day a backup quarterback came off the bench in the 1970 finale and helped navigate the Bengals into their first postseason.
If the 10-3 Bengals survive in a city where they haven’t won in 41 years, they qualify for the playoffs for the fifth straight season in a No. 2 QB post-season script not just reserved for Tom Brady, Kurt Warner, and Earl Morrall.