PITTSBURGH — The Steelers are left with virtually no wiggle room. As they see it, the team is presented with an either-or-situation in Sunday’s showdown at Cincinnati: Win or go home.

If Pittsburgh wins all four of its remaining regular-season games, there is hope for the Steelers. An 11-5 mark could be good enough to win the AFC North.

“We haven’t made a run yet so we’ll see what happens,” said quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. “I’ve been here a long time and so it’s easy for me to know what this game means and what this part of the season means. … We just have to come out and play good football.”

But should the Steelers lose a game, chances begin to dip that they will make the playoffs.

Pittsburgh is one of seven teams in the AFC who are not in first place in their division but are 7-5 or better.

A 10-6 record may not cut it for one of the two wild-card playoff berths available.

By playing the Bengals (8-3-1) twice over their next four games, the Steelers (7-5) can overtake the Bengals in the division standings and would have all the tiebreakers against Baltimore (7-5) and Cleveland (7-5) in case either of those two win their final four games, too.

It’s not dissimilar to a situation Pittsburgh found itself in at 7-5 during the 2005 season. The Steelers needed to win their final four just to make it as the final playoff team, and did. Then they won all four in the postseason away from home and went to Detroit to win the Super Bowl.

Their longest winning streak this season is three game.

Roethlisberger has been off lately.

The Steelers have lost two of their past three — to the Jets (2-11) and Saints (5-7) — sandwiched around a comeback victory from 11 points down in the fourth quarter at Tennessee (2-10).

Over the first nine games of the season, Roethlisberger had a 110.6 passer rating with 22 touchdowns and three interceptions. Over the past three games, he has a 79.3 rating with four touchdowns and five interceptions.

“If we’re not always playing our best, me particularly, then that hurts because the ball goes through my hands every single play. I need to play better and that will hopefully in turn help the rest of the offense play better,” Roethlisberger said.

Roethlisberger hit his hand on an opponent’s arm during a follow-through in the first quarter of Sunday’s 35-32 loss to New Orleans.

His wrist bothered him temporarily, but Roethlisberger finished with 435 yards passing. He disputed a story that he has a fractured bone in his wrist.

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with my wrist,” Roethlisberger said.

SERIES HISTORY: 88th meeting, Steelers lead the series 55-34, including 24-19 in Cincinnati. The series began in 1970 with the NFL merger with the AFL. The teams play twice over the next four games, with the Bengals playing the regular-season finale at Heinz Field. The Steelers won their last meeting, 30-23 Dec. 15 in Pittsburgh. The Steelers are 1-0 also vs. the Bengals in the post-season.