Bengals’ QB Dalton won’t need surgery on thumb

Cincinnati• Andy Dalton won’t need surgery on his broken thumb and could play again this season.

Dalton broke the thumb on his passing hand during a 3320 loss to the Steelers on Sunday that left the AFC North up for grabs. He had an appointment with a specialist on Monday who recommended that the fracture could heal without surgery. It’s still unclear how many games he’ll miss. Dalton’s hand will remain in a cast for now.

“Basically we’ll go week to week with things,” coach Marvin Lewis said. “I think that’s about as good an outcome right now as we could expect. He won’t play this week. As we move forward, we’ll see how he is each week and it’ll be up to Andy and the doctors.”

AJ McCarron will make his first NFL start Sunday in San Francisco, trying to make an Alabama breakthrough. A quarterback from Alabama hasn’t won an NFL game as a starter since Jeff Rutledge in 1987, according to STATS.

McCarron won back- toback national titles at Alabama. The fifth-round pick in 2014 missed his rookie season with a sore passing shoulder, but played well enough during the pre- season to win the job as Dalton’s backup.

Since Rutledge’s win in 1987, Alabama quarterbacks have gone 0-13 in NFL starts.

“That’s history,” McCarron said on Monday. “I’m not really worried about history. I’m worried about what we have right now.”

The Bengals ( 10- 3) haven’t clinched their playoff spot yet, but they lead the AFC North by two games over Pittsburgh (8-5). New England (11-2) is in line for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, with the Bengals and Broncos tied for the second spot.