CINCINNATI — You can look at this wild, crazy, vicious wild-card brawl between the Steelers and Bengals two ways, and you would be right on either:

Ben Roethlisberger refused to lose.

The reckless, mindless Bengals refused to win, and did not deserve to win.

Big Ben, knocked out of the game late in the third quarter on a piledriver sack by crazed linebacker Vontaze Burfict, willed his way back through the pain in his throwing shoulder to engineer the game-winning drive from his 9-yard line that culminated in a Chris Boswell 35-yard field goal with 14 seconds left.

It ended Steelers 18, Bengals 16 in large part because Burfict decided to lower his head and drill Antonio Brown on a pass over his head and knock him concussion silly after the Steelers had burned their final timeout with 22 seconds left and the ball at their own 47.

A second, equally dumb personal foul — for chasing after Steelers aide Joey Porter and undoubtedly spewing expletives — was assessed on Adam “Pacman” Jones, leaving Boswell with a chippie.

“Kind of crazy,” Big Ben said.

Kind of inexcusable and undisciplined by Bengals defenders, who turned into Odell Beckham Jrs. against the Panthers at the worst possible time.

Classless Bengals fans had pelted Big Ben with objects as he was carted off the field with the Steelers suffocating AJ McCarron and leading 15-0.

The sight of Pittsburgh backup Landry Jones under center lit a fire under the Bengals, who stormed back to take a 16-15 lead on McCarron’s 25-yard TD pass to A. J. Green with 1:50 left.

With Big Ben back watching helplessly from the sidelines, Jones was intercepted by Burfict, and they were singing “Who Dey?” in the rain.

Until Jeremy Hill, hit by Ryan Shazier, fumbled.

“Ben and I have been together nine years,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “We kind of looked at each other, and kind of said, ‘Now or never.’ ”

“I was at the other end of the field, Coach Tomlin kind of looked down at me,” Big Ben said. “I was kind of giving him the, ‘Do you want me to go? … I’ll go, give me the nod.’ I guess he agreed with me.”

Tomlin asked his quarterback if he could throw.

“I think so,” Big Ben said. “Threw a couple of balls on the sideline, said, ‘Might as well give it a shot.’ ”

Big Ben had 1:23 and three timeouts to change the night and get his team to Denver next Sunday.

“He’s our guy,” Tomlin said. “I wouldn’t trade him for anyone else.”

First down pass to Fitzgerald Toussaint.

“That’s probably the toughest quarterback in the NFL,” Toussaint said.
Then another.

“I don’t know far he was able to throw the ball, that’s why that last drive looked the way it looked,” Tomlin said. “But he was good enough.”

Good enough to hit Brown for 12 yards on fourth-and-3 at his 41 just prior to the Bengals’ lawlessness.

Big Ben was asked if he would be able to play through this injury.

“I’m gonna give everything I can like I always do,” he said. “ We’ll get evaluated this next couple of days.”

Asked how much pain he was in, he said: “A lot.”

But not nearly as much pain as the Bengals were in. They can watch Big Ben against Peyton Manning. And good riddance to them.