CINCINNATI — Trey Hendrickson’s 3.5-sack performance Saturday night in the Cincinnati Bengals’ 19-17 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers wasn’t a career high, but it was historic.

The 3.5 sacks increased Hendrickson’s season total to 17.5, which will almost certainly lead him to lead the league when the regular season ends Sunday night.

It would take a six-sack performance from the Houston Texans’ Danielle Hunter — or more from a player further back — for someone to get past Hendrickson.

No Bengals player has ever led the league in sacks since this became an official statistic in 1982.

No one had ever finished second until Hendrickson did it last year, when he also had 17.5 sacks.

Only Hall of Famer Reggie White has more consecutive seasons with at least 17.5 sacks, three times from 1986 to 1988.

And JJ Watt and Mark Gastineau are the only other players to have more combined 17.5-sack seasons than Hendrickson’s two, with each joining White as a three-pointer.

“They put him on par with the best pass rushers,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said. “He will run away as the sack leader tomorrow when the games are over with 17.5. He’s just done it every year since he’s been here. He’s just producing something, and I’ve said this many times, that it doesn’t shock me.”

Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase was more incisive.

“Just Trey doing Trey things,” he said.

It was Hendrickson’s second game of the season with at least 3.5 sacks. He had four wins in Week 9 against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Two games in a season with at least 3.5 sacks ties the NFL record, held by seven other players – Hall of Famers White, Chris Doleman and Michael Strahan, as well as JJ Watt, Chandler Jones, Whitney Mercilus and Karl Mecklenburg.

As impressive as any 3.5-sack performance might be, Hendrickson’s impact Saturday night was as much about timing as it was volume.

He sacked Pittsburgh quarterback Russell Wilson on a second-and-9 play with 4:09 to play and the Bengals held a 19-14 lead.

That led to the Steelers settling for a 54-yard field goal from Chris Boswell to get within two points.

Then — on the final drive of the game, when the Steelers had just gained 45 yards and needed just a few more yards to position themselves for another winning field goal — Hendrickson sacked Wilson with 20 seconds left.

That forced Pittsburgh to call its final timeout.

Two incompletions followed, and the Bengals left the field victorious, with a winning record secured and playoff hopes still alive.

“It’s about having the opportunity to make those plays,” Hendrickson said. “It’s good to turn the conversation around what our defense will look like for 2024.

“I’m really proud of the way the guys handled adversity as they were 4-8,” he added. “The coaching staff and Lou Anarumo stood up and took us where we needed to go to give ourselves the best chance to make the playoffs. Having a track record in the National Football League is something to be proud of.”

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