PITTSBURGH  These are the new Cincinnati Bengals.

No longer a pass-happy, defensively meek team that has been to the playoffs only once in the last 18 years, they have finally come to resemble the team that Coach Marvin Lewis said he wanted all along: one with a ball-control offense and a defense he can rely on.

That was demonstrated Sunday in the Bengals’ 18-12 win against the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, the Bengals’ co-leader atop the American Football Conference North entering the game.

“That’s a big win,” Lewis said. “It’s a grinding football game, probably the most physical, grinding football game I’ve ever been on the sideline to experience.”

Combined with their victory over the Steelers in the teams’ first game this season, the Bengals swept the regular-season series with Pittsburgh for the first time since 1998.