PITTSBURGH — The familiar faces that fueled the hostility between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals are gone.

Vontaze Burfict is in Oakland. Adam “Pacman” Jones is retired. George Iloka is looking for work. Antonio Brown is off being Antonio Brown, stuck in self-induced NFL purgatory after flaming out in three cities in the span of six months. Le’Veon Bell took a year off, then took the New York Jets’ money. Joey Porter is out of coaching. Ryan Shazier’s career is on hold.

Together, they spent years toeing and sometimes crossing the line between playing with an edge and something considerably darker. The list of moments memorable for the wrong reasons includes Burfict’s questionable celebration after ending Bell’s season in the 2015; Porter taking a break from his job as Pittsburgh’s outside linebacker coach to walk onto the field in the final minutes of a 2015 wild-card game to jaw at Burfict, the same game when Shazier’s helmet-to-helmet hit with running back Giovani Bernard led to the NFL modifying the rules on such collisions.

Oh, and there was the Monday night meeting in December 2017, which featured Iloka violently slamming into Brown in the end zone as Brown hauled in the winning touchdown a couple hours removed from the harrowing sight of Shazier being carted off with a spinal injury from which he is still recovering.

Their absence likely means the bad blood between both sides has subsided. That’s probably a good thing considering the current state of both teams. The Steelers and Bengals are a combined 0-6 heading into Monday night’s meeting in Pittsburgh.

“Both of our backs are against the wall, which is kind of sad at this point of the season,” Pittsburgh guard David DeCastro said. “It will make for some good football, that’s for sure. We both need a win very bad.”

The winner can at least point toward a bit of forward momentum heading into October, while the loser will be all but eliminated from AFC North contention with the leaves still on the trees. While the Bengals began the season with modest expectations under first-year coach Zac Taylor, the Steelers figured to be in the mix with Baltimore and Cleveland. Ben Roethlisberger’s season-ending right-elbow injury and a defense that’s been unable to get critical stops has Pittsburgh facing just its second 0-4 start in 1968.

No wonder Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin is, as he put it this week, ticked off. Taylor isn’t quite there yet with his team, though he’s also well aware of the weight facing the Steelers still carries regardless of the faces or the stakes.

“I certainly watched my fair share of games this offseason, trying to prepare myself for what’s in store in this division,” Taylor said. “You get a pretty good sense of the feelings here. People aren’t shy when you’re out in the community in the offseason letting you know their thoughts on the Steelers.”

The noise will almost certainly get louder on Tuesday morning if the Bengals can’t find a way to win in Pittsburgh for the first time since November 2015.