The bad taste of the Pittsburgh Steelers Thursday night loss to the Tennessee Titans still remains in my mouth and probably in many of yours as well. While 3 losses in the first 5 games is certainly not what many of us expected at this point of the season, the season is far from over.
There is a lot of football left to be played and the Steelers have yet to play a game within the division unlike the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, and Cleveland Browns. The Ravens have two wins in the division, while the Bengals and Browns both have losses.
With the Thursday game out of the way, all we can do is scoreboard watch and hope that the Steelers get a complete mulligan of sorts for their Thursday night loss.
The Ravens host the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday and are favored by 3 points. The Cowboys will be a common opponent this year of the AFC North, so as nasty as it sounds, I will be rooting pretty damn hard for the organization that likes to think that they are America\’s Team. Keep in mind that the Ravens have to play the Houston Texans in week 7, so it is not totally out of the question that they could lose one if not both of these games.
The Browns host the Bengals on Sunday and it is a pretty big game already for both teams. A loss by the Browns and there season is unofficially-officially over just 6 games into it. A loss by the Bengals, who are coming off of a loss last week to the Miami Dolphins, would give them the same amount of losses as the Steelers and it would mean that they are 0-2 in the division heading into the game next Sunday night against the Steelers. Needless to say, we all should be rooting for the Browns, who are 2.5 point underdogs right now, but do get back cornerback Joe Haden from suspension for this game.
Many will say that scoreboard watching in mid October is silly, but it is what it is at this point. Besides, who among us doesn\’t root against the Ravens and the Bengals every weekend anyways? Thanks to the Steelers loss Thursday night in Nashville, it certainly will help get some of that bad taste out of my mouth should the Football Gods dole out some smite to both Baltimore and Cincinnati on Sunday.
Yes, the Steelers need to take care of what is going on in their own backyard and right now it certainly is a mess, but in the process of cleaning it up we all will have time to watch and see if a semi truck runs right through the front yard of our AFC North neighbors.
Keep the faith and continue to believe as the season is far from over.
Gulp, go Dallas and go Cleveland!
