The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Cincinnati Bengals 28-21 on the road Sunday and that means they’ll enter their annual bye week with a record of 3-2-1. The much needed win over the Bengals now has the Steelers just one half game out of the lead in the AFC North division.
The Bengals, who are now 4-2 on the season thanks to their Sunday home loss to the Steelers, must now prepare to play the 5-1 Kansas City Chiefs on the road in Week 7. They will take a banged up team to Kansas City as well as linebacker Nick Vigil, safety Shawn Williams and cornerback Darqueze Dennard were all unable to finish Sundays game against the Steelers due to injuries.
The Bengals are also expected to be without tight end Tyler Kroft and running back Giovani Bernard against the Chiefs as well and it’s possible that wide receiver John Ross will miss that contest.
Like the Bengals, the Cleveland Browns also lost on Sunday at home as they were drubbed 38-14 by the Los Angeles Chargers to move to 2-3-1 on the season.
Browns rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield completed just 22 of 46 toptal pass attemnts against the Chargers for 238 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Browns rookie wide receiver Damion Ratley led Cleveland in receiving yardage Sunday with 6 catches for 82 yards. Browns tight end David Njoku scored the teams only touchdown Sunday via a one-yard pass from Mayfield in the fourth quarter.
The Browns three head running attack of Carlos Hyde, Duke Johnson and Nick Chubb combined to rush for 95 yards on 19 total carries.
The Browns defense only allowed Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers to complete 11 of his 20 total pass attempts on Sunday for 207 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Both of Rivers’ touchdown passes went to wide receiver Tyrell Williams and both in the second quarter,.
Chargers running back Melvin Gordon also scored multiple touchdowns against the Browns on Sunday and he ended the game with 132 rushing yards on 18 total carries. Two of his three rushing touchdowns in the game came during the third quarter. As a team, the Chargers rushed for 246 yards against the Browns defense.
Browns safety Damarious Randall led his team in tackles with 8 and Cleveland linebacker Christian Kirksey recorded the team’s lone interception of Rivers during the game. The Browns defense only sacker Rivers once on Sunday as well.
In Week 7 the Browns will go on the road to play the 2-3 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who lost Sunday on the road to the Atlanta Falcons.
The other team in the AFC North, the Baltimore Ravens, moved to 4-2 on the season Sunday afternoon thanks to their 21-0 road win over the Tennessee Titans.
Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco completed 25 of 37 of his total pass attempts against the Titans defense for 238 yards with a touchdown and a n interception. His first quarter touchdown pass went to wide receiver Micheal Crabtree, who finished the game with 6 receptions for 93 yards.
Ravens running back Alex Collins scored Baltimore’s two other touchdowns against the Titans on his way to rushing for 54 yards on 19 total carries. As a team, Baltimore rushed for 123 yards against the Titans defense. The Ravens offense also converted 12 of their 17 total third down opportunities during the contest.
The Ravens defense sacked Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota a whopping 11 times on Sunday. 8 different Raven players were credited with sacks on Sunday with outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith leading the way with 3. The Ravens defense also only allowed the Titans offense to gain 106 total yards on Sunday of which 55 came via 14 total rushing attempts.
Mariota finished the game having completed just 10 of his 15 total pass attempts for 117 yards. Him being sacked 11 times resulted in the Titans registering only 51 net yards passing.
In Week 7 the Ravens will host the 4-1 New Orleans Saints.
After the Steelers Week 7 bye, they will host the Browns in Week 8 and play the Ravens on the road in Week 9.
