With the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens both winning in blowout fashion today, they gained a game on the Cleveland Browns, who fell 31-10 to the Los Angeles Chargers and sink further into the AFC North basement. The Pittsburgh Steelers are on bye this week, but there was no chance they could fall out of first place in the division, and at 6-2, they lead the division over the 6-3 Ravens.
The win by the Ravens tightened the gap between them and the Steelers, and it should set up a big Week 11 matchup between the two teams. The Ravens will play the Bengals on Thursday Night Football in Week 10, while the Steelers will head to Washington D.C. for a matchup with the Commanders, and the two teams could enter Week 11 fighting for first place in the division.
After a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles last week, the Bengals got back on track in a big way with a 41-24 blowout win over the Las Vegas Raiders. Joe Burrow threw for five touchdown passes as the Cincinnati offense looked potent, and their two matchups with the Steelers in the second half of the season could have playoff implications.
Cleveland continues to struggle this season, as despite three sacks from Myles Garrett, they struggled to score against a talented Chargers defense, as QB Jameis Winston threw three second-half interceptions. Cleveland’s only touchdown came in garbage time, and the team is reportedly continuing to sell, with EDGE Za’Darius Smith expected to be traded to the Detroit Lions either tonight or tomorrow.
The Steelers still have all six divisional matchups remaining in the second half of their schedule, but they’ve put themselves in a good spot ahead of the bye. But it’s going to be important to take care of business inside the division like they did last season, when they went 5-1 in games against AFC North opponents. All six matchups are ones where you can throw the records away, as the AFC North is always ultra-competitive as we saw with the Browns knocking off the Ravens last week. Pittsburgh is going to need to come ready to play in the second half if they want to maintain their division lead throughout the season.
