At the moment, the Pittsburgh Steelers are in first place in the AFC North. That could change during any week with the Baltimore Ravens playing as well as they are. The division might feel like a two-horse race, but the Cincinnati Bengals are heating up after their dreadful start to the year. They’re certainly a longshot, but they’re not out of it yet. Analyst Jason McIntyre of FOX Sports believes the Bengals are still a huge threat to the Steelers.
“Looking at the schedule, the Bengals still have Pittsburgh twice,” McIntyre said Monday on FS1’s The Herd. “They’ve got the better quarterback in that matchup. The Bengals can easily catch Pittsburgh. That’s not a major concern.”
It’s wise to not count out the Bengals, but saying it’s going to be easy for them to catch the Steelers is a little presumptive. The Steelers are 6-2 while the Bengals are 4-5. For the Bengals to catch the Steelers, they’d probably need to beat the Steelers twice and have the Steelers lose another game or two. That’s all while the Bengals go nearly perfect down the stretch.
There are a lot of games left, so nothing is out of the realm of possibility, but it’s tough to say anything is going to be easy for a team that doesn’t even have a winning record. Since 2010, the Bengals have only swept the Steelers once, and that came in 2021. Last year, the Steelers even swept the Bengals.
Just because the Bengals have a superstar quarterback in Joe Burrow doesn’t automatically mean they’ll crush the Steelers. The Bengals are dealing with a litany of injuries, so they have bigger problems to worry about.
This week is a big test for the Bengals too. They play the Ravens on Thursday Night Football, which means they have a short week against one of the most physical teams in the league. The game is in Baltimore as well. When the two teams matched up earlier this year, the Bengals lost in a thrilling shootout.
If they lose to the Ravens again, McIntyre’s theory suddenly loses a ton of weight. At 4-6, they’d probably be fighting for a wild-card spot over the division title. With the way the Steelers are rolling, they’d have to seriously collapse for the Bengals to easily catch them.
Again, anything is possible, but it isn’t a sure thing for the Bengals to catch the Steelers. Really, the Steelers should be more worried about the Ravens. That’s the No. 1 threat to them in the AFC North. If the Bengals win this week though, maybe they’ll start to go on a run and make the Steelers sweat a little more.
