Winning the Super Bowl always tops the Pittsburgh Steelers’ list of goals. To do that, their vision is winning the AFC North. And to win this tough division, you better beat your divisional foes. Coming out the other side of a four-game gauntlet playing nothing but AFC North games, the Steelers emerged 3-1. An old-school slugfest against the Baltimore Ravens. A shootout victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. Revenge to beat the Cleveland Browns, the only team to trip them up since Week 5.
Thriving, not just surviving through this stretch, locks up another remarkable Steelers streak. For the 15th-straight season, Pittsburgh will have a non-losing season against division opponents, going 3-3 or better. That remains the league’s longest active streak by considerable margin. The next-closest team is the Kansas City Chiefs, doing so every season since 2013. At 5-0 already, their streak continues through 2024.
It’s a topic we noted back in the summer. The Chiefs and Steelers are the only teams with streaks that extend a decade. The Cleveland Browns have done so every year since 2017 but sitting at 2-2 through their four divisional games, that streak is on the line. The Las Vegas Raiders have already had their five-year streak broken this year. Most teams, even good ones, haven’t been able to sustain that success over periods of time.
It makes sense. Divisional games are tough. Everyone knows each other and the teams that get beat have the opportunity to counter-punch while the teams that win have to walk the line between sticking with what’s worked versus being proactive with adjustments. Division opponents tend to just beat up on each other and that is abundantly true in the physical AFC North.
But Pittsburgh wins more than the other three teams. Just as one slice of recent history, here are the divisional records of the four AFC North teams from 2018-2024.
Pittsburgh Steelers: .663 (26-13-1)
Cleveland Browns: .526 (20-18-1)
Baltimore Ravens: .525 (21-19)
Cincinnati Bengals: .300 (12-28)
The Browns and Ravens are in the expected middle ground, hovering right around .500. The Bengals are in the basement. And the Steelers are sitting above the other three. It’s not as if Pittsburgh has had the best team over that entire time. The Steelers have only won the division once during that span. But when it comes to intra-division matchups, Pittsburgh continues to reign king. In 2024, the Steelers have the only winning division record.
It’s a list we’ll update once all the dust settles on 2024 to see whose streak extended and whose ended. The Steelers’ streak continues and it’s why they’re always a competitive team. They know how to win within their division better than anyone else.
