The Pittsburgh Steelers are 3-1 after four weeks and alone atop the AFC North standings. The Baltimore Ravens are 1-3 and reeling with injuries. And it could get worse if QB Lamar Jackson misses time with the hamstring injury he suffered in a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs last Sunday.
While the Steelers are resting up and working on improving things during their bye week, the Ravens host the 1-3 Houston Texans Sunday. For Nick Wright, the game is bigger for the Texans rather than the Ravens. And it’s because he’s got reservations about the Steelers.
“One of the reasons that I am not going to abandon the Ravens, even if they lose, is I don’t fully trust the Steelers yet,” Wright said Thursday on What’s Wright? “I still think the Steelers could have a four-game losing streak in ’em and open the division up. And I do believe that, when Lamar is out there, the Ravens have one of the best offenses in the league in the regular season.”
Talk about a level of mistrust in a team. The Ravens would be sitting at 1-4 if the Texans beat them. Their defense is the worst in the league through four games, giving up 33.3 points per game. Maybe they play better against the struggling Texans. Or maybe they continue hemorrhaging points because they’re riddled with even more injuries. LB Roquan Smith and CB Marlon Humphrey are going to miss time due to injuries. That isn’t going to help the defense play any better.
Some people still think the Ravens are still the best team in the AFC North, including former NFL GM Mike Tannenbaum. I wonder how confident Tannenbaum will be if the Texans upset the Ravens in Baltimore on Sunday.
Others are a little less sure of who will win the division but still expect the Ravens to be a player for the title. CBSSports.com’s Jeff Kerr says the race for the AFC North “is far from over“. And I do think that is fair. The Steelers have a favorable schedule coming out of their bye week, but it gets much tougher later in the season.
Perhaps Nick Wright is right. We saw the Steelers lose their final four regular-season games last year before losing to the Ravens in the playoffs. But to imagine a team going from 1-4 to division winners? It feels like a massive stretch.
But it is what the Los Angeles Rams did just last year. They started the season 1-4 before going on to win the NFC West at 10-7. They even won a playoff game. So, it’s certainly not impossible that the Ravens could lose to the Texans on Sunday and still win AFC North.
It’s just extremely improbable.
