AFC North: Bengals the only division winners in Week 2
Week Two in the National Football League was not kind to the teams in the AFC North. On Thursday night, the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens went head to head and it was the striped menace of Ohio that came out with a win. As for the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers, both suffered losses that were a result of letting games get away from them and out of control. Here’s the Week 2 AFC North recap:
Browns 18 – Saints 21
Cleveland placekicker Zane Gonzalez‘s face (pictured above) says it all. After what looked like an improbable win by the Browns, it took less than ten minutes for Drew Brees to drive the New Orleans Saints offense down the field to set up a game-winning 44-yard field goal with just 21 seconds left on the game clock. Gonzalez and the Browns had a similar opportunity, setting up for a game-winning field goal, but he pushed the second of his two field goals in the game wide right making the winless streak move to 19 games for Cleveland.
“I was overcompensating,” Gonzalez said after the game. His misses came after having his potential game-winning kick blocked one week earlier by the Pittsburgh Steelers. “I can’t be too mad at myself because I’m the one that did it, you know what I mean? I can’t blame it on [anybody] else. It sucks because we were so close to that win and it’s been so long. I just let everybody down.”
But the loss wasn’t all on Gonzalez by a long shot. On what would have been a sack on third down by Browns defensive back Derrick Kindred drew an illegal contact flag and gave the Saints’ first touchdown drive extra life. It cut Cleveland’s lead to just two points after it took New Orleans, looking at just over eight minutes left in the game, a ton of time to see more than three points on the scoreboard in their favor. Tyrod Taylor had the Browns offense on the field and threw to the middle of the field as he rolled to the right – and right into the arms of Saints safety Marcus Williams.
Michael Thomas would score two touchdown catches on the game. The bad pass by Taylor set up a five-yard pass from Brees; Thomas climbing the ladder over two Browns defenders to secure the pass. All total, Thomas had 12 receptions for 89 yards and a fumble on the day.
Taylor went 22-of-30 for 246 yards through the air for one touchdown and the interception. Jarvis Landry led the Browns with five catches for 69 yards. Carlos Hyde scored on a one-yard run.
Ravens 23 – Bengals 34
Andy Dalton found A.J. Green for three of Dalton’s four touchdown passes on Thursday night as the Bengals got off to a hot start over the Ravens and held on to take the top spot in the division at 2 wins, no losses. It is the first 2-0 start for the Bengals since they won the division title in 2015. “That’s exactly how we wanted to start the game,” Dalton said about getting off to a quick start. “That’s a big (win) — puts us 2-0 to start the year and gives us a leg up in the division.” Dalton had thrown 17 interceptions to 15 touchdowns against the Ravens before Thursday night. He finished the game with 24-of-42 completions for 265 yards, no interceptions or sacks.
The Ravens, down by 21 points, weren’t going to just lay down and quit. Joe Flacco threw a pair of touchdown passes but had a costly fumble with just 2:42 left in the game (Shawn Williams strip). That set up a Randy Bullock field goal to seal the score. Flacco completed 32-of-55 passes for 376 yards for two touchdowns, two interceptions, a fumble, and four sacks.
Green set a career high with three touchdown catches and is just the fourth Bengals receiver to set the three-TD mark in a half behind Marvin Jones (2013), Chad Johnson (2003) and Isaac Curtis (1973).
Steelers 37 – Chiefs 42
Five points separating the Steelers and Chiefs in the final score truly belies how this Week 2 matchup went down. Kansas City had Pittsburgh down 21-0 in the first quarter of this game at Heinz Field. While the Steelers offense tried to keep pace with Patrick Mahomes and his many targets in a shoot-out, their defense could not get the job done. Even worse, special teams play from Pittsburgh was atrocious.
Mahomes tied a franchise record with six touchdown passes; he finished by completing 23-of-28 passes for 326 yards to give the Chiefs their first win over the Steelers since 1986. Through two weeks of play, Mahomes has thrown ten touchdown passes – the most ever by a quarterback through that time period in NFL history. Tight end Travis Kelce was the beneficiary of seven tosses for 109 yards and two touchdowns. Tyreek Hill, Kareem Hunt, Demarcus Robinson, and Chris Conley all had a touchdown pass in the game.
The Chiefs defense did allow the Steelers to stay in this game, however. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger shook off pressure all game, protecting a bad right elbow and extending plays to complete 39-of-60 passes for 452 yards and three touchdowns on the day. Determined, Roethlisberger gave the Steelers hope around the two-minute mark left to go in the game when he bolted for the end zone and leaped into the end zone for a touchdown that put them within five points. James Conner, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Jesse James all had big games offensively for Pittsburgh.
After a deep kick, Hunt put together two run plays that chewed up clock and the Chiefs were forced to punt. It would have given the Steelers offense little time to orchestrate a miracle. Linebacker Tyler Matakevich destroyed that slim chance when he was penalized for roughing the punter, giving the ball back to Kansas City for the win.
Division Standings (win-loss-tie) after Week 2
- Bengals: 2-0-0
- Ravens: 1-1-0
- Browns: 0-1-1
- Steelers: 0-1-1
