AFC North: Race to top of division sees Ravens, Steelers win in Week 6

by Christina "Tina" Rivers (3Rivers_Writer) on October 16, 2018

The AFC North continues to be one of the more interesting divisions in the NFL as the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers ramp things up in October and the race to the top heats up. On Sunday, the lone head-to-head battle among division rivals was between the Bengals and Steelers in Cincinnati. Pittsburgh, who has had Cincy’s number, was able to orchestrate a late touchdown for the win in a close game. Baltimore, who had the lone loss among teams in the division in Week 5, rebounded to blank the Tennessee Titans. Cleveland, who was trying to put back-to-back wins together for the first time in a long time, fell badly to a Los Angeles Chargers team that set the tempo on both sides of the ball.

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Baltimore Ravens 21 – Tennessee Titans 0

Ravens ‘D’ sets record sack mark in the win

Baltimore’s defense was already disruptive to opposing quarterbacks heading into Week 6, but on Sunday they upped the ante. While Za’Darius Smith finished with a career-high three sacks, the defense as a whole logged a franchise-record 11 sacks on Marcus Mariota; their total just one sack shy of an NFL record for a single game. It was a performance head coach John Harbaugh called “historic”. In the rain, the Ravens defense earned their first sack on the opening drive (nose tackle Chris Wormley) and just kept rolling. It was an interesting mix of players across the defense to make their presence known, too, with Anthony Levine Sr. (one), Patrick Onwuasor (two), Terrell Suggs (one), Tony Jefferson (one), Tavon Young (one), Matthew Judon (one) getting into the action.

“Coach Wink (Don Martindale) was firing stuff up, and we were really trying to get after them and were really aggressive this game,” Onwuasor said after the game. “I wasn’t really paying attention until they said that we had eleven sacks, and I was like, ‘Dang, I didn’t know we had 11 sacks’. We were all fired up and just flying around.”

The ability of the defense to virtually eliminate any offense from the Titans allowed Joe Flacco and the Ravens offense the opportunities they needed to put together a more balanced performance. Alex Collins scored twice on the ground (a 13-yard and 2-yard rush respectively) as Flacco threw for 238 yards and a touchdown (to receiver Michael Crabtree) to one interception. Crabtree, who’d struggled to maintain catches finished the day with six catches on nine targets for 93 yards and the score. Baltimore converted 12-of-17 third downs and was able to control 37 minutes of the game clock, spelling disaster for Tennessee.

Injury Update: Left guard Alex Lewis suffered a neck injury in the fourth quarter and was taken off the field by cart before being sent to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. On Monday, Harbaugh told the media, “There is no serious injury there in terms of neural-type issues… We’ll have to see as the week progresses and they continue with the tests.”

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Cleveland Browns 14 – Los Angeles Chargers 38

Mayfield has rough day as Chargers’ Rivers grabs victory

Rookie Baker Mayfield has been firing up his teammates as the Browns want to change the culture, but on Sunday, he took a back seat to veteran quarterback Philip Rivers as the 36-yard-old orchestrated one of the best starts in his career, finishing the game with 11-0f-20 completions for 207 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. Mayfield completed 22-of-46 passes for 238 yards and one touchdown, with two interceptions. Mayfield was roughed up by the Chargers defense who sacked him five times and kept him under pressure. As if the two picks weren’t enough, Mayfield turned an ankle on a sideline marker as his foot slid beneath him on one scramble.

“We didn’t execute. We weren’t detailed,” Mayfield said after the game. “Any time you don’t do your job – I’m at fault for the majority of that. I’m going to be very hard on myself but we have to be able to look at this and learn from it.”

Cleveland’s defense was gashed by the Chargers run game. Melvin Gordon ran for 132 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries with the team earning 246 rushing yards on the day.

“We wanted to come out and stack a couple of wins together,” offensive guard Joel Bitonio told the media. “Win in front of our home crowd again, put up a good performance… We do not want to play another game like [the one we just played].”

Injury Update: Linebacker Joe Schobert left the game in the third quarter with a hamstring injury and fellow linebacker James Burgess (hamstring) left in the fourth quarter. Wide receiver Rod Streater reportedly suffered a neck “stinger” and did not return after leaving the field following a punt coverage in the first quarter.

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Pittsburgh Steelers 28 – Cincinnati Bengals 21

Win by Steelers leaves Bengals, fans in sour mood

Before this game kicked off on Sunday, fans of both teams knew the men who fill these two rosters might say they were leaving the past in the past but would ‘bring it’ once the opening kickoff occurred. While the game looked relatively clean, with less yellow laundry than previous meetings between these two rivals), further review and post-game interviews painted a very different picture. And it wasn’t pretty.

Play in question #1: Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger saw what the Bengals defense was offering him and knew that Antonio Brown was going to be open on a quick slant if he could get the snap and pass off quickly. Justin Hunter, who was lined up adjacent to Brown, looked to be matched up one-on-one with his defender, creating a potential opening for Brown to get free. Brown did and his catch-and-run went for a 31-yard touchdown with ten seconds left on the game clock. “We’ve been in that situation a lot,” Brown said following the game, “and I knew we were going to do it.” Roethlisberger admitted, “Wheat you see that look, it’s how fast can I get him the ball?”

Unfortunately, the boo-birds felt that Hunter’s block – despite the fact the defender initiated contact – was illegal. And if the block was an illegal “pick”, then Brown’s touchdown shouldn’t have counted. It became such an issue that the relatively-unliked and untrusted (by fans and some players) Al Riveron, Senior Vice President of Officiating for the NFL, reviewed the play in detail.

.@NFL Senior Vice President of Officiating Al Riveron reviews the game-winning TD in #PITvsCIN: pic.twitter.com/03QmegQMiB

— NFL Officiating (@NFLOfficiating) October 15, 2018

Despite or perhaps due to the disliking of Riveron, fans on social media asked current and former players whether the play was legal or not. Former receiver Nate Washington offered a good explanation.

It’s a legal pick play, yes! Justin hunter was being pressed. They play is designed to hit right off the presses wr back because it makes it legal for him to block. When the middle of the field vacays, it’s ideal because no one can catch the screen guy! #BeatingTheRules https://t.co/CxeEYDeajc

— Nate Washington (@nwash85) October 14, 2018

Play in Question #2: To be fair, Bengals fans weren’t the only ones crying foul. After JuJu Smith-Schuster and Ben Roethlisberger both admitted in post-game press conferences that they were taunted and/or threatened by Bengals players on the field, it was revealed that several plays during the game were going to be reviewed by the league, including at least one by Vontaze Burfict.

NFL is reviewing three plays that involved Bengals’ LB Vontaze Burfict from Sunday’s Pittsburgh-Cincinnati game to determine appropriate level of discipline, per source. One was an elbow on Antonio Brown, and two others were Burfict leading led with his helmet.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 15, 2018

#Bengals oft-suspended LB Vontaze Burfict is not expected to be suspended for his actions on Sunday, but I’m told there are several plays that will be reviewed for a potential fine. Presumably, one is an elbow to @AB84’s head.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 15, 2018

The play referenced above (“an elbow”) is shown below. Not only did Burfict throw his shoulder/elbow into Antonio Brown’s helmet, but safety Jessie Bates (No. 30) led with his helmet before Burfict arrived on the play.

https://twitter.com/SteelVideos/status/1051547284465491971

To be completely fair to both Steelers and Bengals fans – the game is over. It’s time to move on. Are potentially questionable plays infuriating? Yes, they can be. But the fact is that the Steelers and Bengals walked on the field expecting a battle for the win.

Andy Dalton finished the game with 26-of-42 passes completed (moving ahead of Boomer Esiason for second place on the Bengals’ career passing list behind Ken Anderson) for 229 yards and two touchdowns. Teammate Joe Mixon led the rushing game with 64 yards on 11 carries and one touchdown. Tyler Boyd was the recipient of two touchdown passes from Dalton and had 62 yards receiving on seven-of-nine targets.

Roethlisberger finished the game completing 32-of-46 passes for 369 yards and a touchdown. Smith-Schuster and Brown had 111 and 105 yards receiving respectively. James Conner rushed 19 times for 111 yards and two touchdowns.

Under Marvin Lewis, the Bengals are 2-16 against the Steelers in their home stadium, including two playoff losses. Cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick summed things up after the game by saying, “Imagine how we feel… I imagine how the fans feel.”