AFC North: Steelers not guaranteed top spot despite Ravens loss

Week 14 of the 2018 NFL regular season proved, once again, that nothing is certain in football. With the Pittsburgh Steelers falling to the Oakland Raiders, they’re not guaranteed to win the AFC North even though the Baltimore Ravens also lost their game to the Kansas City Chiefs. And while the Cincinnati Bengals have hit the lowest of lows after losing to the Los Angeles Chargers, the Cleveland Browns aren’t rolling over regardless of their lack of threat to the divisional crown and handed the Carolina Panthers another loss on Sunday.

It was the Bengals who got off to a hot start this season by putting together a four-to-one win-loss streak, but they are trying to get out of the rest of this season by just finding something positive. Sitting at 5-8, they still have games against the Browns and Raiders to get through, and what may have seemed like an easy schedule earlier in the regular season certainly has been painted in brand new colors in the final weeks.

After an opening-week tie with the Steelers, the ongoing saga of coaching woes and traded players, the Browns earned a narrow victory over the Panthers, 26-20. The win moved them to 5-7-1 and has at least given Cleveland something to build off of as they finalize the regular season and prepare for the franchise’s future. Maybe sending Hue Jackson on his way has sparked some new fire for the Browns after all.

The Steelers started the season slowly, then got hot and over the past three weeks have been cold as a Pittsburgh winter. Winds of change are blowing in the Steel City, but what those changes may be is up in the air at this point. What fans are hoping is that the winds of good fortune return as the black and gold enter the final weeks stringing wins together to take the AFC North title and get into postseason play with a head of steam. At 7-4-1, the Steelers control their destiny.

It’s the Ravens that have been the outlier and wild card of this group. They’ve been good. They’ve been awful. They’ve just barely gotten by. And they’ve played spoiler. After a narrow loss to the AFC’s ‘team to beat’ – the Chiefs – the Ravens look to snag a wildcard spot with a 7-6 record. If they win out their remaining games, however, they could take the division title away from Pittsburgh and enter the playoffs – something many felt would not even remotely come to fruition for this team in 2018.

Yes, the division will likely be won by either Pittsburgh or Baltimore, but crazier things have happened in the NFL this season. Both teams would do well to get their squads prepared for some serious battles ahead and exercise some of the ghosts that have haunted them throughout this season if they hope to be given the title of AFC North Champions.

Division Standings Through Week 14

Team W L T PF PA Streak Division Conference
PIT 7 5 1 367 306 L3 3-1-1 4-5-1
BAL 7 6 0 321 241 L1 2-3 6-4
CLE 5 7 1 292 332 W1 2-1-1 3-5-1
CIN 5 8 0 307 397 L5 1-3-0 3-6-0

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