Steelers: AFC North Standings Week 14

The Steelers have emerged from their annual mid-season slump and are making their annual late-season playoff push. They’re now tied on top of the AFC North.

The Steelers got a great win against the Giants. This puts them in position to win three of their next four and end up with ten wins. That tends to be enough usually for the playoffs. The last game is against the Browns, so really, two of their next three means playoffs. But that’s the future, let’s look at where things stand now.

Steelers 7-5-0

The Steelers were able to beat a good opponent last week with a win over the Giants. They continue to fight for the top spot with the Ravens. The defense is playing better. Ladarius Green is emerging as a threat. They play the Bills next week and the Ravens play the Patriots, so this is the week to take back the division.

The Steelers mostly controlled the Giants all game. The defense managed 2 sacks and 2 interceptions. They held Manning to only 195 yard through the air and the Giants as a whole to less than 60 rushing yards. Le’Veon Bell ran for 118 and got 64 more receiving. Ladarius Green caught 6 pass for 110 yards and a touchdown. Brown also had 54 yards and a touchdown.

Ravens 7-5-0

The Ravens pretty easily disposed of the Dolphins. The final score was 38-6. The Ravens defense has been playing well all season but the offense showed something too last week. The offense, particularly Flacco, playing well, is a big reason why they made such a difference. It’ll be tough against the Pats this week, they’ll need to play well offensively too.

Joe Flacco threw for 381 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interceptions. They ran for over 100 yards as a team. Flacco spread the ball around too. Dennis Pitta caught 90 yards worth of passes and 2 touchdowns. The defense continued to play well too. Tannehill only threw for 226 yards and had 3 interceptions. They ran for only 62 yards.

Bengals 4-7-1

The Bengals managed a pretty decisive victory against the Eagles. It may be too little too late though as the best case scenario is now 8 wins. All that’s left now is to mess up a draft pick. The Bengals showed they are a good team though. They’re probably not as good as past years but they’re better than their record. That said, they aren’t getting to the playoffs this year.

The Bengals came out swinging. They scored 29 straight points before the Eagles got any. Andy Dalton had 332 yards and 2 touchdowns, even without AJ Green. Brandon LaFell had 95 of those yards and a touchdown. The defense had 3 interceptions and held the ground game under 60 yards. They play the Browns next week so they’ll continue to damage their draft position next week.

Browns 0-12-0

The Browns got themselves a much needed bye week. They get a chance to heal up. They get an extra week to get ready for this week’s opponent, a struggling Bengals team. The Browns get to stop the slide and gather themselves. Who knows? Maybe that’ll help. They can afford one win and still get the top draft pick, perhaps a new quarterback, to pair with a new coach, and they will repeat this every season or two until it works.

The Browns are really struggling this year. As their record suggests, they’ve been beaten by everyone they’ve played. Many games they come out to an early lead or make some kind of effort to make the game competitive, but they always lose. You never know who will be QB at any given moment. They’re rested though. The Bengals are not doing great. They’ve had an extra week to plan. So maybe they’ll get one.

The AFC North is coming to an interesting conclusion. The Steelers and Ravens are fighting for the top spot in the division. The Bengals are out of it but they can still do enough damage to act as spoiler to one the leading two teams. The Browns, ya, their games have certainly been interesting, and who knows if they’ll get a win. Anything could happen.

All stats via NFL.com