Monday Night Football between the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins remains on the Week 6 schedule, but for the four teams in the AFC North, the action is in the books for the week. Let's take a quick tour around the AFC North to see how the Pittsburgh Steelers and their divisional rivals fared this past Sunday. Also, sorry for the slow days recently. Been traveling since Friday. Hopefully we'll get things cranked back up this week leading up to Week 7.
Team | Record | Div. Record | Conf. Record | Streak | Scoring Differential |
Baltimore Ravens | 4-1 | 1-0 | 3-1 | Won 3 | +77 |
Cincinnati Bengals | 4-2 | 1-0 | 4-1 | Won 3 | +26 |
Pittsburgh Steelers | 4-2 | 0-1 | 3-2 | Won 2 | +17 |
Cleveland Browns | 2-3 | 0-1 | 2-3 | Lost 2 | -26 |
Baltimore Ravens
- Week 6 Result: 29-14 W over Houston Texans
- How they did it:: The Ravens continue to suffocate the opposition in a variety of ways. On Sunday against the Texans, fresh off their bye week, the Ravens defense held Matt Schaub to 220 yards passing on 37 attempts, and limited Arian Foster to a mere 49 yards in 15 carries. Offensively, Joe Flacco threw for over 300 yards, 132 of which went to Anquan Boldin. Ray Rice continues to be one of the league's most versatile and productive players when healthy (101 yards rushing, 61 yards receiving). The scary thing for opponents is that Baltimore still has room to improve. The Ravens left points on the board Sunday, relying on five Billy Cundiff field goals to get past Houston.
- Record: 4-1
- Next Two Weeks: at Jacksonville Jaguards, vs. Arizona Cardinals
Cincinnati Bengals
- Week 4 Result: 27-17 W over Indianapolis Colts
- How they did it: After blowing leads in Weeks 2 and 3, the Bengals have rattled off three straight wins to improve to 4-2. Their latest win was over the winless Indianapolis Colts in a game that was closer than the final score suggested. The Colts were lined up for a game-tying field goal, only to have it blocked. After the Bengals missed a FG of their own, Pierre Garcon was stripped fighting for extra yardage, and Carlos Dunlap recovered it and returned it 20 yards for the clinching touchdown. The Bengals won the turnover battle +3 and rode Andy Dalton's accurate afternoon (25-of-32, 264 yards, 1 TD) for the win.
- Record: 4-2
- Next Two Weeks: Bye Week, @ Seattle
Pittsburgh Steelers
- Week 6 Result: 17-13 W vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
- How they did it: The Steelers were raced out to a 17 point first half behind a potent blend of offense and defense. Rashard Mendenhall rushed for over 100 yards and a touchdown in the first 30 minutes, while Ben Roethlisberger connected on 11 of his 12 total completions for the afternoon, highlighted by his 28-yard touchdown connection with Mike Wallace. The Steelers played sloppily in the second half, but staved off the Jaguars comeback eventually to improve to 4-1.
- Record: 4-2
- Next Two Weeks: at Arizona Cardinals, vs. New England Patriots
Cleveland Browns
- Week 4 Result: 24-17 L at Oakland Raiders
- How they did it: The Browns can't run the football this year in Pat Shurmur's new West Coast offense, and the consequence has been that the Browns have had to ask Colt McCoy to do too much in his second year. McCoy has done just fine -- he threw for 215 yards and 2 TDs with 0 INTs on Sunday -- but asking him to throw the ball 40+ times a game is not the right recipe for success. The real culprit though in Cleveland's second consecutive loss was the play of the special teams. Jacoby Ford took a kickoff return 101 yards to the house, and the Raiders added another 7 points on a fake punt pass from Shane Lechler to Kevin Boss.
- Record: 2-3
- Next Two Weeks: vs. Seattle Seahawks, at San Francisco 49ers