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The Pittsburgh Steelers find themselves in a very precarious situation entering Week 17 of the 2018 regular season. No longer in control of their own destiny, they need to not only beat the Cincinnati Bengals this Sunday, but they also need help. And where this help could come from is a very unlikely place — the Cleveland Browns.
While the Steelers could technically get in with a tie between the Tennessee Titans and Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night, the most likely path to the playoffs will be with a Browns win over the Ravens, and the Steelers beating the Bengals.
It is this time of the week when we check in on the NFL experts across the internet to gauge who they like in the upcoming contest, but this week is different. Not only are we checking in on who they like in the Steelers’ game, but also the outcome of the Ravens and Browns game.
In other words, who are the experts predicting to win the AFC North in 2018?
To simplify things, the experts at ESPN, CBS Sports and SB Nation all think the Steelers beating the Bengals is a unanimous decision. But the same can’t be said about the Browns and Ravens game.
For those at ESPN, only Mike Golic, a native of Cleveland, believes the Browns will beat the Ravens on the road in Week 17. At CBS Sports, three of their eight experts like the Browns to pull off the upset, and two of the six experts at SB Nation like the Browns to win.
The majority of experts like the Ravens to hold serve at home, and win the division, but it is far from a unanimous decision. At the same time, these are just a few sites who produce expert picks every week. What about all the other sites who have experts who predict the outcomes of games?
This is where NFL Pick Watch comes in. At NFL Pick Watch, they take all of the expert picks across the internet and put them into one easy-to-read chart. According to this site, 99% of experts are taking the Steelers, but only 18% of the experts are taking the Browns to give the Steelers the help they need.
These experts are often wrong more than they are right, so it is important for fans to realize only time will tell what happens within the AFC North. In the meantime, Steelers fans everywhere are also huge Browns fans this Sunday.