As the Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers enjoyed their bye Sunday and rested for this weekend's game at M&T Bank Stadium, their other two divisional foes did little to quiet the questions about what has become of the supposedly formidable AFC North.
The Cincinnati Bengals blew a 10-point lead late in the third quarter and settled for a tie with the Washington Redskins in London. The Cleveland Browns squandered a 13-point halftime advantage and were beaten at home by the New York Jets to fall to 0-8.
Through eight weeks, the AFC North, which has been one of the top divisions in the sport, has the same number of winning teams (Pittsburgh) as it does winless ones (Cleveland). The cumulative record of the four teams is 10-19-1, the .333 winning percentage the lowest of any division in the league. Against non-division foes, AFC North teams are a league-worst 7-16-1.
The division struggles are one of the reasons why the Ravens returned to work Monday feeling optimistic about their second-half chances despite a four-game losing streak. At 3-4, they are only one game back of the division-leading Steelers (4-3). The disappointing Bengals are in second with a 3-4-1 mark, while the Browns are the league's lone winless team.
Starting Sunday with the Steelers, the Ravens will play the three other AFC North teams, along with a Nov.20 matchup against the Dallas Cowboys, in a 22-day span. The four-game stretch will go a long way toward determining whether the Ravens can make a playoff run.
"We have nine games left. We're basically one down in our division, playing the team that's ahead of us right now," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said Monday. "Our goal is certainly going to be to win the division. That's in front of us. That's up to us. We're going to play those teams. No matter what really our record would be or what it could be right now, we have to beat the teams in our division to make anything of it anyway, so that's what we're looking to do."
Harbaugh said that he hasn't "analyzed" the issues other AFC North teams have had, and his attention is on fixing his team.
"It really doesn't matter to me right now," he said. "Our focus is on becoming the best team we can be, playing the best football we can play and winning these close games."
Since 2008, Harbaugh's first year in Baltimore, the AFC North has sent two teams to the postseason in seven of the past eight years. In 2011 and 2014, the Ravens, Steelers and Bengals all qualified for the postseason. During the eight-season span, the AFC West in 2013 is the only other division to produce three postseason participants in the same year.
Overall, the Ravens, Steelers and Bengals combined for 17 playoff berths and two Super Bowl titles over the past eight seasons. Many football pundits expected the trend of at least two AFC North teams making the playoffs would continue this year.
The Steelers, who made the playoffs in six of Mike Tomlin's nine seasons, came into the season with some of the top skill position talent in the AFC. For all the talk of their postseason troubles, the Bengals have been to the playoffs in five straight years and in six of the past seven. The Ravens finished 5-11 last season, but nobody expected a team that qualified for the postseason in six of Harbaugh's first eight seasons to be down for long.
However, each team has been a disappointment to varying degrees, and the Browns, well, they have remained the Browns despite all the optimism that came with new head coach Hue Jackson.
One segment on NFL Network last week even debated whether the AFC North or the AFC South, which has recently been known as the doormat division, is the worst division in football.
"In the NFL, that's how it always is. People are like, 'This team is no good,' and 'That team is no good.' But every week, you see somebody beating somebody they quote-unquote shouldn't or games that are close that should be blowouts. That's the way it is," Ravens center Jeremy Zuttah said late last week. "Every team's got talent, and any team can win on any given Sunday. That's how it is."
The Steelers won four of their first five games and averaged 34 points a game in those four victories. However, they've since lost back-to-back games, standout quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is dealing with a knee injury and the Steelers' defense is ranked 27th in the league in yards allowed per game.
Despite the Andy Dalton-A.J. Green connection, Cincinnati has been overmatched against the Steelers, Cowboys New England Patriots and Denver Broncos. Marvin Lewis' team has been hurt by injuries/suspensions to standouts Tyler Eifert and Vontaze Burfict. The team is still feeling the sting off the offseason losses of Marvin Jones, Mohamed Sanu and Reggie Nelson, and the departure of Jackson, their former offensive coordinator, to the Browns.
The Ravens, meanwhile, started the season with three narrow victories, but they went winless in October. Their offense has been a mess, costing play caller Marc Trestman his job; the defense is suddenly giving up too many big plays; and injuries have been unrelenting for a second straight year.
Still, NFL analyst Solomon Wilcots of CBS said it's far too early to label the division a disappointment.
"Just because things look a certain way, by the end of the year, I believe if you have a quarterback _ and you can play defense _ it sort of flushes out," said Wilcots, who played five of his six NFL seasons with either the Bengals or Steelers. ""It really does. That's what I rely on. I really do believe it's still a formidable division with potentially three playoff teams."
Wilcots said what makes a division is quality quarterback play, and when he looks at the AFC North, he sees two quarterbacks in Flacco and Roethlisberger, who have led their teams to Super Bowl wins, and another in Dalton who has led the Bengals to 50 regular-season wins over his first five full NFL seasons. However, none of the three team's offenses are whole.
The Steelers are 0-2 in games Roethlisberger hasn't been able to play or finish, and it's not certain that he'll play Sunday. Dalton has played well, but the Bengals haven't been able to consistently establish a ground game and Jackson leaving has seemingly affected the rhythm and production of the offense. Then there's the Ravens and Flacco, who is enduring one of the most disappointing seasons of his career. From running the ball to protecting the quarterback to making plays down the field, the Ravens haven't done anything consistently on the offensive side of the ball.
"Baltimore could be in a little trouble," Wilcots said. "I'm concerned about Baltimore's defense. I'm concerned they can't run the ball. They can be in trouble, but to me, they're still the Ravens. Their record may not be as pretty, but they'll give you a bloody nose along the way. I still think Cincinnati is a playoff team, and I see Pittsburgh as a playoff team, provided they are healthy."
