The AFC North has been one of the most interesting divisions in the league this year. Quarterback carousels, coaching changes, winning streaks followed by losing streaks, losing streaks followed by winning streaks — this division has been all over this place in 2018.
The NFL’s best drama in the final week comes, fittingly, in the AFC North
The AFC North has been a whirlwind of drama all season and it finally culminates in a high stakes Week 17.
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
That chaos has a chance to continue in Week 17. The Ravens and Steelers can still make the playoffs, while the Browns and the Bengals have a chance to play spoiler and send them home to an early vacation.
Cleveland has a chance to end the magic of Baltimore’s late-season run
It feels strange saying this, but it’s undoubtedly true: the Browns are one of the hottest teams in the NFL. Since firing Hue Jackson and Todd Haley, the Browns have gone 5-2 and currently sit at 7-7-1 for the season. Baker Mayfield looks like he has the ability to develop into one of the great quarterbacks in the league, Nick Chubb is a force a running back, and their defense has been strong all season long.
Going into Baltimore and coming away with a win won’t be easy, but the Browns have already beaten the Ravens once this season in a 12-9 overtime game — and that was with Jackson and Haley pulling the strings. But that Baltimore team had Joe Flacco as the starting quarterback, and that’s no longer the case.
The Ravens now have rookie Lamar Jackson, who is 5-1 as their starter. Jackson still has his issues as a passer —he’s only completed 60 percent of his passes twice in his six starts — but he’s turned the Ravens’ rushing attack into one of the best in the league after they struggled to get going early on.
Baltimore’s defense is also no joke, sitting atop the league in both points and yards allowed. They’re also just a week removed from beating the hell out of Philip Rivers and the Chargers on the road, one of the best offenses in the league. The Browns offense has been great since Jackson and Haley were let go, but Baltimore’s defense is arguably the hottest unit in the league. The most points they’ve allowed in the last six games was 27 to the explosive Kansas City Chiefs — a game that went into overtime. They should be able to handle Baker and the Browns, even though they’re a much improved offense from earlier in the season.
Neither of these teams resemble their early-season form, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the first rendition of Baker Mayfield vs. Lamar Jackson. Hopefully it’ll be as closely fought as the first game between the Ravens and Browns as we get a glimpse of the AFC North’s future.
A loss would hurt for the Ravens, but it doesn’t completely knock them out of the playoffs. They could also win the AFC North if the Steelers lose.
It’s, uh, slim BUT the Bengals can put the final nail in the coffin of the free-falling Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers have completely fallen off the map. After starting off the season 7-2-1 and looking like they would be a shoo-in for one of the top seeds in the AFC, the Steelers now find themselves on the outside of the playoff picture looking in after dropping four of their last five games — including losses to the lowly Oakland Raiders and the Denver Broncos. Pittsburgh is also coming off a last-second loss to the Saints when JuJu Smith-Schuster fumbled the ball on the Steelers’ last offensive play.
The Steelers have a chance to get into the playoffs, but they’ll need some help from the Browns. If the Ravens beat the Browns, Pittsburgh need the Colts and Titans to tie to punch its ticket to the postseason.
Regardless, beating the Bengals is the first piece of business that matters for the Steelers. That shouldn’t be too difficult of a task considering the fact that the Bengals have fallen off a cliff since the start of the season. Pittsburgh has also won seven straight against Cincinnati and 10 of their last 11 matchups. The Steelers also have won seven straight against the Bengals and 10 of their last 11 matchups
Andy Dalton was put on injured reserve with a thumb injury, opening the door for Jeff Driskel to start for the team. That hasn’t gone well — Driskel has a QBR of 36.6 out of 100 on the season, which would be second-to-last over Josh Rosen if Driskel had enough qualifying snaps.
Cincinnati’s defense has also been a disaster this season. The Bengals fired defensive coordinator Teryl Austin in the middle of the season, but that hasn’t really fixed anything.
Still, the games between the Bengals and the Steelers tend to be closely contested. Earlier this year, it took a last-second Antonio Brown touchdown to get the Steelers over the Bengals 28-21. Even if the Steelers are clearly the better team on paper, it’s hard to be overly confident that they’ll blow the Bengals out in a rivalry game — five of the last six games between the Steelers and the Bengals have been one-score games.
The final week of AFC North play could be the wildest that we’ve seen given the stakes that are attached — and that would make sense considering this division has been a rollercoaster ride this entire season.
See More:
