He was 19 of 27 for only 175 yards for one touchdown and two interceptions, but the defense stepped up to hold the lowly Tampa Bay Buccaneers to just 13 points.
Between the Bengals the Steelers will face the Atlanta Falcons, 5-7, and the Kansas City Chiefs, 7-5, then finish off the season with the Bengals.
The Bengals will play the Browns after the Steelers, then the Denver Broncos, 9-3, and the Ravens. So it will be extremely hard for them to hold on to first place, with the Ravens having a somewhat weaker schedule. They have the Miami Dolphins (6-5), Jacksonville Jaguars , 2-10, the Houston Texans, (6-6) and finish against Cleveland. And of course Cleveland can’t be counted out especially if they beat the Bengals, but next week they face the red hot Indianapolis Colts (8-4). Then they face the struggling Carolina Panthers (3-8-1) and finish up against the Ravens.
So the best thing about the schedule for the AFC North is that these teams play each other during the final weeks of the season so the winner of the division will have earned it on the field. But it’s most likely only the winner will make the playoffs because unless one of the teams sweeps through the final four games they will be 10-6 and it’s probably going to take a 11-5 record to make the playoffs.
Right now the seeds are: 1. New England Patriots (9-3). 2. Denver Broncos (9-3). 3. Cincinnati Bengals (8-3-1). 4. Indianapolis Colts (8-4). Battling for the wildcards right now being the San Diego Chargers (8-4), Kansas City Chiefs 7-5, Buffalo Bills 7-5, Miami Dolphins 6-5 and the three AFC North teams all setting at 7-5.
If the Steelers are to beat the Bengals they are going to have to play mistake free football with Ben making better decisions and being much more accurate with his passing and the defense is going to have to put pressure on Dalton. The Steelers are still not out of the race primarily because none of the other teams in that division has shown that they really have the talent to take it. Actually the Steelers, despite injuries to some of its key young players on defense, still have the most talented team in the AFC North.
My predictions:Â Steelers over the Bengals, the Ravens over the Dolphins, and the Colts over the Browns.
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