Pittsburgh Steelers @ Baltimore Ravens
Sunday, December 7th, 1:00 PM ET
Oh man, what a division the AFC North has been this year. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens have a 6-6 record, which is the best in the division through the first 13 weeks of the season, so by all accounts, it’s been a bad division as a whole this year, as no team has a winning record.
The Pittsburgh Steelers got blown out by the Buffalo Bills at home and were once 4-1, so this dropoff is as brutal as it gets. The Ravens lost to the Cincinnati Bengals on Thanksgiving in a game where Joe Burrow was able to have his way with the Ravens’ defense.
We’re to the point now where the AFC North could come down to the final week of the regular season, as these teams still have to play each other twice. The Bengals are also still in it as well. Pittsburgh and Baltimore have also had opposite seasons if you think about it.
Pittsburgh began the year 4-1, and Baltimore began the season 1-5 thanks to a ton of injuries. Neither team is going to win anything when the playoffs roll around, and with each team already having six losses, it could be a division title or no playoffs at all, which is a brutal reality in today’s NFL.
I would take the home team in this one, as the Ravens do have Lamar Jackson and the better overall roster. The Steelers struggle on defense and are seeing Aaron Rodgers take a beating back there.
A once-proud division is mediocre at best this year. Baltimore is going to win a sloppy game and regain control of the AFC North, likely being able to seal the deal down the stretch, and perhaps a losing season for the first time in the Mike Tomlin era is what this Steelers’ franchise really needs.
This is also the flaw of the NFL playoff seeding, as the NFL guarantees a top-4 seed for each division winner, no matter how good or bad that division is in a given season.