Tight AFC North prepares for wild finish to regular season
OWINGS MILLS, MD. » The postseason is arriving early for the AFC North.
That’s how Baltimore offensive lineman Kevin Zeitler sees it, at least.
“I’d say every week from here on out is a playoff game,” said Zeitler, a 10year veteran now playing for his third AFC North team.
Welcome to the NFL’S perfect storm of parity. The co-leaders of the AFC North — Baltimore and Cincinnati — are also just a game ahead of last-place Cleveland. Sandwiched between in third place are the Pittsburgh Steelers, who would be part of that firstplace deadlock if not for a tie against what was then a winless Detroit team.
Nobody in the AFC North is below .500. In fact, nobody’s been below .500 since Pittsburgh was 2-3 after Week 5. There’s another division — the AFC West — with everyone at .500 or better, but Kansas City has a two-game lead atop that group, which could make the finish a bit less suspenseful.
No such problems in the AFC North, where each team will play two of its last three games within the division. And the four remaining non-divisional matchups are awfully compelling: Browns-packers and Steelers-chiefs this week, followed by Bengalschiefs and Ravens-rams on Jan. 2.
In Week 18, the Steelers visit Baltimore and the Bengals play at Cleveland. If not for that Pittsburgh tie against the Lions, a four-way deadlock at 9-8 would be a remarkably realistic scenario.
“If you’ve been doing this for a while, obviously rookies won’t understand, but really you just got to
get in, right? You got to peak at the right time,” Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. “And I’m not saying we’re peaking or we’re close to it, but we’re winning the games that we, you know, are the close games or we’re coming back, we’re fighting. So we know that there is a little bit of life and we’ll just keep fighting one week at a time.”
Maybe we should have known something was up after Week 2, when all four teams in the AFC North stood at 1-1. Since then, Baltimore has held at least a share of the division lead after every week, but when
the Ravens have had sole possession of it, it’s never been by more than a game. Now, a three-game Baltimore losing streak has helped the Bengals (8-6) pull even.
The Ravens (8-6) play at Cincinnati this weekend with the winner taking over first place alone.
“We know we have a great challenge this week,” said Zeitler, who is in his first season with the Ravens after playing previously for the Giants, Browns and Bengals. “They’re playing very well. We’re going to have to give it everything we’ve got to take care of business.”