Browns' rivals are headed in different directions. Steelers are 9-3 with 1-game division lead. Bengals are 2-10 and, beginning with loss to Browns, are on 9-game losing streak.
The Steelers-Ravens game on Sunday night was close all the way, with Pittsburgh getting the 13-10 win.Pittsburgh, Pa. -– They spent the week complaining the NFL was targeting them. The Pittsburgh Steelers now find the target is on them.
The Steelers were bloodied and beaten up, yet they turned game-saving plays by Troy Polamalu and Ben Roethlisberger into a come-from-behind 13-10 victory over Baltimore that gives them full control of the AFC North. Unless they lose a game or two the rest of the way, they're favored to win the division — and are in position for a first-round playoff bye.
It's difficult to overstate the importance of Sunday night's victory for a team that put aside concerns over fines and officiating to win its biggest regular season game in two years. Lose, and the Steelers (9-3) essentially would have trailed the Ravens (8-4) by two games with four to play because Baltimore would have owned the tiebreaker.
Instead, the Steelers return home for their next three games and don't travel any further than the two-hour bus ride to Cleveland the rest of the season. Their remaining four opponents — the Bengals, Jets, Panthers and Browns — own a combined record of 17-30, and only the Jets are above .500.
The Steelers own the tiebreaker over Baltimore based on a better division record.
Yes, one game was that important. A bloody nose and an extensive injury list proved it.
"Nobody gave us a chance," wide receiver Hines Ward said. "Now we control our own destiny."
It's why Roethlisberger didn't dare come out despite having his nose bent awkwardly to the side by a hit from Haloti Ngata during the first quarter. The nose, surgically repaired four years ago after Roethlisberger broke it during his June 2006 motorcycle crash, is broken again and required additional surgery Monday.
Despite the injury, he didn't miss a snap.
Roethlisberger also held up despite a sprained right foot that, due to scar tissue breakup in the area where a fracture occurred years ago, forced him to wear a shoe 1 1/2 sizes larger than he normally wears.
"That's Ben," coach Mike Tomlin said. "We expect that from him, not that it's unappreciated. But we expect it from him, he expects it from himself."
Roethlisberger's mobility appeared to improve as the game went along, and his 9-yard touchdown pass to Issac Redman, an undrafted free agent from nearby Bowie State, won it with 2:59 remaining. The decisive score was set up when Polamalu's tomahawk chop to the arm stripped the ball while he was sacking the Ravens' Joe Flacco.
The Steelers, like their quarterback, proved they could stand up to a determined opponent on the road despite taking hit after hit in a typically physical, typically low-scoring Ravens-Steelers game. All four games between them the past two seasons have been decided by 4 points or fewer.
Right tackle Flozell Adams (high ankle sprain) became the third starting offensive tackle lost to injury this year, yet the Steelers overcame his injury and those to Roethlisberger, tight end Heath Miller (concussion) and punter Daniel Sepulveda (torn right anterior cruciate ligament). Sepulveda is out for the season and a replacement will be signed.
Ravens linebacker Jameel McClain was fined $40,000 on Monday for his helmet hit that bent Miller's head and neck backward, but he was not penalized. Miller remained on the turf for several minutes before being helped off the field.
Already thin on the offensive line, the Steelers now must play the Bengals (2-10) on Sunday with almost no experienced offensive line backups. They already were without tight end Matt Spaeth, who also has a concussion.
While the Steelers seemingly were distracted last week by their visible anger over the $125,000 in fines levied at linebacker James Harrison and their own perception the NFL is targeting him, they didn't let that agitation prevent them from winning a pivotal game. But, afterward, they wondered why McClain wasn't penalized for leaving Miller dazed on the field.
Harrison said if it were him, a penalty would have been automatic.
"We really had a lot of injuries out there," Ward said. "Things were so bad, I thought we were going to put me in at tight end."
Despite winning a game they know they had to win, Roethlisberger said the Steelers can't start feeling comfortable despite their markedly improved position from a week ago.
"It's just one game," he said. "When you start looking at it that way, you start to get into trouble. All I know is we have the Bengals."
Running back Mendenhall agreed, saying, "We have to keep winning. That was close and this is great. But other games have to be played."
-----------------------------
Cincinnati, Ohio -– Not only are the Cincinnati Bengals bad, they're becoming historically bad.
The defending AFC North champions have lost nine in a row, the third time in the past 20 years that they've dropped so many consecutive games in one season. No other NFL team has more than two such streaks of futility during that time.
A 34-30 loss to New Orleans on Sunday left the Bengals (2-10) winless since Sept. 26. They play in Pittsburgh next Sunday, when they'll have a chance to match the franchise record for most consecutive losses in one season. The 1993 Bengals under Dave Shula lost their first 10 games on their way to a 3-13 finish.
With this franchise, the losing sets them apart.
Bengals QB Carson Palmer delivers a pass during the 34-30 loss to the Saints.In the past 20 years, there have been 19 streaks of nine or more losses in the NFL, according to STATS LLC. The Lions, Rams, Colts and Chargers each have had two such streaks. The Bengals have done them one better.
The Bengals are tied with Buffalo and Detroit at 2-10, in position for one of the top picks in next year's draft. Carolina has the league's worst record at 1-11.
It's not just how many the Bengals are losing, it's how they're losing them. They do things seldom seen around the league to fritter away games, doing a Wile E. Coyote imitation when everything's at stake. The anvil always lands on their heads.
"They do expect to win," coach Marvin Lewis said Monday. "And they expect to make the plays at the end of the football game to win the football game. And I don't sense there is a lack of confidence that way at all."
On Sunday, the anvil came in the form of an offside.
The Bengals seemed to be on the verge of a breakthrough when Clint Stitser's field goal put them ahead 30-27 with 4:25 to go. All they had to do was stop the Saints one time, then run out the clock. They couldn't do it. Drew Brees led New Orleans to a fourth-and-2 at the Cincinnati 7-yard line with 34 seconds left.
The Saints called timeout and decided to use one of their ploys called "No-Brainer Freeze." They'd line up and try to draw the Bengals offside. The Bengals knew it was coming — Lewis had showed the team the play earlier in the week.
Didn't matter. Pat Sims jumped. The Saints got a new set of downs. Brees threw a 3-yard touchdown pass on the next play.
"Hey, people make mistakes," Sims said Monday. "I jumped offsides. Something drew me off, but it was my fault."
The Bengals weren't done with the self-destruction. Bernard Scott returned the kickoff to the Cincinnati 49-yard line with 22 seconds to go. Cincinnati had one timeout left and wanted to get closer before throwing it into the end zone. Carson Palmer completed a 14-yard pass to Brian Leonard, who was tackled. Palmer signaled for the offense to set up for a spike.
Lewis is in charge of timeouts and decided to let the clock run instead of using the final one then. The Bengals were slow to get into formation, forcing Palmer to angrily signal for a timeout with only 8 seconds left, then hold up his arms in disgust. The Bengals had wasted six seconds, leaving themselves time for only a long throw into the end zone.
"I run the plays on the field and Marvin handles the timeouts," Palmer said. "I just noticed it was taking a long time to get everybody set, so I went ahead and called that on my own."
Managing the clock has been an issue repeatedly for the Bengals this season. On Monday, Lewis defended his decision not to use the timeout after Leonard was tackled. He wanted a chance to get one more quick completion, call a timeout and then throw it into the end zone.
"I would do it again that way," Lewis said. "We didn't do a very good job of getting set."
They didn't even get another pass off. Palmer was sacked on the next play, ending the game and leaving players stunned.
"It's not a lack of effort on anybody's part," receiver Terrell Owens said. "I don't know if we're getting out-coached or what the deal is. At this point, I'm sitting here trying to fish for answers, but I don't have any for you. Again, this is beginning to get old for me."
It's like old times for everybody else.