Steelers, Ravens Face Tough Road to Playoffs

How opportune for the NFC North, to draw the NFC East and AFC South in the same season. Each team in those two division has at least three wins already, and at least three of those teams are among the top five in the league in most power rankings (NY Giants, Tennessee, Washington).

While the Cincinnati Bengals(0-8) are a complete mess, and the Cleveland Browns(3-4) are struggling to stay afloat after a terrible start, both Pittsburgh(5-2) and Baltimore(4-3) have fought their way to winning records through eight weeks. Conventional wisdom at the point would probably tell us that Pittsburgh is the clear favorite; I'm not really going to argue with that, or even try to challenge it at all. The interesting thing about this division is that both the Steelers and Ravens are in the middle of one of the most hellish schedules I can imagine.

Here's where the two stand so far:

Pittsburgh has already played won three divisional games, including one against Baltimore. They also beat a tough Jacksonville team. Their sole losses came against stalwart NFC East opponents: the Ny Giants and Philadelphia. Baltimore, meanwhile, is 4-0 against teams with losing records, and 0-3 against teams with winning records. They lost to Pittsburgh, Tennessee, and Indianapolis in consecutive weeks. They do have two divisional wins under their belt.

Here is what they have coming:

Pittsburgh will go on the road to face Washington, New England, and Tennessee, and will host the inconsistent but talented Indianapolis Colts and San Diego Chargers. Their remaining divisional games are at Baltimore and home for Cincinnati and Cleveland. Baltimore will travel to face Cleveland, Houston and the Giants in consecutive weeks. That ridiculous road stretch is followed by one home game, against Philadelphia, and then another road trip, this time for a division rival Cincinnati. Their final four games: Washington, Pittsburgh, at Dallas, home for Jacksonville.

So while Pittsburgh is surely a better team than Baltimore so far, and holds a game lead in the division, it will really come down to how they play against other opponents. And neither team gets a break the rest of the way. Cincinnati isn't a scary foe, but a divisional game in the NFL is different, even against an 0-8 team.

On another schedule topic, the 0-7 Lions have a really good chance to go defeated the rest of the way. Their final nine games feature nine teams with at least three wins. Their four road games all figure to be bad losses: at Chicago, Carolina, Indianapolis, and Green Bay. Their only hopes may be against either the 3-4 Jaguars or the 3-4 Vikings, both games at Ford Field.