Baltimore Ravens (5-1)
Looking for a bounce back from their performance against the Colts last week, the Ravens defense showed up and showed out against the Chargers this past weekend. LA came into the matchup averaging around 390ypg, 107 yards on the ground and 24ppg. Baltimore put a hush to all of that, holding LA to six points, 208 total yards and a whopping 26 rushing yards on Sunday. Although none of the stats on offense will pop out at you, the Ravens were in cruise control for the entirety of this game as they piled up 187 rushing yards with no player gaining over 53. This is an impressive performance which lends the team a good amount of momentum heading into a divisional game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Cincinnati Bengals (4-2)
Coming off of their second loss of the season, the Bengals looked to rebound against the winless Detroit Lions. Cincinnati’s offense was stagnant to start the game and yet found themselves holding a 10-0 lead going into the half thanks to their smothering defensive play. The Cincinnati defense held QB Jared Goff to 9-15 for an embarrassing 38 yards and one interception in half number one. A 4th and one pass to a wide open Joe Mixon capped off by a beautiful block by rookie wideout Ja’Maar Chase made the game 17-0 and put it out of reach. The Bengals eventually took their foot off the gas and we were treated to a Brandon Allen touchdown pass en route to a 34-11 victory. Cincinnati has their biggest game of the young season this Sunday against division rival Baltimore.
Cleveland Browns (3-3)
Just an outside opinion on this current Browns team, perhaps it may be time to start hovering around the panic button. Following last week’s loss, the Browns flew out to the desert to get absolutely annihilated by the short handed Arizona Cardinals who were without coach Kliff Kingsbury, who was in COVID protocol. The Browns couldn’t take advantage of Kingsbury’s absence as they quickly found themselves down 20-0 midway through the first half. The injury bug continued to bite the Browns as they lost both RB Kareem Hunt and QB Baker Mayfield late in this game. Odell Beckham Jr also aggravated an injury on a hit in the second half but was still able to finish the game with five catches for a season high 79 yards. After an improbable Hail Mary from Baker to WR Donovan Peoples-Jones to end the half and cut the score to 23-14. That was as close as the Browns got as Arizona coasted the rest of the way en route to a 37-14 win. Cleveland will look to end their losing streak without Mayfield and Hunt amongst many others on a shirt week as they play Denver on Thursday.
Pittsburgh Steelers (3-3)
Don’t blink now, but the Steelers look to be putting it together. They played a solid, clean game and pulled out the win against the Seattle Seahawks. Granted, the Seahawks had perennial “I forgot he was in the league” guy Geno Smith at QB. Pittsburgh still executed their game-plan to near perfection, piling up nearly 400 yards of offense and sacking the opposing QB five times. Controversial fumble aside, this is the kind of performance the Steelers will need from Roethlisberger moving forward to be make some noise the rest of the way. Rookie RB Najee Harris also put together another good game on the ground with 81 yards on 24 carries. The Steelers will have the week off before playing the Browns on Halloween.
