The AFC North spent Week 4 doing what it’s done best all season: making every Sunday feel like a coin flip with a live wire attached. One week after the rankings got scrambled, the division flipped again, and the biggest surprise of all is sitting at the top.
Cleveland owns first place.
That sentence would have sounded ridiculous before the season, but the Browns earned it with a 27-24 win over the Steelers on Thursday Night Football, pushing their winning streak to three straight and putting them at 3-1. They also grabbed the division’s ultimate tiebreaker with a 1-0 mark inside the North. Next comes the New York Jets, a game where Cleveland should again be favored.
The Browns’ win came in the same kind of late-game squeeze that has become a theme in this division. Just when it looked like the game might drift toward overtime, Deshaun Watson, much like Lamar Jackson did for Baltimore, drove Cleveland down the field for the game-winning field goal. At this point, the outcome matters more than the style points for a Browns team that is suddenly looking like the class of the division.
Baltimore is right there behind them, and the Ravens have built their case without even touching a divisional opponent yet. After beating the Titans, they moved to 3-0 in conference play and 3-1 overall, while the Bengals, Browns, and Steelers sit at 1-2, 1-1, and 1-2 in the conference. The Ravens also own the best point differential in the North and have scored the most points in the division by a wide margin.
Zay Flowers was electric against Tennessee, catching eight passes for 188 yards and a touchdown. Jackson stayed razor sharp, completing 15 of 20 throws for 222 yards and two scores.
The Titans made things interesting late, cutting it to 24-18 with a touchdown and two-point conversion in the final minute-plus, but Baltimore held on. The Ravens now head to Sunday Night Football against the Atlanta Falcons, where they should again be the favorite, assuming Lamar Jackson’s ankle allows him to play.
Pittsburgh had a chance to seize the top spot and couldn’t cash in. Before the Steelers even kicked off against Cleveland, they sent cornerback Joey Porter Jr. to the Dallas Cowboys for a sixth-round pick in 2027 and a second-round pick in 2028, ending an offseason-long standoff over his participation without a new deal. That move also set off alarm bells for Cincinnati, which is staring at upcoming contract decisions with DJ Turner and Dax Hill.
On the field, though, the Steelers let a big opportunity slip away. They moved the ball against the Browns, but two interceptions and constant pressure on Aaron Rodgers proved too much in the 27-24 loss.
Pittsburgh is now 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the division, though the Week 3 win over Cincinnati still gives them the tiebreaker edge over the Bengals in both the standings and these rankings. The Steelers have scored the fewest points in the North, just 77, and their point differential sits at minus-10.
Next up is a Colts team that has won two straight after starting 0-2.
Then there’s Cincinnati, where the 2-0 opening has started to feel like a fading memory. The Bengals followed last week’s gut-punch loss to Pittsburgh with a conference defeat against the Jaguars, and while Joe Burrow kept the tone steady after the game, the results keep stacking up in the wrong direction.
He used the word “confident” several times and said, “We had our opportunities in the last two weeks. This isn’t Armageddon or anything.
We’re still in a great spot.“
That may be true on paper, but the margin is getting thinner. The Bengals are 2-2, still with 13 games left, but they now sit 0-1 in the division and 1-2 in the conference.
They head next into a matchup with the winless Dolphins, and if Cincinnati drops that one, the temperature around this season changes fast. There’s also uncertainty around both Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins after Chase suffered a concussion in the first half and Higgins injured his groin in the fourth quarter.
Even with the losses, the Bengals still have the best scoring defense in the AFC North and rank second in scoring offense and point differential in the division. But the last two weeks have shown how little those numbers matter if the wins don’t follow.
For now, the North belongs to Cleveland. And after Week 4, that might be the most surprising sentence in the whole league.
In Other News...
Joe Burrow And Zac Taylor Suddenly Sound Far Apart On Bengals Offense
After the loss to Jacksonville, the Bengals came out with two noticeably different readings of where things stand on offense. Zac Taylor pointed to the effort level and the reality of injuries, trying to keep the message forward-looking, while Joe Burrow took a harder line on accountability and pushed back on any temptation to explain away the mistakes. Its the kind of split that matters in Cincinnati because the offense is built around Burrows standard, and his interceptions only sharpened the focus on how much cleaner the unit needs to be.
Taylor also made clear he wants more from the running game, which adds another layer to an offense already trying to steady itself before the Miami Dolphins come to town. The Bengals do not have the luxury of drifting into another sloppy afternoon, and the gap between the coachs optimism and the quarterbacks urgency leaves the bigger question hanging: can the group get aligned quickly enough to show the kind of response both men expect? [Read more 🡒]
Bengals Suddenly Have A Receiver Problem They Cant Ignore
The Bengals left their Week 4 game with a receiver depth chart that suddenly looks a lot thinner than anyone in Cincinnati would have expected. Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins both went down with injuries, and the options behind them are now down to Dohnte Meyers and Mitchell Tinsley, a recent pickup from the Texans' practice squad. For an offense built around having top-end playmakers on the outside, that is the kind of shortage that can force a front office to move quickly.
If the Bengals decide they need outside help, the free-agent market at receiver offers a few names to at least consider while they wait on the health of their starters. The bigger question is how aggressive they want to be, because this is no longer a luxury addition or a depth-only discussion. It is a roster issue with real urgency, and it will tell a lot about how Cincinnati views its chances of riding out the next stretch without sacrificing too much at the position. [Read more 🡒]
Bengals Waste A Huge Joe Burrow Night In Frustrating Loss
Joe Burrow turned in one of his biggest passing nights of the season, and it still wasnt enough to lift the Bengals at Paycor Stadium. Cincinnati fell 22-17 to the Jacksonville Jaguars in a game that had the feel of a missed opportunity from the start, with Burrow piling up 428 yards through the air while the offense struggled to find balance behind him.
The Bengals were also forced to keep going without Ja'Marr Chase after he left with a concussion, which only added to the strain on an offense already leaning heavily on Burrow. The run game never gave Cincinnati much help, and a critical fourth-quarter interception helped swing the night toward Jacksonville, leaving the Bengals to wonder how a performance that strong from their quarterback could still end in frustration. [Read more 🡒]