The AFC North has a familiar shape to it most years, but this one is tilting in a way the Steelers probably didn’t see coming. Through six games, it’s the Cleveland Browns sitting alone in first place at 4-2, not Pittsburgh, not Baltimore, not Cincinnati.
That alone is enough to get attention. Cleveland has built that record with two wins over NFC South opponents, but the more relevant number for the division race is the one underneath it: the Browns are 2-0 against AFC North competition.
One of those came in Week 4 on Thursday Night Football, when they knocked off the Steelers 27-24 in an upset. The other came Sunday, when Todd Monken’s team edged the Ravens on a last-second field goal from kicker Andre Szmyt.
No one is rushing to call the Browns a real Super Bowl threat based on what they’ve shown so far. They have not looked like a juggernaut. But from Pittsburgh’s point of view, the problem isn’t whether Cleveland is dominant - it’s whether the Browns are stacking just enough wins to make the division race messy.
That concern gets sharper when you look at what’s next. While the Steelers head to Paris in Week 7 for a meeting with the New Orleans Saints, Cleveland gets the 1-5 Tennessee Titans.
Then comes the rematch, with Pittsburgh crossing back over the pond to face the Browns again. The Steelers cannot afford to get swept.
By the time Pittsburgh reaches its Week 9 bye, there’s a real possibility the Browns could be sitting at 3-0 in the AFC North and own a better overall record too. That’s the kind of start that changes the temperature of a division, even if the team leading it doesn’t look especially convincing yet.
The schedules also matter here. Cleveland is dealing with a fourth-place schedule, while the Steelers are facing a first-place schedule.
After the bye, Mike McCarthy’s team is set to run into the Bengals, Broncos, Texans, Jaguars, and Ravens twice. Cleveland’s path includes matchups with the Giants, Falcons, and Colts, plus two games against the Bengals.
That doesn’t mean the Browns are about to keep this pace rolling forever. But if they don’t cool off soon, Pittsburgh could find itself in a strange spot: rooting for the Bengals and Ravens later in the year just to keep Cleveland from running away with the division.
The tiebreaker piece makes all of this even more uncomfortable for the Steelers. If the Browns sweep the season series, they would own the head-to-head edge. Even if the teams split, Cleveland could still come out ahead if it finishes with a better division record.
There’s a long way to go, and plenty can still shift. But with the Browns on top of the AFC North a third of the way into the season, Pittsburgh suddenly has a division problem it probably didn’t expect to be talking about.
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