Steelers-Bengals rivalry most visceral one going in AFC North
PITTSBURGH – Who is the Cincinnati Bengals’ biggest rival? Who is the Baltimore Ravens’ biggest rival? Who is the Cleveland Browns’ biggest rival? Hint: It’s the same answer.
That would be the Steelers, of course.
When you have won six Lombardi trophies, as the Steelers have, every opponent is looking up at them, particularly in the AFC North. Perhaps even more so this year as the Steelers are considered a Super Bowl favorite
Leading into Sunday’s game at Heinz Field, there will be plenty of talk about the Steelers-Bengals rivalry. Clearly it’s the most visceral one going. It has been a series marked of late by name-calling, cheap-shots, pre-game brawls and even hair-pulling.
Save for the hair-pulling, basically, it’s “AFC North football” as Mike Tomlin calls it.
“Whether it’s the Browns, Bengals or Ravens, to us, they’re all big division rivals,” Ben Roethlisberger said.
The quarterback makes a valid point.
If it’s not the NFL’s best division, it’s one of them, and it’s also the most physical.
“Not even close, it’s the most physical division in football,” safety Mike Mitchell, who played in both the AFC West with Oakland and NFC South with Carolina, said. “I feel like anyone who plays any of the teams in the AFC North will attest to that.”
And there is parity (yes, Browns included).
Three of the four teams, the Steelers, Bengals and Ravens – all of whom are 1-0, by the way – have won the division crown in the last four years.
Compare that to the AFC West where Denver has won the title each of the last five years or the AFC East where New England has dominated the new century, winning 12 of the last 13 titles, including seven in a row. The AFC South? Only two teams have won the title in the last five years, including Houston which went 9-7 in 2015.
Since the AFC North’s inception in 2002, the Steelers have won six times while Baltimore and Cincinnati have won four each. None of them won the division with fewer than 10 wins, and then only four times has 10 wins been enough.
The Bengals went 11-5 last season, splitting the regular season series, only to lose the rubber match in the AFC Wild-Card by imploding in the final minute of play. Cincinnati, which still hasn’t won a playoff game in a quarter-century, would seem to stand the best chance of keeping the Steelers from a division crown and a home playoff date and possible first-round bye that Pittsburgh covets.
But the Ravens and the Browns, to a lesser extent, are also capable of ruining that for the Steelers. Baltimore has beaten the Steelers three times in a row, including a 2015 wild-card game in Pittsburgh.
Keep in mind, Sunday’s game is obviously big, but it’s just the first of six division games the Steelers will play this season. How the Steelers fare in those six games could go a long way in determining if they will reach their Super Bowl potential.
Last season the Steelers went 3-3 in the division, with two of those losses coming to Baltimore. In 2014, the Steelers went 11-5 with a 4-2 record against the AFC North but one of those losses came to Cleveland and one of those wins against the Browns, decided by a last-second field goal, easily could have been a loss.
“It’s a big rivalry all around, it really is,” guard David DeCastro said. “Any time you play divisional games it’s important, but it takes that extra step.”
In their last two Super Bowl seasons, 2008 and 2010, the Steelers went 5-1 and 6-0 against division opponents while winning the AFC North.
Can the Steelers sweep the season series against the Bengals, the Ravens and the Browns this year? That’s a tall order for any team, no matter how good, in any season in the AFC North.
Who is who’s biggest rival? That’s all semantics.
HISTORY LESSON
A look at the AFC champions since 2010:
Year=Team=Record=Div. Record=Playoffs
2015=Cincinnati =12-4=3-3=Lost AFC Wild Card
2014=Steelers=11-5=4-2=Lost AFC Wild Card
2013=Cincinnati =11-5=3-3=Lost AFC Wild Card
2012=Baltimore =10-6=4-2=Won Super Bowl
2011=Baltimore=12-4=6-0=Lost AFC Championship
2010= Steelers=12-4=5-1=Lost Super Bowl
STEELERS VS. AFC NORTH
How the Steelers have fared in the division since 2010:
Year=Div. Rec=vs. Bal=vs. Cin=vs. Cle
2015=3-3=0-2=1-1 y=2-0
2014=4-2=1-1 z=2-0=1-1
2013=4-2=1-1=1-1=2-0
2012=3-3=1-1=1-1=1-1
2011=4-2=0-2=2-0=2-0
2010=5-1=1-1 y=2-0=2-0
y-Won playoff game vs. division opponent that year
z-Lost playoff game vs. division opponent that year