Steelers Now
If Mike Tomlin’s team moves to 5-1 with a win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night, former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky believes the Pittsburgh Steelers can already strut around wearing their AFC North championship t-shirts and hats.
“(If) the Steelers win tonight, this division is blouses. It’s a wrap, OK?” Orlovsky said Thursday. “If you’re the Steelers and you win tonight, you have, I think it would be, a three-and-a-half-game lead on the division.”
No team has ever led the AFC North by 3.5 games during the first half of the season in its history. Such a lead would be the largest in the division since the 14-2 Baltimore Ravens won it with a six-game cushion in 2019.
The Steelers haven’t won an AFC North crown since going 12-4 in 2020.
“This team is different than I thought they were gonna be. I thought they were a playoff football team,” Orlovsky said. “After I’ve watched them over the last three or four weeks, and now the defensive line has gotten healthy with Cam (Heyward) and (Nick) Herbig and T.J. (Watt), and I’ve watched the way this offense is playing … this offense can beat the good football teams.”
Entering the primetime matchup, Zac Taylor’s Bengals are 2-4. They’ve lost four in a row, including Sunday’s 27-18 decision against the Green Bay Packers. John Harbaugh’s Ravens, who were a Super Bowl favorite at the beginning of the campaign, have nosedived to a 1-5 start, just as bad as Kevin Stefanski’s Cleveland Browns.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Orlovsky: AFC North Race Already Decided if Steelers Win vs. Bengals
