AFC North Preview Week 11: Ravens take on Steelers; Bengals play wildcard contender in primetime

Taking a look ahead for the AFC North division in Week 11.

Pittsburgh Steelers (7-2)

After kicking off the toughest stretch of their regular season schedule fresh off a bye with a huge decisive win over the Washington Commanders, the Steelers will look to extend their four-game winning streak and take a full-game lead atop the division when they host their archrivals on Sunday afternoon. This matchup marks their first game against an AFC North opponent of the season and one of two meetings with Baltimore in the next five weeks.

The Steelers have had the upper hand in this series as of late having won seven of the last eight including regular season sweeps in 2023, 2021 and 2020 when they won their last division title.

The Steelers enter this matchup a little banged up with six players listed on Wednesday’s injury report with non-rest-related ailments and all but one sat out of practice. Starting outside linebacker Alex Highsmith has already been ruled out for this game with an ankle sprain he suffered this past Sunday. Luckily for Pittsburgh, second-year pro Nick Herbig, who has missed the last four games with a hamstring injury was the lone full-participant and is slated to return to action for this game. The other four players who missed practice due to injuries included wide receiver Van Jefferson (quadriceps), running back Najee Harris (ankle), cornerback Donte Jackson (hamstring) and tight end MyCole Pruitt (knee).

Baltimore Ravens (7-3)

The reigning AFC North champions will face a second straight divisional opponent coming off a mini-bye week following a dramatic win over the Cincinnati Bengals in which they completed a regular season sweep for the second year in a row. A win would not only mark the Ravens’ first over the Steelers since Week 14 of the 2022 season but it’d tie their records and give them the head-to-head tiebreaker for the top spot in the division standings heading down the final stretch of the regular season.

While the Steelers have won seven of the last eight meetings between these two teams, reigning league MVP and current frontrunner to win a second straight, Lamar Jackson, missed half of those games due to injury or rest with an average of one absence in each of the past four seasons. That being said, Jackson is still just 1-3 against Pittsburgh in his career with his lone win coming in his first MVP-winning season back in 2019. They have defended him well for the most part but also those around him on offense or defense have let him down late in those games and allowed the Steelers to capitalize more often than not.

Jackson is playing the best ball of his career this season and as long as his receivers don’t catch the same horrendous case of the drops as they did in last year’s road tilt, he should be poised to continue to have tremendous success as has been the case no matter who the Ravens have face this year.

The Ravens are entering this AFC North showdown relatively healthy with the only major injury to monitor being First Team All Pro safety Kyle Hamilton who is dealing with an ankle sprain. He was one of just two players who didn’t participate in practice on Wednesday with the other being veteran outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy who sat out with an illness. Tight end Isaiah Likely (hamstring) was a limited participant after missing last week’s game while defensive end Brent Urban (concussion) and cornerback Jalyn Armour-Davis (knee) were both full participants.

Cincinnati Bengals (4-6)

Coming off getting swept by the Ravens in another thriller that went down to the wire, the desperate Bengals will play in primetime again after their Week 11 matchup with the Los Angeles Chargers got flexed into Sunday Night Football. Both teams are fighting to get into the playoffs on wildcard bids but while the Chargers have a winning record and are holding a spot in the current playoff picture, the Bengals are on the outside looking in and have yet to beat a team with a winning record although they’ve played many tough in a handful of their losses.

This will mark the first meeting between these two teams since Week 13 of the 2021 season when the Chargers blew out the Bengals 41-22 to beat them for the second year in a row. Joe Burrow is 0-2 against Los Angeles in his career and the last time he faced them, he got outdueled by Justin Herbert who is having another strong season in the first year of the Jim Harbaugh era with former Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman calling plays.

The Bengals are heading into another must-win game a little bit less banged up than they were heading into last week with half of their eight players listed on Wednesday’s initial injury report sitting out of practice. The only full participant was Burrow (right wrist/left biceps) while the limited participants included wide receiver Tee Higgins (hamstring), linebacker Logan Wilson (quadriceps) and defensive end Trey Hendrickson (neck). Meanwhile, the four nonparticipants were Charlie Jones (groin), left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. (knee/fibula), defensive tackle B.J. Hill (ribs) and linebacker Joe Bachie (hip).

Cleveland Browns (2-7)

Fresh off a bye, the basement-dwelling Browns will hit the road for an interconference matchup with another seven-loss team in the New Orleans Saints who just used the interim coach bump to upset the NFC South-leading Atlanta Falcons this past Sunday.

This will mark the first meeting between these two teams since Week 16 of the 2022 season when the Andy Dalton-led Saints beat the Deshaun Watson-led Browns 17-10 in Cleveland. In a battle between two teams who aren’t mathematically eliminated from playoff contention yet but are well on their way, it will be a homecoming or revenge game of sorts for Cleveland starting quarterback Jameis Winston who played the previous four seasons with New Orleans and made 10 starts between the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

The Browns are heading into this matchup the healthiest they’ve been all season as they finally have an injury report that isn’t a mile long with a dozen or more players on it. All five players listed practiced on Wednesday with offensive guard Joel Bitonio being the only limited participant. Meanwhile, linebacker Jordan Hicks (elbow, triceps), wide receiver Jerry Jeudy (knee), Dorian Thompson-Robinson (right finger) and left tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. (knee).