AFC North Roundup

Sep 22, 2013; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green (18) catches a pass and jumps over Green Bay Packers cornerback Sam Shields (37) at Paul Brown Stadium. Cincinnati won 34-30. Mandatory Credit: Pat Lovell-USA TODAY Sports

The Baltimore Ravens had a pretty convincing victory against the Houston Texans to improve to 2-1 and a first place tie in the division.  They scored 30 points but their offense without Ray Rice was only able to put up a total of 236 total yards.  They now get to go play a scuffling Bills team in Buffalo after a tough loss to the Jets yesterday.

That Ravens defense has put that Broncos loss behind them and put together a pair of great efforts in back to back weeks.  The offense has been relatively mediocre in all three of their games and done enough to win two of them, but it is definitely something that could hold them back as the season progresses as Joe Flacco tries to find enough plays on the field to win.

The Cincinnati Bengals come away with a huge win against the Green Bay Packers to go to 2-1 and 2-0 at home.  The Bengals defense just continues to flex its muscles and make huge plays to win games, including a late fumble recovery which led them to win the game.  The Bengals go to Cleveland this week in the first battle of Ohio looking to get to 3-1 to keep pace in the division.

The Bengals defense drives the bus at this point, but that offense seems like it can be a force as this season goes along.  They have such talent in terms of weapons with A.J. Green and their tight ends which are all matchup nightmares and the more comfortable Giovani Bernard gets, the better they are.  The X-factor for them comes down to Andy Dalton and how much better he can get.

The Cleveland Browns after a week of hearing how they waived the white flag, came out and beat the Minnesota Vikings on the road to improve to 1-2.  The defense is a collective effort with few weak links that is able to make some big plays and impose their will at times onto the opponent and wear them down.  The offense relies on a few key players to carry them to the success they have.

The Browns come home to host the Bengals with an opportunity to get back to 2-2 and get even with them in the division race.  The biggest question for the Browns is how teams will adjust to this game where Josh Gordon was able to take over and how the Browns will react when a team is able to stymie him.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are really a team that is struggling right now.  Offensively, defensively they are having major issues and Ben Roethlisberger is forced into situations that are not comfortable and he is missing plays.  The Steelers go to Minnesota to take on the Adrian Peterson and the Vikings as they search for their first win.  If they can get a win this week, they can get themselves in a tie with the Browns at 1-3 but there are a lot of people who picked this team to win the division that cannot feel remotely good about the pick.

A pair of bad drafts have left the Steelers trying to plug holes as they have players age out of the league and needed Le’Veon Bell to come in and be effective.  The problem is he went down with injury and it is unclear when they will get him back.