After the Steelers' loss to the Baltimore Ravens Sunday night, Pittsburgh has fallen behind the Ravens in the AFC North standings. They're also behind ... the Cincinnati Bengals?
Yep, that's right - the Bengals have won five in a row and are now 6-2.
Bengals 6-2
Ravens 6-2
Steelers 5-3
Browns 3-5
From the perspective of Steelers fans, this is perhaps a bit embarrassing, but not that big a deal. Cincinnati's schedule so far has been padded with relatively easy games against the Colts, Seahawks, Broncos and Browns. Okay, sure - the Steelers have played some of those teams, too. But what the Bengals haven't yet done is faced off against the Steelers or Ravens. They'll have to do that three times in the next four weeks, and then they'll take on the Ravens again in the last week of the season.
The Bengals have been better than expected this season, sure, and with the Rams and Cardinals left on their schedule, there's a good chance they'll be a winning team when all is said and done. But are they a playoff team? We'll know more in a month.
You can check out the full NFL standings here.
For more on the Bengals, check out Cincy Jungle.