The Ravens are likely pleased with what’s transpired in the first half of Sunday’s matchup on the shores of Lake Erie.
The Browns lead the Steelers 10-6 at halftime in a game that will decide the AFC North if Pittsburgh wins.
Cleveland got out to a 10-0 start with a 50-yard field goal by Andre Szmyt and a 28-yard touchdown pass by Shedeur Sanders. But the club could not get anything going in the second period, despite finishing the half with 210 total yards and averaging 7.0 yards per play.
Pittsburgh got a pair of field goals from Chris Boswell in the second quarter, with the veteran kicker nailing a 44-yard attempt early in the period and a 40-yard attempt to close the half.
It was mostly an ugly first 30 minutes for the Pittsburgh offense, with Aaron Rodgers finishing the first two quarters 8-of-17 for 72 yards. With DK Metcalf out due to a suspension, Pat Freiermuth leads with 23 yards receiving.
On the verge of breaking the single-season sack record, Myles Garrett has not had many opportunities to get a good rush on Rodgers with the Steelers QB getting rid of the ball quickly in known-passing situations.
On the other side, Sanders is 12-of-17 passing for 164 yards with a touchdown and an interception. The pick was tipped before being intercepted, with Sanders facing heavy pressure on the throw. He nearly threw a pick-six later in the first half, but Nick Herbig dropped the ball.
Injury-wise, Browns tight end Harold Fannin is questionable to return with a groin injury. Cleveland linebacker Carson Schwesinger has been dealing with multiple ailments in the first half, but has continued to play.
Steelers tight end Darnell Washington is questionable to return with a forearm injury.
If the Steelers can come back and win in the second half, they will clinch the AFC North. If the Browns hang on to win, the division will come down to next week’s matchup between Pittsburgh and Baltimore.
The Steelers will receive the second-half kickoff.
Steelers Clips
So far, the Browns are keeping the AFC North race alive.
Shedeur Sanders connected with fellow rookie Harold Fannin Jr. for a 28-yard touchdown pass, giving Cleveland a 10-0 lead with 5:11 left in the first quarter.
Sanders had two chunk passes on the drive, first hitting Cedric Tillman on the left side for a 42-yard gain to put Cleveland in Pittsburgh territory.
A couple of plays after Trayveon Williams converted third-and-5 with a 9-yard run, Sanders floated one up for Fannin who caught it and rolled into the end zone for a 28-yard touchdown.
But Fannin apparently aggravated the groin injury he suffered during the week on the catch. He was able to get up and walk to the sideline under his own power. Multiple reporters on the scene note Fannin was examined in the tent but has been trying to jog on the sideline.
Browns kicker Andre Szmyt had opened the scoring with a 50-yard field goal to cap the Browns’ opening possession with points.
The Panthers added rookie Tetairoa McMillan to their injury report with an illness on Sunday morning, but they won’t have to go without their top wide receiver against the Seahawks.
McMillan is active for their home game against the NFC West frontrunners. The first-round pick has 65 catches for 924 yards and seven touchdowns so far this season.
The Panthers will win the NFC South on Sunday with a win and a Buccaneers loss to the Dolphins. If they don’t get that combination of results, the two teams will okay for the division crown in Week 18.
Seahawks at Panthers
Seahawks: WR Hunter Renfrow, S Demani Richardson, DT Jared Harrison-Hunte, TE James Mitchell, DT Tershawn Wharton
Panthers: QB Jalen Milroe, CB Coby Bryant, LB Jared Ivey, T Charles Cross, G Bryce Cabledue, OL Mason Richman, DL Brandon Pili
Steelers at Browns
Steelers: QB Will Howard, WR Calvin Austin, RB Kaleb Johnson, CB Brandin Echols, CB James Pierre, G Isaac Seumalo, EDGE T.J. Watt, DL Logan Lee
Browns: OL Jeremiah Byers, QB Dillon Gabriel, OL Kendrick Green, CB Myles Harden, DL Sam Kamara, TE David Njoku, WR Jamari Thrash
Patriots at Jets
Patriots: QB Tommy DeVito, WR Kayshon Boutte, OT Marcus Bryant, G Jared Wilson, NT Khyiris Tonga, LB Robert Spillane, LB Harold Landry
Jets: QB Tyrod Taylor, OL Marquis Hayes, WR Quentin Skinner, TE Mason Taylor, DL Mazi Smith, S Chris Smith
Saints at Titans
Saints: S Ugo Amadi, WR Mason Tipton, CB Rejzohn Wright, RB Alvin Kamara, G Cesar Ruiz, TE Zaire Mitchell-Paden, DT Bryan Bresee
Titans: S Jerrick Reed, OL Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson, OL Garrett Dellinger, OL Drew Moss, DL Cam Horsley
Jaguars at Colts
Jaguars: CB Keith Taylor, RB Bhayshul Tuten, G Patrick Mekari, C Robert Hainsey, TE Hunter Long, DL Danny Striggow, DT Maason Smith
Colts: C Tanor Bortolini, RB Tyler Goodson, S Reuben Lowery, S George Odum, OL Dalton Tucker, DL JT Tuimoloau
Buccaneers at Dolphins
Buccaneers: QB Connor Bazelak, WR Sterling Shepard, S Rashad Wisdom, LB John Bullock, OT Tristan Wirfs, EDGE Anthony Nelson
Dolphins: QB Tua Tagovailoa, S Minkah Fitzpatrick, WR Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, OL Kendall Lamm, C Aaron Brewer, LB Derrick McClendon
Cardinals at Bengals
Cardinals: S Budda Baker, OL Evan Brown, TE Pharaoh Brown, CB Kei’Trel Clark, K Joshua Karty, CB Kalen King, DL PJ Mustipher
Bengals: QB Jake Browning, WR Charlie Jones, CB Josh Newton, S PJ Jules, DE Joseph Ossai, TE Cam Grandy, DT Jordan Jefferson
There will be no bigger Browns fans in the country on Sunday than the team that came into existence by leaving Cleveland without a football team for a few years in the 1990s.
The Ravens’ win over the Packers on Saturday night kept their playoff hopes alive, but they will go away if the Browns don’t upset the Steelers in Cleveland on Sunday afternoon. After running for 216 yards and four touchdowns to beat Green Bay, Ravens running back Derrick Henry said he’ll be turning to a higher authority to help swing things the Browns’ way.
“I’m going to pray as soon as I get on the plane, when I get home in the morning, when I wake up,” Henry said, via the Ravens’ website. “Hopefully, we get blessed for the opportunity to have to play for something Week 18.”
Ravens quarterback Tyler Huntley spent a few weeks with the Browns this summer and said in his postgame press conference that he planned to call his former teammate and Browns starting quarterback Shedeur Sanders “really quick and make sure he gets it done.”
Art Modell’s decision to move to Baltimore after the 1995 season made the Ravens and Browns lifelong enemies, but the old saying is that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. On Sunday, the Steelers are the shared adversary and that makes for unusual bedfellows in the AFC North.
The Ravens were celebrating after a big win on Saturday night in Green Bay, but they might not have long to celebrate.
If the Steelers win or tie against the Browns today they will win the AFC North, and eliminate the Ravens from the playoffs.
So Ravens fans need to root for the Browns. If Cleveland wins, that sets up a Week 18 Ravens-Steelers showdown in Pittsburgh with the AFC North on the line. In that scenario, the Ravens would win the AFC North if they beat the Steelers, while the Steelers would win the AFC North if they were to win or tie against the Ravens.
But first, the Ravens need the Browns to pull the upset today. The Steelers are 3.5-point favorites at Cleveland.
Houston’s win over the Chargers got the Texans into the playoffs. And it leaves only one spot in the AFC unclaimed.
Six teams are now in: Broncos, Patriots, Jaguars, Texans, Chargers, and Bills.
That leaves one more seat at the table, for one of two teams. Either the Steelers or the Ravens will be the AFC North champions. Pittsburgh’s magic number is one; a Baltimore loss to the Packers tonight or a Steelers win over the Browns on Sunday seals the deal.
Plenty of seed remain TBD, including the AFC East and AFC South champions, along with the all-important No. 1 seed.
Still, six of seven AFC teams are set. Which is the same situation as the NFC, where the only remaining spot will go to eventual NFC South champs, Carolina or Tampa Bay.
Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt won’t play on Sunday. But he will play the next time the Steelers need him.
That’s the word from Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, who reports that the Steelers expect Watt to play in their next meaningful game.
So if the Steelers clinch the AFC North this weekend, Watt’s next game would be in the wild card round of the playoffs. If the Steelers don’t clinch this weekend, the AFC North would come down to the Week 18 Ravens-Steelers game, and Watt would play then.
The Steelers would clinch the AFC North today if the Ravens lose. If the Ravens win today, the Steelers can clinch the AFC North tomorrow by beating the Browns, and give Watt an extra week off. If the Ravens win today and the Steelers lose tomorrow, then Ravens-Steelers Week 18 is the AFC North championship game, and Watt would be on the field.
Watt will miss his third consecutive game tomorrow after suffering a punctured lung during a dry needling mishap at the team facility.
The Steelers announced a couple of changes to their injury report on Saturday.
Safety Jalen Ramsey was listed as questionable to face the Browns because of an illness, but he’s feeling well enough that the team removed that designation. Ramsey is now set to play in the AFC North clash.
Left guard Isaac Seumalo moved in the other direction. Seumalo has been ruled out due to the triceps injury that initially led the team to list him as questionable for their game in Cleveland.
The Steelers will win the division if they beat the Browns, but they may not even need to wait that long. A Ravens loss to the Packers on Saturday night will land them the crown before taking the field.
The Browns may turn to Bailey Zappe to back up quarterback Shedeur Sanders on Sunday against the Steelers.
Zappe was elevated from the practice squad to the active roster for today’s game, putting him in line to be the No. 2 quarterback on Sunday.
Dillon Gabriel, who would ordinarily be Sanders’ backup, is listed as questionable with a left shoulder injury.
The Browns also elevated tight end Sal Cannella from the practice squad to the active roster, making him available in case tight end Harold Fannin can’t go. Fannin is questionable with a groin injury.
Browns defensive end Myles Garrett sits one sack away from the single-season record. He’d like to get there by taking down Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
"[Rodgers is] legendary himself, and it’s a legendary record I’m here chasing,” Garrett said Friday, via Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN.com. “That’d be a great one to put a picture on the wall with.”
Garrett currently has 22 sacks. The record of 22.5 is shared by Hall of Famer Michael Strahan and Rodgers’s current teammate, linebacker T.J. Watt.
Of course, there’s a chance Rodgers will get the day off. If the Ravens lose to the Packers on Saturday night, that “may” affect Steelers coach Mike Tomlin’s personnel decisions, since the Steelers will have clinched the AFC North title before their Week 17 game at Cleveland even begins.
And that would perhaps give Garrett a chance to set the record by sacking an old nemesis, Mason Rudolph. If, of course, Tomlin decides to roll with Rudolph and not to give some game reps to rookie Will Howard, who could be a candidate to become the team’s post-Rodgers option at the position.
Regardless of who the quarterback is, Garrett needs just one. And it’s unlikely Rodgers will do the same favor for Garrett that his Green Bay predecessor, Brett Favre, did for Strahan 24 years ago.
