Cincinnati Bengals: AFC North standings after Week 4

After the Cincinnati Bengals took down the winless Jaguars on Thursday Night Football, they got to sit back and relax while the other three AFC North teams played their Week 4 matchups on Sunday.

This weekend was especially important for Bengals fans because the team was alone at the top of the division with a 3-1 record and wanted to see if they’d emerge as the division leader when this weekend was all said and done.

Here were the matchups the AFC North had:

• Browns at Vikings
• Ravens at Broncos
• Steelers at Packers

It wasn’t an easy slate for the AFC North rivals with all of them playing on the road against teams who were threats in some way, shape, or form.

We’ll start with the Browns/Vikings game, which was the only game in the early window. Cleveland had their issues with Minnesota’s defense and only won 14-7. For as explosive as that Browns offense claims to be, only scoring 14 points on a team that Cincinnati scored 27 on (yes, needing overtime, but let me continue) seems disappointing.

Be that as it may, the Browns’ defense came to play and walked out of Minneapolis with a W. They’ll remain tied atop the division with the Bengals.

Baltimore were underdogs at Denver and a lot of that is because of how well the Broncos’ defense had played through three games. Now it’s worth noting that the Broncos played the Giants, Jaguars, and Jets in three straight weeks, so we really don’t know how good they are.

The Ravens had no issue with Denver, leaving the Mile High City with a 23-7 win. They’ll remain at the top of the AFC North standings too, unfortunately.

Lastly, we have the Steelers, who look like they’ll be residing in the basement of the division moving forward. They looked really bad in Green Bay, getting beat by a score of 27-17. It wasn’t just the offense that plagued Pittsburgh so don’t let those Steelers fans tell you so. Their defense wasn’t good either. They drop to 1-3 and have to be nearly flawless down the stretch if they want any shot at winning this division.

The Cincinnati Bengals are in a three-way tie for first in the AFC North.

Having a tie atop the division isn’t shocking since we knew it’d be a dogfight in one of the NFL’s toughest divisions. The Bengals being a part of that tie for first, however, might surprise some people. They’ve looked good so far but they haven’t had nearly as tough of a schedule as some of the other divisional opponents have had.

Here’s what the AFC North schedule looks like this in Week 5:

• Bengals vs. Packers
• Steelers vs. Broncos
• Browns at Chargers
• Ravens vs. Colts (MNF)

The first two games listed there will be played at 1:00 Cincy time, the Browns/Chargers game is at 4:05, and the Ravens/Colts will take place on Monday Night Football.

It’s only Week 4 but this division is already shaping up to be quite the dogfight! Who will come out on top?