By Travers Cummings
Ravens over Steelers (Sunday noon): Both these teams seem to be heading in the wrong direction at a very crucial point in the season. The Ravens somehow managed to lose to the Bengals last week and showed absolutely no fight in doing so. They were facing Joe Burrow, who hadn’t played football in two months, and allowed him to march up and down the field on them. Burrow is an excellent QB so that part I could excuse, but what’s inexcusable is Lamar Jackson and the offense only scoring 14 points against one of the worst defenses in the league. If they want to see the postseason, they’d better get their act together, starting with this game against the Steelers. Pittsburgh is ripe for the picking, Rodgers is still dealing with an injured wrist, the defense just gave 245 rushing yards to the Bills, and the fans were chanting for Pittsburgh to fire their coach. If Baltimore can’t take advantage of that, then they might as well just pack up and go home now.
Browns over Titans (Sunday noon): I’m calling this matchup “The 2025 Toilet Bowl Game.” The Titans are awful, the Browns are a little bit less awful, and when two awful teams get together, nothing good ever happens. First overall pick Cam Ward is finding life in the NFL to be quite tough in his first go-around. He’s stuck on a team that has no talent, hence them only having one win on the year. There’s nothing about them that even looks promising for the future, and this is after they just hit the reset button on the organization a couple of years ago when they fired then-coach and current Patriots coach Mike Vrabel. I have to think they just want this season done and over with so they can head to Mexico for vacation time.
The Browns lost to the 49ers last week (like I said they would!) in what turned out to be quite the defensive battle. But the two biggest determining factors were turnovers and being stopped on 4th down twice. Shedeur Sanders didn’t have the greatest game either in his second start of the season. The lone bright spot once again was Myles Garrett, who must be licking his chops getting to go up against Tennessee this week.
Chiefs over Texans (Sunday night): The Chiefs are once again in do-or-die mode. They’re two games back of a wildcard spot in the AFC and really can’t afford to lose any more games, which is weird to even say about Kansas City considering they’ve been in the Super Bowl the last three years. This game will definitely be another defensive battle. Houston has given up the least number of points and yards in the NFL, and Kansas City isn’t that far behind, sitting at 6th in points against and 8th in yards given up. CJ Stroud returned from injury last week and was average, probably still shaking off some of the rust from being inactive. Meanwhile, Patrick Mahomes played a pretty good game in a losing effort against the suddenly rejuvenated Dallas Cowboys. Not sure if weather is going to play a factor, but I do know December in Kansas City isn’t exactly warm. I can’t imagine a dome team from Texas is going to enjoy being outside in the elements. Despite Houston’s defense being extremely good, I cannot bet against Mahomes on his home field in a must-win situation.
Last week: 3-0
Season overall: 27-12