Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers remained somewhat terse in his postgame press conference following Pittsburgh\u2019s 27-6 win over the Browns on Sunday. Despite the big win over a divisional foe, Rodgers seemed reluctant to give too much praise to the Steelers offense, saying their performance was \u201cnot very complete\u201d and that there \u201cshould\u2019ve been a lot more points.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, with the Steelers now 6-2 on the season, in sole possession of first place in the AFC North, and entering a midseason bye week on a four-game winning streak, Rodgers acknowledged the team is in a good spot.<\/p>\n
\u201dWe\u2019d like to play our best and still win. We also like to win,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re 6-2 going into the bye, first in the division. We\u2019re right where we want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Cleveland and Pittsburgh were 5-2 entering Week 8, with the Browns having already defeated the Steelers earlier in the season in a Thursday Night Football matchup at Huntington Bank Field.<\/p>\n
But back at home in Acrisure Stadium in Sunday\u2019s rematch, the Steelers ran for 200 yards on Cleveland while only allowing 34 yards on the ground en route to a lopsided, 21-point victory.<\/p>\n
Despite the AFC North being arguably the NFL\u2019s most competitive division in 2026 with not one team under .500, the Steelers are in the best spot of the group at midseason. The now 5-3 Browns lost in blowout fashion. The Bengals (now 5-2) won on Sunday to jump into second place in the division, but it took overtime to defeat the hapless 1-7 Titans.<\/p>\n
And the Ravens, the consensus preseason pick to win the AFC North, are now in last place at 4-4 after a 36-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. To make matters worse for Baltimore, Lamar Jackson was injured again and is now headed to IR with an upcoming thumb injury.<\/p>\n
The Steelers\u2019 first game after the bye will be a Sunday Night Football matchup on Nov. 15 against the Bengals in what will be another matchup between top AFC North teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cWinning is the most important thing \u2014 2-1 in the division now,\u201d Rodgers said. \u201cEither way, that game in two weeks is going to be really important.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Steelers defeated the Bengals 30-27 earlier in the season. The black and gold have split their series with the Browns in 2026 but still have both matchups against the Ravens due later in the season.<\/p>\n
While the Steelers players acknowledged there\u2019s a lot of football left to play, T.J. Watt said he\u2019s been encouraged by how the team has found ways to win thus far.<\/p>\n
\u201dI like that we\u2019ve won games many different ways. We\u2019ve come from behind. We\u2019ve been able to hold leads. We\u2019ve played games where we haven\u2019t looked great. We\u2019ve played games where we\u2019ve looked great,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just need to continue to grow and build off this performance \u2026 There continues to be young guys (contributing), and I think (Derrick Harmon) is coming back soon too, hopefully, so I think this bye week comes at a great time for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFC North standings after Week 8<\/p>\n
Steelers (6-2; 2-1 division)Bengals (5-2; 1-1 division)Browns (5-3; 2-1 division)Ravens (4-4; 0-2 division)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers remained somewhat terse in his postgame press conference following Pittsburgh\u2019s 27-6 win over the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74,4853],"class_list":["post-319149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}