If it is possible to win on your bye week, the division-leading Pittsburgh Steelers certainly did as they watched the three other AFC North teams bumble around to losses on Sunday.

Another day without starting quarterback Joe Burrow, another interception (or three) for Bengals backup signal-caller Jake Browning.

Cincinnati dropped their third straight game without Burrow at the helm, losing 37-24 to the Detroit Lions in Week 5. The team at least showed some fight, unlike a certain division rival that we will get to next, by clawing their way back from a 28-3 deficit to make the game somewhat interesting by pulling within 11 points at one point in the fourth quarter. Browning’s miserable three-interception performance was at least accompanied by three touchdowns and 251 yards on 26 completions, finally connecting with superstar wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase. Chase exploded in the fourth quarter with two touchdowns, including a 64-yard score to make it a two-possession game with a little over 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

Browning has now thrown eight interceptions to six touchdowns since taking over for the injured Burrow in the Bengals’ Week 2 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Cincinnati head coach Zac Taylor seemed to open the door for a potential change at the position on the horizon while still expressing belief in Browning.

“After a game like that we’re going to look at all personnel to make sure we’re doing the right thing,” Taylor said. “I won’t shy away from that because it’s a very fair question after the amount of turnovers we had. To say Jake can’t win games for us, I believe Jake can win games for us. I do. We’ll just continue to look at everything we can personnel-wise.”

During the writing of this article, the Bengals indeed made a move to potentially replace Browning.

According to NFL insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero, Cincinnati has acquired veteran quarterback Joe Flacco from the Cleveland Browns.

The 40-year-old Super Bowl MVP has bounced around the league since his days with the Baltimore Ravens, and though he struggled this season before being benched in favor of rookie Dillon Gabriel, Flacco could provide a boost to Cincinnati’s offense if he can distribute the ball to the team’s pair of star receivers more effectively than Browning.

The season from hell continued for the Ravens in Week 5 as the Houston Texans unleashed a 44-10 thrashing upon them.

To pretend that Baltimore is not largely where they are due to an insurmountable number of injuries to key players would be naive, but there is more to the story than just that. In the past, even when fielding severely undermanned teams, head coach John Harbaugh has demonstrated the ability to prepare his guys for a fight. The optics around the Ravens at the moment suggest something else, as the team has laid over and taken their beating multiple weeks in a row now.

Veteran outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy had an interesting comment when asked if the messages of the coaching staff were getting through to the players.

”That’s probably a question that’s above my pay grade, probably,” Van Noy said. “I think that’s a [John] Harbaugh [or] a ‘Z.O.’ [Zach Orr] question, to be honest. I think their messaging is fine, and we have to be the group to take that, go out and do the simple things right – the fundamentals. Easy, basic stuff.”

Backup quarterback Cooper Rush’s stat line, which included three interceptions, was perhaps worse than his actual performance against the Texans. Still, the offense was anemic for much of the game without Lamar Jackson under center. The unit continued to struggle to generate push in the run game to get Derrick Henry going. Henry has yet to eclipse 100 rushing yards since Week 1 against the Buffalo Bills and has been held under 50 in three out of five games this season.

Baltimore risks falling to 1-5 before their bye week as they take on the Los Angeles Rams next week. The Ravens’ only hope at this point seems to be getting Jackson back at quarterback, along with several other star players who have no clear timetable for returns. The defense, in particular, has shown zero ability to stop opposing offenses without players such as Kyle Hamilton, Marlon Humphrey, Roquan Smith, and Nnamdi Madubuike on the field, but the unit was struggling mightily even before the hits started piling up.

It only took until Week 5 of the season for the Browns to make a change at quarterback, replacing Flacco with Gabriel. The rookie’s first start was admirable, but Cleveland ultimately fell to 1-4 with a 21-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

With the trade of Flacco to the Bengals, the Browns’ season is now purely in the hands of a rookie quarterback, whether that remains to be Gabriel or fellow rookie fifth-rounder Shadeur Sanders at some point down the line. Gabriel completed 19 of 33 pass attempts for 190 yards and two touchdowns in his first NFL start against a stingy Vikings defense. Rookie second-round back Quinshon Judkins continues to impress as well as he crossed 100 rushing yards for the first time this season.

Cleveland head coach Kevin Stefanski praised Gabriel when asked about his takeaways from his first start.

“Yeah, a lot of positives,” Stefanski said. “Obviously can always be better, and certainly we as an offense have to better and score more to help this football team. But for, you know, a young player in that environment versus that defense to take care of the ball, make the plays he made, I thought was a lot of positives with plenty to clean up. And that’s what he will do. And that’s the mentality he has, certainly to be a player that continues to get better week in and week out.”

Star defensive end Myles Garrett, who was kept off the stat sheet against Minnesota, also backed the rookie quarterback after the game.

”[Gabriel] looked like he usually does,” Garrett said. “Composed, making the plays that we know he can make. He put us in position to win. We’ve got to help ourselves out.”