* "Ready or not, here we come," first-year Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. "That’s the reality of it. We’re a 10-6 team, we won our division, we’ve got a home game versus the five seed, and we look forward to preparing for that."
* "I took a deep breath once we got that interception," Ravens receiver Derrick Mason said. "All that frustration just came out. No matter how the season went, we were able to win our last game, and that’s good."
* "There are things around here that are a little stale," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. "Get rid of them. You know how you go to your garage and say, ‘I’ve got to get rid of this junk.’ We just need to freshen up a bit."
* "We are disappointed that we didn’t reach the playoffs, however, we had a good year," Romeo Crennel said. "We’ve learned a lot, grown a lot and look forward to continuing to build on what we’ve accomplished this season."
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AFC North
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| Team | W | L | T | PCT | PF | PA | Home | Road | AFC | NFC | DIV | Streak |
| Pittsburgh | 10 | 6 | 0 | .625 | 393 | 269 | 7-1 | 3-5 | 7-5 | 3-1 | 5-1 | Lost 1 |
| Cleveland | 10 | 6 | 0 | .625 | 402 | 382 | 7-1 | 3-5 | 7-5 | 3-1 | 3-3 | Won 1 |
| Cincinnati | 7 | 9 | 0 | .438 | 380 | 385 | 5-3 | 2-6 | 6-6 | 1-3 | 3-3 | Won 2 |
| Baltimore | 5 | 11 | 0 | .312 | 275 | 384 | 4-4 | 1-7 | 2-10 | 3-1 | 1-5 | Won 1 |
"It was great," departed head coach Brian Billick said of the victory. "Hopefully, that’s a sign of things to come."
Plagued by turnovers all season, Baltimore took advantage of one to go up 7-0. Devard Darling recovered the fumbled opening kick off return at the Pittsburgh 35. Eight plays later, Musa Smith scored from the 2. One week earlier, Smith was third on the depth chart. But Willis McGahee fractured two ribs last week in a loss to Seattle, and backup Mike Anderson was out with a hamstring injury. A 32-yard touchdown run by fourth-string running back Cory Ross made it 17-0. A 15-yard pass from rookie Troy Smith to Darling upped the margin to 20 points in the third quarter. Smith, making his second NFL start, went 16-for-27 for 171 yards. Derrick Mason finished with a team-record 103 catches.
QB Carson Palmer, went 23-for-32, threw for 3 scores and finished with 4,131 yards passing to break the Cincinnati record of 4,035 he set last year. TJ Houshmandzadeh made nine receptions to tie New England’s Wes Welker for the NFL lead with 112, a Bengals record, but dropped the final pass thrown to him.
"The coaches were trying to help me," Houshmandzadeh said. "I should have caught the last one. It’s a catch that I make every day in practice."
Chad Johnson had four catches for 131 yards to reach 1,440 yards, another team record. Playing in his hometown for the first time since turning pro, Johnson caught touchdown passes of 2 and 70 yards.Palmer also threw a 4-yard scoring pass to Antonio Chatman with 4 seconds left in the first half to put the Bengals ahead 21-10. They won in Miami for the first time since 1968, and they had plenty of help. The Bengals allowed 17 sacks this season, breaking the club record for fewest in a season (21 set in 2005). Cincinnati K Shayne Graham went 31-for-34 in field-goal attempts, a team record.
The Browns have plenty to build on but can’t take the next step in their development until next season. Joshua Cribbs returned a punt 76 yards for a touchdown and Jamal Lewis rushed for 128 yards in the win. Dawson set a club record for points by a kicker with 120 — six shy of tying Hall of Famer Jim Brown’s overall team mark. Lewis, who signed a one-year contract with Cleveland in March, became the 26th back to surpass 9,000 career yards.
Minutes after the game ended (perhaps well before then), the Steelers turned their attention toward the Jacksonville Jaguars, their opponent Saturday night in the opening round of the postseason. Playing for the first time since replacing Roethlisberger in a 38-7 rout of Baltimore on Nov. 5, Charlie Batch went 16-for-31 for 218 yards and two interceptions. Fifty-nine of those yards came on a touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes with 7:13 remaining. That made it 27-14, and after a successful onside kick, Batch threw a fourth-down TD pass to Cedrick Wilson with 3:36 left. But the comeback bid ended when Batch was intercepted by David Pittman in the closing seconds.
Week # 17: 2 – 1
Photo by Sabina Moran
