Ravens' Takeaways From Other AFC North Debuts

Despite entering this regular season as the presumptive AFC North favorites, the Baltimore Ravens are already residing in the division's bottom half.

Granted, we're only through the first weekend of NFL action, and the Ravens' most recent dramatic loss was arrived on the heels of 40 points and highlight-worthy plays from players all across Baltimore's offense. The Buffalo Bills came back from 15-point down entering the game's final four minutes, with Josh Allen contributing his first MVP bid of the young season on Sunday night to stun Lamar Jackson.

But when the playoff picture starts to become a little clearer in a few months, the final result will stand as the most important takeaway from the duel. A loss is a loss, the sort of fate that half of the Ravens' local rivals managed to avoid.

Two of them, the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns, duked it out against one another, producing a few final scores that fell considerably short of Baltimore 41-40 shootout. Joe Burrow's Bengals were favored entering the matchup and indeed held on for the win, but warding off the bottom-dwelling Browns didn't look as comfortable as many would have expected.

Cincinnati's developed a reputation for starting slowly since Burrow ushered in their own contention window, and his barely squeaking out a 17-16 victory amidst several costly Cleveland mistakes is a proper representation of the early-season Bengals.

Former Ravens quarterback-turned-grizzled veteran Joe Flacco threw admirably, nearly notching 300 aerial yards in approaching 41-years-old, leading his team to a sufficiently more impressive second half that revealed some major holes in Cincinnati's defense as well as the team's lack of worthy weapons. The Bengals were picked as a potential playoff returner with the starpower they offer at the top of their depth chart, but barely legging out such an ugly win won't register as a sign of confidence for most.