Irony of ironies: Bengals on top of AFC-North after first week — along with the Steelers


Joe Burrow led Bengals to win over Vikings



… Ravens choke against Raiders


The Cincinnati Bengals were picked to finish last in the AFC North this season — and maybe they will. 


And the Pittsburgh Steelers were picked to finish third -- and maybe they will.


However, after one week, those two teams are on top of the division after pulling upsets in their openers. 


The Bengals upset the Minnesota Vikings at home, and the Steelers upset the Buffalo Bills on the road to take the two top spots. 


The Cleveland Browns, who along with the Baltimore Ravens were picked to win the AFC North — and one of them still might — both lost their openers. 


The Browns gave everybody’s favorite to win the Super Bowl this year, the Kansas City Chiefs, everything they could handle on Sunday before falling in the fourth quarter. 


That was not a surprise.


What was a surprise was the Ravens falling to the Raiders on Monday Night Football. In short, here is that story line,


As slow, clunky and ugly as the Las Vegas Raiders' offense was early Monday night, it was just as efficient late. And as terrible as their defense was last season, it did just enough against the Baltimore Ravens.


In front of a delirious Allegiant Stadium crowd of 61,756 -- and in the first regular-season NFL game played in front of fans in the city's history -- the Raiders came back from an early, two-touchdown deficit to pull out a 33-27 win in overtime on Monday Night Football.


"I felt like I died and woke up," Raiders coach Jon Gruden said. "And died again. I was like a cat: I had multiple lives tonight. I don't like playing like that. It was tough but, again, we did a lot of good things to win that football game tonight.


"Our defense made a signature play at the end of that game, and I thought Derek Carr was awesome playing under some really tough circumstances today against a really good defense."


ESPN


The next irony is that the Raiders will invade Heinz Field next Sunday to face the Steelers in a battle of undefeateds that no one expected to be so. 


This is still September, not December, so no one should be overly excited. However, the irony abounds after week one.  

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