Cincinnati Bengals Receive Early Christmas Gift from Cleveland Browns

The Cincinnati Bengals received some extra help from the Cleveland Browns Thursday night, as Cleveland defeated the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers 13-6 on national television.

The loss drops Pittsburgh to 6-7 on the season and officially eliminates them from defending their AFC North title and puts them behind five other teams in the wild card standings.

In a game that seemed to be the perfect matchup for Pittsburgh to end its four-game losing streak, the Cleveland defense sacked quarterback Ben Roethlisberger eight times.

After wide receiver Santonio Holmes was tackled by linebacker Arnold Harrison on the final play of the game, the fans at Cleveland Stadium reacted as if their team had just won the Super Bowl.

Even though the Cincinnati-Bengals-Examiner~y2009m12d11-BenaglsVikings-Cincinnati-and-Minnesota-Examiner-provide-preview-for-Sundays-matchup" title="Bengals' Magic Number">Bengals' magic number was already at one heading into Sunday's game against the Minnesota Vikings, Cincinnati is relieved after the outcome of the Browns-Steelers game from Thursday.

With Thursday's loss, the Steelers can no longer pull the inevitable to win the division—finish 10-6 while the Bengals finish 9-7.

While the scenario seems unimaginable, last season's collapse by the Denver Broncos—in which they lost a four-game lead in the AFC West in the final four weeks—is enough evidence that anything is possible in the NFL.

Now, the only way the Bengals can fall short of an AFC North title is if the 6-6 Baltimore Ravens pull what the San Diego Chargers did last season.

All the Bengals need to do to clinch the AFC North and a trip to the playoffs is win at least once in their remaining four games. From there, they can focus the rest of their attention on clinching a first-round bye and a home divisional round matchup at Paul Brown Stadium.

Dan Parzych is the Cincinnati Bengals Examiner for Examiner.com

He is also the founder of WhoDeyBengals.com

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