First Call: Steelers’ bad week got worse Sunday; plan for 17-game NFL season leaked

After a beatdown in Cleveland Thursday night, the bad week for the Steelers (5-5) continued through Sunday based on what happened across the AFC.

Those holding out hope that the Steelers could track down the Ravens atop the AFC North were dealt a severe blow as Baltimore wrecked the Houston Texans 41-7 in what was billed as the game of the day.

.@Lj_era8 with the STRIKE to @Mandrews_81 for the TD❗️❗️ pic.twitter.com/RejYNKs2AH

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) November 17, 2019

Lamar Jackson threw for four touchdowns for the Ravens. They improve to 8-2. That’s a three-game lead on the Steelers with six to play and a head-to-head win in hand.

Meanwhile, the Oakland Raiders won, too. Maxx Crosby had four sacks en route to a 17-10 win over the Bengals.

Not one...
Not two...
Not three...

FOUR sacks for @CrosbyMaxx today. Unreal. #RaiderNation pic.twitter.com/Kjqdr0tVt2

— Oakland Raiders (@Raiders) November 18, 2019

That win improves Oakland’s record to 6-4 and puts them a game in front of the Steelers for the last wild-card spot. The Raiders are now tied with the Texans for the final slot, with Houston holding a head-to-head tie breaker.

That’s because the Indianapolis Colts jumped atop the AFC South thanks to a 33-13 home win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. They even got a touchdown run from offensive lineman Quenton Nelson.

Quentin Nelson becomes fullback& scores TD. Preforms keg stand. Has TD taken away. Thats the Owen Schmidt hatrick pic.twitter.com/s5AVBznBlf

— PFTCommenter (@PFTCommenter) November 17, 2019

The Texans and Colts play each other next week. Indy won the first matchup back in Week 7 by a final score of 30-23.

Both those teams are still chasing the Buffalo Bills for the top wild card. Buffalo holds that position at 7-3 after smacking Miami 37-20. Quarterback Josh Allen threw three touchdown passes.

Dropping dimes. #BUFvsMIA | #GoBills pic.twitter.com/BQ7vYbqo2V

— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) November 17, 2019

Allen ran for one, too.

So the Steelers wake up Monday morning tied with the idle Tennessee Titans at 5-5 for eighth place in the conference.

Here are some other stories to check out from this weekend.

• An extremely detailed game plan over how a proposed NFL 17-game season would work has been leaked. CBSsports.com has it. You can check out the specifics. It’s in depth. And it appears each NFL season is going to last FOREVER!

• The MLB Network has put together its top 100 plays of the season. You can see them all here. Boston Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. took home the top prize.

And the #1 play of 2019 goes to... @JackieBradleyJr!@RedSox l #PlaysoftheYear pic.twitter.com/cFMcjM9CNQ

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) November 18, 2019

• The Vegas Golden Knights have a skating dog! Pfft! Like I’m not going to provide a link for a skating dog?

Wow. Something on the Knights even more adorable than Marc-Andre Fleury. Now, who would have thought that was possible?

• And we had a goalie scrap over the weekend between the Arizona Coyotes’ Darcy Kuemper and the Calgary Flames’ David Rittich.

Darcy Kuemper had a shutout AND sacked like 4 dudes today. Hockey. In. Arizona. Is. Fun. pic.twitter.com/zOfBsQqsKG

— 12 SPORTS (@12SportsAZ) November 17, 2019

Kuemper touched it off by throwing Matthew Tkachuk to the ice. Then Rittich skated down the ice to get involved.

Kuemper pitched a 3-0 shutout for an Arizona win.