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First Call: Steelers RB Benny Snell's magic mouthguard, AFC playoff picture | TribLIVE.com
Steelers/NFL

First Call: Steelers RB Benny Snell's magic mouthguard, AFC playoff picture

Tim Benz
Tim Benz

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Pittsburgh Steelers running back Benny Snell runs against the Cleveland Browns in the second half of an NFL football, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2019, in Pittsburgh.

In Monday’s “First Call,” we straighten out the AFC playoff picture, and we try to figure what is going on with Benny Snell’s mouthguard.

Besides that, does anything else matter?

Spin-o-rama

It looks like “Benny Snell Football” may be on his way to a “Benny Snell endorsement deal.”

The Steelers third-person-speaking rookie is quickly moving up the depth chart toward becoming a first-string running back.

He has 161 yards rushing over his last two games and scored the Steelers’ lone rushing touchdown of the day Sunday.

But what seemed to captivate social media Sunday was his spinning mouthguard.

We can only assume that the faster Snell breathes, the faster that thing spins. So let’s hope he breaks into the open field against the Arizona Cardinals next week and it acts as a propeller so that he actually takes flight.

Is that legal?

News from the North

While the Steelers were beating the Cleveland Browns 20-13 in an AFC North matchup, the Baltimore Ravens yielded no ground atop the division.

The Ravens won their eighth game in a row to improve to 10-2. And they did it thanks to a last-second field goal by Justin Tucker to hand the San Francisco 49ers their second defeat of the season.

So the Ravens hold a three-game lead — and a head-to-head tiebreaker — over the Steelers.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the division, the Cincinnati Bengals got their first win of the year. They smacked the New York Jets 22-6. Andy Dalton got back into the lineup as the starting quarterback and hit former Pitt Panther Tyler Boyd for this touchdown.

Dalton went 22-of-37 for 243 yards and that touchdown. Boyd had four other catches and totaled 59 yards.

The South is something

What may affect the Steelers more directly is the state of the South.

For now, the Houston Texans are in control after beating New England on Sunday night. They handed the Patriots just their second loss of the year, 28-22.

This trick play between DeAndre Hopkins and Deshaun Watson helped them get there.

The win makes Houston 8-4. That’s a game better than the Tennessee Titans, who beat division rival Indianapolis 31-17 Sunday courtesy of two blocked kicks.

This one went for a touchdown by Tye Smith after the block by Dane Cruikshank.

The victory makes the Titans 7-5. The Colts fall to 6-6. The Steelers have a head-to-head tiebreaker over the Colts but nothing of that sort over the Titans or Texans.

Houston and Tennessee have to play each other twice before the season ends. The Titans are the team behind the Steelers for the second wild-card spot right now.

So it might just behoove the Steelers to root for the Texans to win both games and clinch the division, thus hurting Tennessee’s win-loss record along the way and keeping Indianapolis as the best option from the South as a wild-card competitor.

Raiders getting ruined

Jon Gruden is probably going full “Chucky face” now.

Two weeks ago, the Raiders were sitting pretty in a wild-card position. But no one has played worse over the last two games than they have.

The Silver and Black have been outscored 74-12 by the Jets and Kansas City Chiefs over this stretch.

Sunday’s 40-9 beatdown by the Chiefs drops Oakland to 6-6 and eighth in the AFC between the Titans and Colts. They are two back of the 8-4 Chiefs for the AFC West lead.

Long story short, as of now, the Ravens own home field throughout the playoffs with the Patriots as the other team in a position for a bye. The Texans are third and the Chiefs are fourth.

Buffalo and the Steelers are the two wild-card teams. They play each other in two weeks at Heinz Field in a contest that has been flexed to primetime on “Sunday Night Football.”

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

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Categories: Sports | Steelers/NFL | Breakfast With Benz
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