Harbaugh: Ravens must beat Bengals to win division

The AFC North is up for grabs.

The Baltimore Ravens currently lead the division, but with just a 5-5 record equaled by the Pittsburgh Steelers, and with the Cincinnati Bengals lurking at 3-6-1, nothing has been decided. OK, the Cleveland Browns have been eliminated, but that's about it.

For the Ravens to keep their division lead, they'll need to make good on the two remaining matchups with Cincinnati, last year's AFC North champ. The first meeting will take place Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

"We've got to find a way to beat them," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said to Jamison Hensley of ESPN. "If we don't start beating the Bengals, we're not going to win any division championships and that's especially true this year."

The Bengals have won the last five head-to-head matchups against Baltimore, with the Ravens' last win coming in overtime in 2013.

Besides the pair of games with Cincinnati, Baltimore will also face the Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, Philadelphia Eagles, and rival Steelers to finish the season.

"We look at the rest of the season as a six-game season," Harbaugh said. "In some ways, this (Cincinnati) is like our opener."

And the divisional battles will carry the most weight, of course.

"We're all going to play each other over the course of the next six games," Harbaugh continued. "It's going to come down to that. It's probably what we knew going into the season, that it was going to come down to division games."