With Tebow completing 6 of 22 passes for 60 yards and a game-sealing interception, Denver (8-8) claimed a first-round home game by virtue of a tiebreaker over Oakland and San Diego and will host Pittsburgh next weekend.

The Raiders’ loss also pushed the Bengals (9-7) into the playoffs as the sixth seed even though Cincinnati’s comeback fell short against Baltimore. Cincinnati will go on the road to play Houston (10-6), the No. 3 seed, in the first round.

With the Ravens (12-4) winning, the result of Pittsburgh’s game against Cleveland was all but meaningless. The Steelers (12-4) wound up beating their AFC North rival, 13-9, and are the No. 5 seed, but lost the tiebreaker to Baltimore, which swept the season series from the Steelers.

Baltimore didn’t have its game in hand until the final play, when Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton’s desperation pass fell incomplete as time expired.

Earlier in the afternoon, the New England Patriots secured the No. 1 seed in the AFC, and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, with a 49-21 victory over Buffalo. Quarterback Tom Brady passed for 338 yards and three touchdowns to rally New England from a three-touchdown deficit as the Patriots scored 49 consecutive points. The Patriots (13-3) finished the regular season with eight wins in a row, and Brady’s 5,235 yards passing were the second most in NFL history for one season.

While much of the AFC picture unfolded late in the afternoon, all but one of the NFC playoff teams were settled by the early games. A night game between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys would decide the NFC East champion and No. 4 seed.

The top-seeded Green Bay Packers (15-1), who clinched the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye last week, beat the Detroit Lions 45-41, despite five touchdowns and 520 yards passing by Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford,

The loss, coupled with Atlanta’s 45-24 win over Tampa Bay, made Detroit (10-6) the sixth seed. Detroit will play at New Orleans (13-3) in the first round. The Saints clobbered Carolina, 45-17, behind five touchdowns and 389 yards passing from quarterback Drew Brees, who finished the season with an NFL-record 5,476 yards passing. But the Saints drew the third seed when San Francisco (13-3) outlasted St. Louis, 34-27, to claim a first-round bye as the No. 2 seed and NFC West champion.

The fifth-seeded Falcons (10-6) will visit Dallas or New York in the first round.

(Sports Network) – The Baltimore Ravens have had trouble this season following up big victories when they face a team below .500. They have a chance to buck that trend this Sunday with a matchup with the last-place Cleveland Browns.

The Ravens look to win a sixth straight divisional game and seventh in a row over the Browns this weekend at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

With an 8-3 record, Baltimore is not only tied with Pittsburgh for first place in the AFC North, but for the best record in the conference along with New England and Houston. The Ravens could be in an even better position, but all three of its losses this year have come against teams that were under .500 at the time.

Baltimore followed up a big Week 1 win over Pittsburgh with a loss in Tennessee, knocked off first-place Houston on Oct. 16 one week before an ugly defeat in Jacksonville and then followed up a road win over the Steelers with a setback in Seattle.

The Ravens hope those woes, which seem to creep up on the road, don’t follow them to Cleveland after they knocked off San Francisco by a 16-6 score in the “Harbaugh Bowl” on Thanksgiving. Baltimore used a club record-tying nine sacks and a touchdown pass from Joe Flacco to tight end Dennis Pitta to give head coach John Harbaugh a victory over the Niners and their sideline general, little brother Jim Harbaugh.

“It’s just a big win for us,” said John Harbaugh afterward. “It’s an opportunity going forward. It positions us really well. Now we have to conquer a game in Cleveland, one that’s been plaguing us all year.”‘

Harbaugh was referring to the Ravens’ issues against losing teams following big wins. Baltimore needs to shake the trend quickly, as its next four games are all against teams under .500, a stretch that is book-marked with games versus the Browns.

Baltimore’s head coach shook off the notion that his team just wasn’t ready for those games, saying that the Ravens just didn’t play well. He also stressed the challenge of this game given that the Browns are in the same division and are coming off a solid showing.

“We’ve got to turn over every stone,” Harbaugh said. “We certainly acknowledge that those three losses, coming off of big wins, against teams with sub-.500 records, were not good performances. They are team losses the way we look at it — coaches, players, all of us.”

The Browns certainly seem capable of pulling off the upset considering their performance last weekend in a 23-20 loss to Cincinnati. Cleveland, though, failed to hold leads of 17-7 and 20-10 as the Bengals’ Mike Nugent hit a 26- yard game-winning field with 38 ticks left.

That came after Cleveland’s Phil Dawson missed a 55-yard attempt at the other end following a bad snap. He had already hit a season-long 54-yarder earlier in the game, but long snapper Ryan Pontbriand’s toss back to the holder was low.

Pontbriand fell on the sword Tuesday, getting released.

“We didn’t finish it off,” said Browns head coach Pat Shurmur. “The Bengals did a good job of coming back on us. Just like if we had won the game it’d be a team victory, we lost the game and it was a team loss.”

Cleveland has lost four of its last five games and does not have an easy road to the end of its season. Four of its final five tests are against AFC North co-leaders Baltimore and Pittsburgh, including a meeting at the Ravens on Dec. 24.

The Ravens, meanwhile, have won two in a row despite playing both games without linebacker Ray Lewis, whom Harbaugh said has a chance of returning for this game.

Baltimore, which has won seven of its last eight versus AFC North opponents, can reach 9-3 for the second time in team history with a victory over Cleveland, joining the 2006 club.

SERIES HISTORY

The Ravens own a commanding 17-7 lead in their all-time series with the Browns, whose first edition of the franchise moved to Baltimore to become the Ravens prior to the 1996 season before re-entering the NFL as an expansion team in 1999, and have won each of the last six bouts between the rivals. Baltimore recorded its third straight home-and-home sweep of the Browns by following up a 24-17 home victory during Week 3 of the 2010 season with a 20-10 triumph in Cleveland last December, and also left Ohio with wins in both 2008 (37-27) and 2009 (16-0). The Browns last bested the Ravens via a 33-30 overtime decision at M&T Bank Stadium on Nov. 18, 2007 and topped Baltimore at home by a 27-13 count that same year as well.

Harbaugh is 6-0 lifetime against the Browns as a head coach, while Shurmur will be facing both the Ravens and Harbaugh in his current position. The two sideline bosses previously worked together on the staff of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999-2007, with Shurmur then the team’s quarterback coach and Harbaugh the special teams coordinator and later in charge of defensive backs.

The Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers are tied for first place in the AFC North. The teams split the two-game series.

With five games left, the Steelers host the Bengals, Browns, Rams and visit the 49ers and the Browns.

The Ravens visit the Browns, Chargers, Bengals and host the Browns and the Colts.

Which team will win the division?

Which team will win the AFC North?

Baltimore’s three losses this season followed significant victories and occurred on the road against sub-.500 teams. The Ravens are determined to break the trend on Sunday at Cleveland (4-7).

“It doesn’t matter how many wins and losses they have,” linebacker Jarret Johnson said Monday. “They always play good against us. It’s going to be a dogfight, so we better bring it.”

Coach John Harbaugh believes the problem in Baltimore’s three defeats wasn’t so much mental as it was physical.

“What we didn’t do is, we didn’t play very well,” he said. “We certainly acknowledge that those three losses coming off big wins were not good performances. They’re there. They’re on the record. Now we face a similar challenge this week, but a tougher challenge, because now we’ve got to go play a team in our division.”

The AFC North is jammed at the top. The Ravens are tied with Pittsburgh for the lead and the Bengals are one game back.

“We expect it to be a tight race. We just want to uphold our end of the bargain,” Harbaugh said. “What you have to concern yourself with is winning. That’s the bottom line for us. We can’t be concerned what the others teams do. We have to be concerned with what we do.”

The Ravens couldn’t have asked for a better scenario entering the final five weeks of the season. Before facing Cleveland twice, winless Indianapolis and struggling San Diego, they received a lengthy break following a rugged 16-6 conquest of the 49ers.

“That was big to have,” defensive tackle Terrence Cody said. “We have a lot of guys banged up — nicks and bruises — and it was big to have (time off) at this point in the season.”

It’s been more than two weeks since middle linebacker Ray Lewis (sore right toe) has played a game, and no one on the team needed the break more than Baltimore’s 36-year-old defensive leader.

“The rest part is big,” Harbaugh said. “I’m hopeful. I think he’s got a real good chance” to play Sunday. “We’ll just have to see how it goes.”

Fortunately for the Ravens, they have flourished without Lewis. The defense had its ups and downs in a 31-24 win over the Bengals, but Baltimore had nine sacks and yielded only two field goals in turning back San Francisco.

“They were two huge wins in five days. You can’t say enough about it,” Johnson said. “It’s a tough thing to do. We played a really good game against the Niners, but we’re moving on. We need to get win No.9 and we’re going to try and get it this week.”

Much will be written and said in the next few days about Baltimore’s tendency to stumble against sub-par teams. As far as defensive tackle Cory Redding is concerned, the toughest team the Ravens will face down the stretch will be … the Ravens.

“It’s not the Indianapolis Colts, it’s not the Cincinnati Bengals or anybody else that’s left on our schedule. It’s us,” Redding said. “As long as we continue to beat the negatives, beat the things that can hinder us from getting a win and overcome the mistakes we make on Sunday, we’ll get those victories. But we’ve got to beat the things that can hurt us, and that’s us. As long as we make our plays and not make any careless mistakes, then we’ll be great.”

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