Only in the AFC North could a 3-7 team play a 4-6 team in a meaningful game.

		More Steelers coverage: Steelers Report: 11/20/03

But then, the AFC North is no ordinary division. It's the only one of the NFL's eight that does not have a team with a winning record. That's why the game Sunday that pits the Steelers (3-7) against the Browns (4-6) in Cleveland could have playoff implications, if either team can get past the stink of disappointment rising from its 2003 season.

Last year, both teams made the playoffs. The Steelers won the inaugural AFC North at 10-5-1, and the Browns made it as a wild-card team at 9-7. Today, they're almost in the same sinking boat except Cleveland owns a 20-point victory in Pittsburgh and will be a three-point favorite to sweep the Steelers for the first time in the past 15 years.

Mediocrity gets you first place in the division, where Baltimore and Cincinnati are tied at the top at 5-5, one game ahead of the Browns and two ahead of the Steelers. So, mediocrity is what both the Browns and Steelers are striving for and why not? This is a division where 8-8 might win it, and it's possible they could have the first division champ in history with a losing record.

The Steelers have reached such depths that their .300 winning percentage is almost lower than that of the Penguins (4-10-3 and tied for fewest points in the NHL at 11). The Pirates' .463 percentage makes them look like World Series contenders compared to the Steelers.

Yet the Steelers and Browns remain in contention as the season heads into the stretch. Contending in the AFC North is so easy that coach Bill Cowher admitted Tuesday that his team could lose in Cleveland and remain in the playoff hunt.

The Browns have had more problems than the Steelers, injury and otherwise.

They released their leading receiver, Kevin Johnson, because of a bad attitude. Their leading rusher, William Green, will miss the second of his four-game suspension for a bad drug test, not counting the revelation of a knife wound yesterday. Cleveland also has started nine different offensive linemen.

Yet the Browns climbed within one game of first place when they ended a three-game losing streak by trouncing Arizona, 44-6, Sunday at home.

"Luckily, we are in the AFC North right now," said Cleveland quarterback Kelly Holcomb. "No team is out of it."

What record might win it?

"You could sneak in at 8-8," Holcomb said.

What about 7-9?

"Let's not talk about that."

Cleveland coach Butch Davis acknowledged not only the mediocrity of the division but also what has happened to these two playoff teams from last season.,"It absolutely surprises me," Davis said. "I don't think that either organization imagined that this would be what the records are. You look at Pittsburgh, they have done a great job. They have been in the playoffs eight of the last 11 years ... They have been to the Super Bowl. They know how to win."

Or, at least they used to.

"They have a damned good football team and they are very well coached," Davis continued, stretching his credibility.

The Steelers' problems have not come close to the kind the Browns have experienced.

"We struggled so much this year with trying to get some consistency," Davis said. "We have had nine different offensive linemen start for us this year. We have had two different running backs start. We had two different quarterbacks, three different fullbacks. We are trying to find 11 guys that know each other's first names in the huddle."

Their latest starting fullback is Steelers castoff R.J. Bowers, although he is listed as questionable this week with a sprained ankle.

Holcomb did not play against the Steelers Oct. 5 at Heinz Field because of a stress fracture in his leg. But he will watch the tape often of that 33-13 Browns victory because backup Tim Couch found the Steelers easy pickings, completing 20 of 25 passes for 208 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

"The Steelers are the Steelers," Holcomb insisted. "Their backs are against the wall, just like ours are."

It looks more like their backs are pressed against the side of a cliff, except in the AFC North, there is no such fatal fall, not with six games left. The way the division is headed, does it even matter who wins and ekes into the playoffs?

"Absolutely," Davis said. "I think when you get in the playoffs, everybody is just as dangerous as anybody else, regardless. Once you get to the playoffs, I don't think anybody really cares about records. Everybody, basically, is starting off at 0-0."

With that kind of record, a team could win the AFC North.