The Baltimore Ravens are 9-4 and in excellent position for an AFC wild-card spot, a wonderful accomplishment for a team that finished 5-11 a year ago.

As they prepare for Sunday's AFC North showdown with Pittsburgh, they want more.

``We want to be division champs. We want to be champions. That's something that every team in the division definitely plays for,'' coach John Harbaugh says. ``We're not backing down from the fact that that's our goal. The Steelers stand between us and the division championship.''

The Steelers (10-3) come to Baltimore needing a win to clinch the division title. That's because they beat the Ravens 23-20 in Pittsburgh on Sept. 29 and would hold a two-game lead and the tiebreaker with two games to go.

But that's no given in what is almost sure to be a low-scoring, physical game between two of the NFL's best defensive teams.

These are teams that don't like each other. Rookie running back Rashard Mendenhall, the Steelers' first-round draft pick, was knocked out for the year with a shoulder injury in the first meeting. Afterward, Baltimore's Terrell Suggs suggested on an Atlanta radio station there was a bounty on Mendenhall and one on wide receiver Hines Ward. Later, Suggs said, ``I misspoke and I'm sorry for that.''

Bounty or not, these are teams that play hard-nosed football.

``It's going to be a physical ballgame. It always is,'' Ward said this week. ``If you don't come out of this game black and blue, then you didn't do nothing out on the field.''

While Pittsburgh can clinch the division, a win by the Ravens puts them in a tie. They also can clinch at least a wild-card playoff spot if they win and get a combination of other teams losing, most notably the Jets, Dolphins and Patriots in different combinations.

The game may turn on how well the banged-up Ben Roethlisberger plays; he holds a big edge in experience over Joe Flacco, the Ravens' remarkable rookie quarterback.

But he's not likely to get healthier.

``I think a lot of guys are going to be limping out of there on both sides,'' Roethlisberger said. ``I'm just hoping we're up on the scoreboard when we're limping.''

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Three divisions are locked up: the AFC South by Tennessee; the NFC East by the New York Giants; and the NFC West by Arizona. Denver can lock up the AFC West if it wins at Carolina or San Diego loses at Kansas City.

The weekend began Thursday with host Chicago beating New Orleans 27-24 in overtime.

In other games Sunday, Buffalo is at the New York Jets; Tennessee at Houston; Seattle at St. Louis; Tampa Bay at Atlanta; San Francisco at Miami; Detroit at Indianapolis; Washington at Cincinnati; Green Bay at Jacksonville; Minnesota at Arizona; New England at Oakland; and the New York Giants at Dallas.

Cleveland is at Philadelphia on Monday night.

A much more important game for the Cowboys, struggling for a playoff spot, than for the Giants, who have clinched the NFC East and will probably have to beat Carolina next week to ensure home-field advantage in the conference. One sign the Giants are taking this less seriously: running back Brandon Jacobs might rest his sore knee. ``We've got a nice playoff run that we need to make,'' he says. ``I want to be healthy for that.''

But that doesn't mean that New York won't play all out, especially after last week's loss at home to the Eagles. It has won a division the Cowboys were favored to take because Tom Coughlin has kept his team focused. Wade Phillips and Jerry Jones have had trouble doing that with Dallas.

This week ``Coach'' Jones blamed last week's loss in Pittsburgh, where the Cowboys squandered a 10-point fourth-quarter lead, on RB Marion Barber, who stayed home nursing a dislocated pinkie toe on his right foot.

``I don't want to speak for Jerry, but I don't think you question his toughness,'' Phillips said of Barber. ``He's one of the toughest guys we have.''

The AFC East at a glance.

If the Jets and Dolphins each win their next two games - Miami is at Kansas City next week and New York at Seattle - they would meet in the final game at the Meadowlands with the division on the line. The Patriots finish at home to Arizona and then at Buffalo, which has lost seven of nine after a 4-0 start.

Two weeks ago, after the Jets beat the Titans, folks were sending them directly to the Super Bowl. Upset losses to Denver and San Francisco have ended that, but Brett Favre remains optimistic.

``I will be tough, obviously, especially the way we've played the last two weeks, but I expect us to make the playoffs,'' he says. ``Why think any differently?''

Favre is one reason Miami has come back after being winless at this point a year ago and finishing 1-15. When the Jets traded for the 39-year-old ex-Packer, they released Chad Pennington, who has given the Dolphins the legitimate NFL quarterback they've lacked for most of the decade since Dan Marino retired.

The 49ers might be troublesome. They are playing better under Mike Singletary with Shaun Hill at quarterback and broke an 0-15 run by West Coast teams in the eastern time zone by winning in Buffalo two weeks ago.

It's looking increasingly likely the Lions will be the first team ever to finish 0-16. After the Colts, they play host to New Orleans, then finish at Green Bay.

That may explain in part the meltdown by center Dominic Raiola, who was fined $7,500 by the team this week after making an obscene gesture toward heckling fans following last week's loss to Minnesota. Raiola has been with Detroit since 2001 and has known nothing but losing: The Lions are 31-94 in that period.

The Colts have known almost nothing but winning over that period. A victory here would give them their seventh straight season of 10-plus wins. And after starting 3-4, they have won six straight, so a victory here could clinch them a playoff spot if two of three among the Dolphins, Jets and Patriots lose.

The Panthers took control of the NFC South with their impressive win over Tampa Bay last Monday night and are now shooting higher - at home field advantage in the conference. That could leave them looking ahead to next week's game with the Giants at the Meadowlands, which would be a mistake: Denver, which can clinch the AFC West with a win, is 4-2 on the road, with three consecutive wins.

Carolina hasn't officially clinched a playoff spot yet. It does that with a win and a loss by either the Cowboys or Falcons.

The Bucs could clinch a berth with a win if either Dallas or Philadelphia loses.

But the surprising Falcons, who lost at Tampa in the second week of the season, would be in the thick of the race with a win against a Bucs defense that inexplicably gave up 299 yards rushing to the Panthers. They are 5-1 at the Georgia Dome and Michael Turner could have a big day running the ball if Tampa falters again.

The Cardinals have clinched the NFC West and could rest folks if they want - they almost surely won't have a first-round bye. But coach Ken Whisenhunt says he would like to move from the fourth seed in the NFC to the third, something a win here could accomplish.

The Vikings, who are unsure if QB Gus Frerotte will return from a back injury, lead the NFC North. They also got some relief when a judge extended the stay on the suspension of Kevin and Pat Williams, their stellar defensive tackles, meaning they are cleared to play for at least two more weeks.

The Eagles make a late-season run every year and this one could get them in the playoffs. Since Andy Reid pulled Donovan McNabb at halftime in what turned into a blowout loss in Baltimore, the Eagles have beaten two division winners: Arizona and the Giants, defeating New York 20-14 in the Meadowlands as both McNabb and Brian Westbrook excelled.

Romeo Crennel is almost surely coaching his last three games for the Browns as Clevelanders discuss the possible arrival of Marty Schottenheimer and/or Bill Cowher.

Although it seems a foregone conclusion, the Titans need a win and a loss by Pittsburgh to wrap up home-field advantage in the AFC this week. Then they can decide who to rest and when. Last season, they made the playoffs in the final week by beating an Indianapolis team that rested starters.

Houston is a team that tends to make late runs, although the Texans always do it too late for anything but pride. Last season, the Texans finished 8-8 for the first time and if they win out, they can finish with their first winning record.

The Chargers, who would be eliminated in any other division, can still win the AFC West if they win out and Denver loses out; they meet in the final week. But that's unlikely, so a team that many picked to go to the Super Bowl is playing only for pride.

The young Chiefs have scared some people - they almost beat Denver last week. But they're probably playing for 2010, when their very young core will be mature.

The Redskins are nominally alive for an NFC wild-card spot. But they're without both starting offensive tackles, and Clinton Portis and coach Jim Zorn had to publicly make up after Portis questioned Zorn's coaching methods. To be fair, the Redskins' offense isn't good enough to make them truly competitive with the rest of the NFC East.

Would the Bengals be better if Carson Palmer had been healthy? Maybe, but only by a couple of games.

Two teams that entered the season expecting to go to the playoffs.

Don't blame Aaron Rodgers for the Packers' problems. A defense that helped them get to the NFC title game last season has slid back badly, allowing more than 24 points a game, a figure that almost always guarantees losing.

Jacksonville has never recovered from losing a bunch of starting offensive linemen early. It also has internal problems, some of them generated by the losses.

Seattle had won four straight NFC West titles until injuries and other problems killed it this season. The last time it didn't win, in 2003, the Rams did.

At least the Seahawks have been competitive in three-point losses to the Patriots and Redskins in the last three weeks. The Rams have scored the second-fewest points in the league (169) and allowed the second most (394).