All four teams in the AFC North lost today in as gut-wrenching a fashion as you could imagine. It'd be bad enough for an entire division to go winless (especially when said division is arguably the best in the NFL), but for each of the four teams to lose games in which they held fourth-quarter leads, well that's a whole new level of disappointment.

Shutdown Corner recounts the carnage, listing the games in order of least to most crushing:

Baltimore Ravens 15, Indianapolis Colts 17 – The box score doesn't look too bad: A two-point loss to the undefeated Colts is nothing to hang your head at. But when you consider that the eventual game-winner for Indy was kicked by Matt Stover(notes), the long-time Ravens vet who was cut in the offseason and that the Ravens replacement for Stover's replacement missed a 30-yarder in the third quarter, then it hurts a bit. Throw in a first-and-goal from the 1-yard line that resulted in a field goal and, ouch.

Pittsburgh Steelers 27, Kansas City Chiefs 30 (OT) – Losing while giving up two touchdown returns of 95+ yards, dropping an interception before the play that put the Chiefs in overtime field-goal range, having another possible concussion suffered by Ben Roethlisberger(notes), outgaining their opponent by 257 yards and holding the ball for 19 more minutes than their opponent would all be bad enough. But when it comes against the woeful Chiefs, that's a whole other level.

Cleveland Browns 37, Detroit Lions 38 – We already recapped this one earlier today on Shutdown Corner. The Browns have the distinction of being the only NFL team to lose this year after the clock hit zero while they had the lead. But a pass interference penalty gave the Lions another untimed down and the rest is another chapter of Cleveland infamy. For any other team this would have rated as the biggest stomach punch of the day. But, for Browns fans, it's just another regular Sunday.

Cincinnati Bengals 17, Oakland Raiders 20 – This game was done. The division-leading Bengals held a seven-point lead with under one minute to go and the hapless Raiders, led by a quarterback (Bruce Gradkowski(notes)) who hadn't thrown a touchdown pass since 2006, were facing fourth-and-10 from near midfield. But, just like that, Chaz Schilens(notes) hauled in a first-down reception and then, on the next throw, Gradkowski hit Louis Murphy(notes) for the game-tying score. So it was going to overtime. Except that Andre Caldwell(notes) fumbled the kick return with 27 seconds remaining and the Raiders recovered and kicked a game-winning field goal 11 seconds later. From one play from victory to one return from overtime to another crushing loss, all in a span of 43 seconds. On the bright side, at least Cincy knows how to deal with late-game disappointment.

In the first half of a big divisional game against the New England Patriots, the New York Jets came out sluggish, getting outscored by 17 points and converting just two first downs over the first 30 minutes. Maybe it's because the team is still tired from last night.

Late last night, a fire alarm was pulled in the Jets' team hotel, rousing members of the team out of their slumber and forcing them to vacate their rooms. Except there was no fire and it was the Jets' team hotel. You do the math.

According to the time stamp on a tweet from tight end Dustin Keller, the fire alarm was pulled around 1 a.m.:

So much for a good nights sleep..the alarm just went off in our teams hotel hahaha grown men walking around the hallway in their draws haha

He's pretty good-natured about it. I certainly wouldn't give one "ha" about getting awakened in the middle of the night, let alone three. Especially if I was wearing "draws." 

Cornerback Kerry Rhodes(notes) also posted a tweet about the late-night wake-up call, but he waited until the morning to share:

you know we are playing new england when in the middle of the night when u r sleep somebody pulls a fire alarm to wake u up!! wow!!

The same thing happened to the Buffalo Bills before a Week 1 game in New England. It sounds like there's a fan (or fans) who still like to pull middle school pranks to help support the team. Or maybe it's not a fan at all. Judging by his past history, I wonder if Bill Belichick has an alibi for last night?  

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Over the past decade, the Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns have been the two worst teams in the NFL. This year has been no different, as entering today they were a combined 2-16 on the season. It only stood to reason that their battle today would be one of attrition. Almost everyone figured it would be a snoozer not even worthy of getting attention on NFL Redzone. Instead, it was one of the most entertaining games of 2009.

The Lions scored a touchdown on the final play of the game to earn a thrilling 38-37 victory over the visiting Browns. But, of course, in true Detroit-Cleveland fashion, the game ended with two colossal errors (each by the Browns). 

On the final play of the game, a Matthew Stafford(notes) pass fell incomplete and the Browns began to celebrate their second win of the year. But Hank Poteat(notes) was flagged for pass interference, which gave the Lions another down with no time on the clock.

There's more: On the Poteat play, Stafford was hit when he released the ball and stayed down on the field in obvious pain. The rookie clutched his non-throwing shoulder as he ran off the field and was replaced for the final play by Daunte Culpepper(notes). With a cold Culpepper under center, the Lions prepared to snap the ball from the 1-yard line with the clock reading zeroes to get the go-ahead score. Amazingly, Cleveland called timeout before Culpepper could get the snap. This stoppage allowed Stafford to come back in the game and he promptly hit Brandon Pettigrew(notes) for the game-tying touchdown. A Jason Hanson(notes) extra point sealed the game.

Not that anyone should expect good coaching decisions by Eric Mangini, but that timeout was borderline criminal. Culpepper had to rush onto the field with no warning, having stood on the sideline for the previous three hours. The Lions had no timeouts and were in the confusing spot of having to run another play after having thought the game had ended. Sure, the Browns had to do the same on the defensive side, but the burden is on the offense. The last thing any coach wants to do in that situation is give an unprepared team time to regroup. 

Among the amazing stats from the rest of the game:

• The Browns scored 13 more points today (37) than they had in two-thirds of their other games combined (24).

• Matthew Stafford (five) and Brady Quinn(notes) (four) combined to throw nine touchdown passes. Coming into today the former first-round picks had a total of nine touchdown passes in their careers. 

• Cleveland was averaging 214 yards of offense per game. The Browns gained 439 against Detroit.

• With the win, the Lions avoided becoming the first NFL team in history to go 2-32 over a 34-game stretch.

• Detroit's defense was statistically the worst in the NFL before today. After today: Yeah, they're still the worst. But how about that offense?!

• Unless they were in attendance, most Lions fans couldn't see the victory. Because it wasn't a sellout, the game was blacked out in the Detroit area. 

Stating that "there's nothing else to say", Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith has refused a Bob Costas interview request in anticipation of the Bears Sunday Night Football game. Jay Cutler(notes) and Bears general manager Jerry Angelo will also be unavailable to the network.

It sounds like a simple enough decision. The Bears have already been on NBC three times this year. They're in the midst of a difficult year and probably don't feel like answering any more questions aboout it. Blow off the interview, say it's because you want to focus and no big deal, right? 

Look, we know these pre-game interviews are next-to-worthless. Costas (or whomever) lobs in some softball questions, the athlete or coach talks about working hard and the desire to win and how the next opponent will be tough, there's a jokey question or two and then it's over. In almost all of these talks, nothing remotely interesting ever happens. 

But doing these interviews are part of the job. NBC pays hundreds of millions to broadcast games, money which ends up in the very deep pockets of Cutler, Angelo and Smith. The least they can do is throw a bone to Costas and give NBC some soundbites. (For what it's worth, Costas says he doesn't mind.)

An obligation to a television partner isn't the biggest problem. This thing was so foolish because it was so obviously going to become a problem. Instead of answering questions about the game for a few minutes, they're going to have to answer questions about not answering questions for the next three days. They should have thought of it like going to the in-laws for Thanksgiving. You'd rather do something else, but you know the fallout would be too great, so you suck it up and do it.

It's also a bad decision by Smith and Angelo to bring Cutler into the fold on this one. Like the new Bears quarterback doesn't have enough image problems in that city and nationwide. Now he needs to be pegged as a petulant, pampered star who won't talk to the media because he had a bad game against the 49ers? The last thing Cutler needs is to give the public more reasons to dislike him.

 Thanks, The Sporting Blog

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