My old colleague, John Eisenberg, wrote this weekend on the Ravens Web site that today's game against the Cincinnati Bengals is a "must win" situation for the Ravens. I'll have to disagree with him, but first, a shameless plug for both John and I.

John is a sports author of note, and he has a new book coming out later this week on the 1959 Green Bay Packers. Berg is going to join me on Sportsline (WBAL 1090 AM) on Tuesday night at seven to talk about the book and all things Vince Lombardi. If you're a student of NFL history, you'll want to join in that conversation and pick up a copy.

Okay, now that I've buttered John up, I'll continue with my contention that this is probably less of a must-win game than any other the Ravens have played so far. The Bengals are 3-1 and the winner will take over first place in the AFC North, but there will be 11 regular season games left afterward and the competitive challenge facing the Ravens will not change at all.

With all due respect to what the Bengals have done so far, I'm pretty sure the Ravens (whether they win today or not) will come down to it with the Steelers at the end, and the Steelers were nice enough to lose two of their first three games this year to give the Ravens (and, I guess, the Bengals) a little early season cushion.

Of course, when you play in your own division, every game is very important for a variety of reasons, but this particular division game does not have the make-or-break quality that likely will be attached to either game against the Steelers.

Certainly, if the Bengals win today, it will give them a huge credibility bounce going forward -- and a leg up in any future tiebreaker situation -- but that's really more about them than it is about the Ravens. Now, if the Bengals win today, then we'll be able to talk "must win" when the Ravens visit Cincinnati next month.