BROWNS AND AFC NORTH HAVE A TALL TASK

The task for the Browns — and for the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers as well — just got a whole lot harder late Sunday afternoon.

It came with what the Cincinnati Bengals did to the Buffalo Bills in the AFC divisional playoffs.

They didn’t just beat the Bills. They beat them up. They dominated them. They manhandled them. They crushed them. They throttled them.

To be sure, it was a public mugging.

And they did it in Orchard Park, where the Bills are supposed to be nearly invincible.

The final score was 27-10, but it wasn’t nearly that close.

The Bengals have one of the two best players at quarterback, the most important position in team sports, in the NFL in Athens, Ohio native Joe Burrow. The other standout quarterback is Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, who provide the opposition in the AFC Championship Game next Sunday for the second straight season.

The Bengals have beaten the Chiefs — with a healthy Mahomes — three straight times. Mahomes suffered a high ankle sprain in the Chiefs’ victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday. He won’t come close to healing in just a week.

As such, the Bengals, whose once-porous offensive line has vastly improved, along with its defense, may well be headed back to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Los Angeles Rams in the final minute last year.

The Bengals aren’t going away. In addition to Burrow, they have a large core of young players, including the best group of wide receivers in the league.

So, then, the Browns, Ravens and Steelers are all going to have to get a whole lot better — quickly — if they want to be just competitive in the AFC North with the Bengals, let alone overtake them.

Steve King