PITTSBURGH -- Something feels right about football here when the weather turns cold -- yellow towels waving and gloved hands clapping rhythmically while "Renegade" pulses out across three rivers in the fourth quarter.

Something feels right about the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens hitting the three-quarter mark of the NFL season in a flat-footed tie, even if they're each a ho-hum 7-5 and have both gone through four-game losing streaks.

Something feels right about ugly in the AFC North, where the teams are built for chilly crunch time and each fan base in the division outside of Cleveland has come to expect not just big-time December football, but the January football that follows.

So it was that on the first weekend of December, the Steelers took the field here against a New York Giants team that came in on a six-game winning streak and found a way to win despite 12 penalties and a pair of turnovers. This just a few hours after the Ravens ended the Miami Dolphins' six-game winning streak in Baltimore.

The 2016 editions of the AFC North's black-and-blue bloods are by no means perfect. But in the cases of Pittsburgh and Baltimore, they appear to be putting things together at the right time -- and setting themselves up for a fun (if flawed) division race.

"Hopefully, we can build upon this performance as we move forward," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said Sunday night.

Le'Veon Bell rushed for 118 yards and had another 64 receiving yards in the Steelers' win over the Giants. Charles LeClaire/USA TODAY Sports

And that's the right way to look at what the Steelers did here Sunday. Beating the Giants, who came in with the league's fourth-best record, was no small accomplishment. But the way they did it was by no means perfect. You couldn't watch the Steelers on Sunday and think this was a team clicking on all cylinders. Some cylinders? Sure. More cylinders than were clicking earlier in the season? Absolutely. But this doesn't look like the elite AFC title contender most people thought they could be in 2016.

Too many penalties. Too many odd playcalls that stalled promising drives. Not much rhythm. A workmanlike victory built on screen passes and the breakout performance of tight end Ladarius Green, whose season just got going a couple of weeks ago after a rash of injuries delayed his Steelers debut.

"He's finding a comfortable seat on a moving train," Tomlin said of Green. "And we need him to."

The Steelers know they're a work in progress. They have the benefit of a quarterback/coach combination that has built teams into playoff contenders and even Super Bowl champions as difficult seasons have gone along. In that way, they're a little bit like their rivals in Baltimore -- even if they insist they're not paying attention to what the Ravens are up to.

"We're trying to focus on being inside our own stadium and taking care of what we need to take care of," linebacker Ryan Shazier said. "We'll see them soon enough."

They will. In their own stadium. On Christmas Day. The Ravens beat the Steelers in Baltimore earlier this season, which is why they are currently listed atop Pittsburgh in the AFC North standings despite their identical records. But depending on what happens the next two weeks -- which see the Ravens play at New England and home against Philadelphia, and the Steelers go to Buffalo and Cincinnati -- that Dec. 25 game is going to be more than enough reason to take a three-hour break from "A Christmas Story" reruns and tune in for an AFC North slobberknocker.

Joe Flacco had four touchdown passes and 381 passing yards in Baltimore's victory over Miami. Patrick Smith/Getty Images

The Steelers have the better quarterback and appear to have the softer schedule. The Ravens have the more dominant defense. Pittsburgh has won three in a row. Baltimore has won four of its last five. They each beat one of the league's hottest teams Sunday. This race sets up nicely for a lot of reasons. But the very best is the two teams' pedigrees.

"It's that time of year that we have to be our best self," Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said.

Lots of "sayings" bounced around the Pittsburgh locker room Sunday night. That thing about "be inside our own stadium" is clearly something Tomlin is preaching, because he said it and so did several players. The "be our best self" thing also got echoed in a few different corners of the locker room. You've got to find those mantras that work, and you've got to make sure you have the people in place to make sure they don't end up just being empty words.

The Steelers can do that, and so can the Ravens, which is what makes their burgeoning December division race so much fun. Neither is perfect, and at this point, neither appears to be great. But they have the players to help them get there, and the experience to know how. And whether they roll or limp through the tough tests they face over the next two weeks, Ravens-Steelers should be quite a present for NFL fans to find under the tree.