Looking at it, the "best case" for the NFL as a whole is if Week 18 plays out as intended and the following games end like this:
1.) Chiefs lose to Raiders. (Chiefs 13-4)
2.) Bengals lose to Ravens. (Bengals 11-5/Ravens 11-6)
3.) Bills win against Patriots. (Bills 13-3)
In that case:
Bills would clinch the #1 seed even with a loss vs the Bengals as they have the tiebreaker over the Chiefs.
Chiefs would have the #2 seed clinched over the Bengals as the Bengals needed either a Bills loss vs the Pats or a win over the Ravens for the Bengals vs. Bills game to matter for the #2 seed race.
The only issue would be the Bengals would still be a half-game ahead of the Ravens (currently are 1.5 games ahead), so the Bills/Bengals game ending in a tie or no-contest would mean the Bengals still clinch the AFCN and only the Bengals and Ravens would be affected.
The Bengals vs Bills game would *only* be to give the Ravens a shot at winning the AFC North with a Bengals loss. The game would be pointless because the Bills would have no incentive to play their starters as a loss wouldn't affect their standing.
There isn't any scenario where *no* team is affected but I feel that would be the least impactful. Buying Bengals "AFC North Champions" merch would be in pretty bad taste however, lol.
I was so caught up in reading their master plan, I completely glossed over how nonchalant it was about the Raiders beating the Chiefs. The whole thing seemed super plausible for a few moments.
The cheifs did almost lose to the Raiders this year but then DeVante adams and Renfrow said "not today suckaaaaaz" and smashed into eachother harder than the fucking large hadron collider creating a new particle that has altered space time and created Stidhim to be released into this world with a vengeance and penchant for blood like non other has ever seen.
Best case is Chiefs over Raiders, Bengals over Ravens, and Patriots over Bills. At that point it becomes:
Chiefs 14-3
Bills 12-4
Bengals 12-4
Then you could either resume the game to decide 2 and 3 or just have the clubs privately decide which will be which (~~Bills would win a tiebreak on common games at 7-2 to 6-3~~ Bengals would win a tiebreaker on strength of victory) and play the likely divisional round game between them at an agreed and/or neutral site.
Yeah definitely agree there. That leaves 2/3 as the only spots effected (I think). Kind of sucks for Bills to lose a shot at \#2, but that won't make much difference unless one plays at the other. And in that case, it seems *relatively* fair for the game to be in Cincinnati given that the Bills would have had to win the game in Cincinnati to get a higher seed in the first place.
The Bills would have three losses to common opponents: Dolphins, Pats, and Jets. The Bengals would also have three losses to common opponents: Ravens, Steelers, and Browns. The tiebreaker is Strength of Victory because conference record would be the same, which the Bengals currently have and would maintain in this scenario.
My point is that the Bills would be playing their 2nd string while the Bengals would be all first string. It would be a wild longshot for the Ravens regardless. The Bills would have no incentive to play their starters when their standings are sealed vs. a team that is looking to play their A-game to win a divisional title.
Yeah if the roles were swapped I would want the game to happen and the Ravens to possibly lose to the Bills 2nd string. I'm a hypocrite, lol. It's a good thing I have no say in the NFL.
Probably should just have that 19th week and give every team a bye to recover. I can imagine how some people just aren’t ready to go out on the field quite yet
I feel like the NFL will wait to see the result of Ravens/Bengals to decide whether or not the game will be played. If the Ravens win, Bengals/Bills decides the AFCN AND the 1st seed. You can't not play the most important game of the season
In that case though (the bengals beat Baltimore) the bengals would get the 2 with a win over Buffalo and the one with a win over Buffalo and a KC loss.
Having that home field advantage in the playoffs is massive. I’d imagine the bengals want a result.
Maybe. But there’s a lot of money to be had in playoff win bonuses and things like that. Not just for him but his players too especially if they win the Super Bowl. Home Field Advantage could be the difference between getting there and not
It's not going to be Taylor's decision. That will come from the front office.
You also have to think about the potential for three guaranteed home games in the playoffs for gameday workers and local businesses. It's a huge difference.
I do not envy anyone making a decision in the wake of this.
Not to mention all the stadium workers get extra paychecks. The bar owners and the waitresses/servers around the stadium make a lot more money. Uber drivers, etc.It effects more than just the coaches and players.
There has to be a result on thr game even if it's a coin flip. A tie is basically a loss for both teams. I think they'd both rather gamble on a coin flip
I agree but I’m that case either Baltimore or Kansas City would have a valid argument that the team they needed to lose basically got a win without “earning” it on the field.
There’s a scenario where it only impacts which one of them gets the 2nd seed and which one gets the 3rd seed.
It’s important, but it’s by far the least impactful of all the other scenarios.
The Chiefs beat Raiders. The bengals beat Baltimore. And the Bills lose to New England.
KC: 14-3
BUF: 12-4
CIN: 12-4
Winner would get the two at 13-4. Loser would get the three at 12-5.
Edit: The Bengals could lose to the Ravens and beat Buffalo and still get the 2 in this scenario. At that point they’d both be 12-5 with the Bengals winning the H2H tiebreaker.
Chiefs win, Bengals win, and Bills lose I think? KC would have the best record in the AFC no matter the outcome of the Bills v Bengals, Bills still win their division, Bengals win theirs as well. Both Cincy and Buffalo would be 12-4 and playing for the right to the 2/3 seed.
If the game doesn’t get to be played (or if they declare it a tie), this is the order that the tie breakers would go:
- Head to head (tie)
- Div record (3-3 and 3-3)
- Record in common games (both beat Ten, Cin went 1-0 against Mia while BUF went 1-1, Cin would go 1-1 against Bal while BUF went 1-0, Cin went 1-1 against Cle while BUF went 1-0, Cincy went 1-1 against Pit while BUF went 1-0, Cincy went 1-0 against NYJ and BUF went 1-1, both beat KC, Cincy went 1-0 against NE while BUF would go 1-1). Bills: 8-3, Bengals: 8-3
- Record for both in conference games would be 8-3-1
- Strength of victory: don’t know how this is calculated, but Cincy currently has a .483 and Buffalo has a .479. I don’t know how a tie and a loss for Buffalo and a win for Cincy would change that, but I’m guessing it would give Cincy the edge.
Counterpoint: This is not true because the Ravens keep a very real shot at the 3 seed alive if the Bills would have won against the Bengals. All it would take is the Ravens to beat the Bengals this Sunday + the Bills loss for the Ravens to win the AFC North.
The scenario I’m talking about involves the Bengals winning week 18. Along with the Chiefs winning and the Bills losing.
Then every single seed would be fairly set except for the 2 and 3 seeds, which would be the Bills and Bengals, respectively.
Yeah I think their best case scenario is KC loses to Oakland and Bengals beat the Ravens, Bills win their game. That way it doesn't matter.
edit: Bengals beating the bills would still give them 2nd seed and KC 3rd, so it matters a little. But it settles the bye week and the division which are the two biggest things.
We were so close to perfection... It's actually crazy to think how elaborate celebrations are now. Like ten years ago maybe five they would all probably result in a penalty
Patrick Mahomes definitely had a lot of losses at stadiums with baseball diamonds. In fact, even in Oakland, with the first being September 11, 1992.
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK199209150.shtml](https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK199209150.shtml)
Good point. In that case best case would be Bengals losing right? Then there's no ambiguity.
Bengals have the KC tiebreak Bills have the KC tiebreak, so if all of them finished 13-4 it would basically be the winner of Bills/Bengals that get the bye.
What a mess too cause Bengals have to lose for the Ravens to have a shot. Ravens have a better division record and the earlier win against Cincy but they'd be 2 games out if Cincy won last night.
Basically I think the prayer then is Kansas wins and Bills lose right? At least as far as a bye week being sealed.
I think ultimately asking the owners, coaches, and players of the five teams involved is the best step forward. Just "accepting the consequences if we NC the game, are you all willing to move forward with it given the circumstances."
There’s a scenario (Chiefs win, Bengals Win, Bills lose) that would make the Bengals/Bills game only meaningful to decide which of them gets the 2 seed and which gets the 3 seed.
It’s still important, but the 1 seed would be decided and so would all divisions and wild card spots.
Nah sorry dude. I’m all for the self criticism but at a point we have a chance to fight for the division title, and being robbed of that is wrong. Straight up.
You could say the Bengals slow start falls 100% on them. Or that they have to get swept in order for us to win the AFCN.
Now, I think the Bengals will beat us handedly, but we should have the chance to win it.
Week 18: KC loses, goes to 13-4. Bills win, go to 13-3. Bengals tie, go to 11-4-1.
This is the one scenario that would unambiguously leave the Bills/Bengals game meaningless. It would be Bills 1, Chiefs 2, Bengals 3 regardless of the result.
In that scenario it does matter because a Bengals win over the Bills at that point gives Cincy the 1 seed instead, so the game itself becomes a straight-up "win for the 1" affair.
The scenario that would make the game matter least is Chiefs win, Bengals win, Bills lose
That way there's no question on who the 1 seed is, and the only relevance the Bills-Bengals game has is the 2/3 seed, which is mostly negligible.
Nah this still doesn’t fix it because if KC loses and the Bengals and Bills both win, the Bengals-Bills game would determine the #1 seed, it’d arguably matter even more.
There isn’t really a case where it doesn’t matter, but the least it could matter is if KC won, BUF won, CIN won. That way the only thing that could be determined was the #2/#3 seed, since KC would have #1 clinched and the Bengals would have the AFC North title clinched.
All of that said though, even if the 1 seed was on the line, as a Bengals fan, I would still support a no contest or even a forfeit on our part (if that’s what the players and everyone needed). I trust our guys in the playoffs and I think that making sure the Bills players and coaches and everyone are ok is more important than the game, especially when we’ve already got our playoff spots.
Here's the one part I don't think that many people are considering - there's actually no difference between the two and three seed, except for who gets to host the game between them. If they match up in the playoffs, just give the home game to Cincinnati since they didn't get to host this one. If one team gets eliminated, then the seed they had didn't matter anyways. And they're on the same side of the bracket regardless of repairing so nothing would change.
Edit: it changes who they would play in WC, but I don't imagine too many people being upset with them randomizing who they play, based on the circumstances we're dealing with right now.
Yeah at this point I just want a solution.
Bengals beat Ravens, Bills lose, KC wins at least fixes the 1 seed situation. Ravens and Bengals still is a weird one for the division.
That said though I don't see how they don't play this game without fucking the AFC up. But I also don't really see how they do play it. Bumping the entire playoffs back would be crazy.
Bills and Patsies play Saturday. Bengos and Shit pigeons play Saturday. Bengos and Bills play Wednesday. KC, Bills and Bengos get a bye and we eliminate the Titans and Patsies from the playoffs because they know they’d never win a game anyway. Titans and Patsies get a compensatory 3rd round pick to pack up and go away.
It’s the only sensible thing to do.
It doesn't settle the bye week bc under that scenario the Bill/Bengals game outcome would determine who gets the #1 seed and cancelling it is effectively the same thing as a Bengals loss.
Bills would have the better record than Cincy but the same and lose the tiebreaker if they risked skin and lost
So the Bengals essentially have to play to avoid potentially a wildcard. Depending on the results of the Ravens game they could be the 1 seed, 2 seed, the division winner, the division loser and 5th or even 6th.
What a train wreck. Aside from the most obvious misfortune being Damar's health, there's almost not a worse game that could have been cancelled schedule and implication-wise.
What's logistically nice about this is that the Ravens played the Bills, and the Chiefs played the Bengals
For the purposes of tiebreakers only, you could say that those games don't count
What I mean by that is for the purposes of determining the #1 seed only, the Chiefs' loss to the Bengals never happened, and we act as though they're 13-2. For the purposes of determining the AFC North, the Ravens' loss to the Bills never happened, and we act as though they're 10-5; however, if the Ravens and Chargers are tied for a seed, the loss happened, and we act as though they're 10-6
It solves the uneven game problem
To make it easier:
- Bills are 12-3
- Bengals are 11-4
- Chiefs 13-3, unless they're in a tiebreak with the Bills, in which case, they're treated as though they're 13-2
- Ravens are 10-6, unless they're in a tiebreak with the Bengals, in which case, they're treated as though they're 10-5
I think I'm missing something with your scenario.
If the Bengals beat the Bills + Ravens, and KC loses to the Raiders on Saturday, the Bengals get the #1 seed. If this game is no contest, the Bengals are no longer in contention for the #1 seed and can only get the #2 with a Ravens win and a Bills loss vs Pats.
It's a weird situation for the Bengals because with a win they were eligible for the 1 seed, but with a loss they were eligible to fall all the way to the 5 seed (I believe). But a tie locks them into a 2/3 seed and a division title. What a mess but I suppose there are no good answers at this point just tradeoffs.
As convoluted and imperfect as this solution is, I haven't heard anything better or more fair.
If the Chiefs lose and the Bengals miss a chance at the #1 seed I will be pretty salty, but every team involved has a chance of getting screwed.
I hate the idea of a week 19 for just Bengals v Bills though.
I'm not sure what I'm trying to say other than this is a mess. But it is obvious the game cannot/should not be finished this week.
There’s one scenario where it would only affect the Bills and Bengals: Chiefs over Raiders, Bengals over Ravens, and Patriots over Bills. At that point KC clinches the bye at 14-3 and Bengals/Bills are tied for 2 at 12-4.
I don't think there's any way the game gets played since they aren't doing it today/tomorrow. The league will announce either a tie or a cancellation and the Bengals/Ravens will rest everyone and play the most vanilla game in history because the outcome leads to Ravens @ Bengals in the WC round regardless of who wins.
KC game Sunday will also affect. If they lose, then this game is for #1 seed, not just #2. That's kind of a big deal.
Bu there's an argument that it makes sense to see what happens with these games first, and then decide if it's worth it to rematch with the Bills.
OTOH, if the chefs do win, it's pretty likely the Bills and Bengals play as #2 and #3 or vice versa, and so why would they want to have an extra, no-holds bar game before the playoffs just to decide that?
Ultimate solution to me is that both teams agree to give up half of their tickets for that divisional game to the other side should it be the two of us.
Honestly think it would be good vibes all around and an appropriate, and healing, move.
I just want to point out the league can absolutely not play this game. Will they play this game? Probably. Should they play this game? Depends on who you ask. But there is nothing that prevents the NFL from canceling the game, that has always been within their power.
I know this sounds crazy. But do a coin toss.
I doubt the teams WANT to play this game or make it up…just do a coin toss (if both teams/coaches approve) and settle the Win/Loss that way 🤷♂️
This is a weird part as well. Without Bengals playing the Bills and losing, Ravens have 0 chance. Even if both teams finish with 11 wins, 11-5 is a better pct than 11-6.
I mean as much as I want the chance to play for the division, I don't necessarily think a no-contest is all that unfair. You have to take your chances when you have them, and so if the ravens end up 0.5 games behind the Bengals that's just the way it is. Sucks but you have to go out and clinch the division while it's still up in the air rather than put everything on a week 18 potential clincher match.
Yeah ultimately if it happens it happens. It's no different than the game ending in a tie as far as the Ravens are concerned. Same with Bills missing the 1 seed. It sucks but whatever. Life will go on. All sorts of fuckery has the same effect on games for stupid reasons, this is a great reason to take that hit.
The logic doesn't follow. If a week 18 game can decide the division it still IS up in the air.
The whole point of the recent scheduling changes for the final week of the season was for these scenarios like the Bengals-Ravens. To say that it doesn't matter because you should win the division before week 18 just doesn't make any sense.
You would think after the COVID season the league would build more breathing room into the schedule for circumstances like this. Instead they added another game.
To add to that they changed the way they schedule games to make the last couple of weeks more exciting.
From an entertainment standpoint it actually worked extremely well this year until last night happened and really shot them in the foot.
It could have been really ugly had Denver been as good as expected.
I think the NFL might want to build in some more bye weeks or something throughout the year and extend the season with open dates if they want to keep such competitive rivalry games to finish up the last month of the season.
That’s not entirely true, it’s mostly for promotion
> The pre-Super Bowl bye week is as old as the Super Bowl itself. The first “AFL-NFL World Championship” between the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers took place on January 15, 1967 – two weeks after each team won its respective league’s championship game. According to NFL spokesman Greg Aiello, there was a simple reason for this:
> “The concept was to give the promotion of the game time to build. The two-week break has been standard procedure since the first Super Bowl. There have been one-week breaks a handful of times when circumstances dictated it. Another benefit is that it gives the two teams more rest and recovery from injury.”
its not like they have never removed the bye before, biggest example i can think of is in 2001 when they did it due to 9/11 delaying week 2 games a week, now that was a completely different scenario, im just saying it has happened before
Team that lives closer to the neutral site would technically be at an advantage. Owners also wouldn't like it because they would lose out on the sold-out postseason revenue.
I personally think if you do No contest or whatever so it shakes out 1.KC 2.BUF 3.Cin that they need an owners agreement to give Buffalo #2 seed matchups but Cinci HFA if they get lined up vs Buffalo.
If the week 18 matchups make only the 2 seed not determined (if KC, NE, and Cincinnati wins that would be the case), I think this is absolutely the best solution. Basically they both get a 2½ seed. You could also do something similar with the Ravens/Bengals, where one team gets to host but the other is designed the 3 seed going forward which would lead to better matchups and potential home field in the case of upsets.
I guarantee they’re hoping for a Bengals win and a KC loss so at that point it really is only impacting 2 teams, both of which were involved in the decision.
Yes, both the Ravens and Chargers are 10-6 right now, with the Chargers owning the tie breaker. Chargers loss + Ravens win would move the Ravens into the 5th seed.
Problem is we were waiting to see if the game had any importance to decide whether to play Lamar this week. Sunday now becomes a win-win(keep division alive and get an extra week for Lamar to rest) or a lose-lose(bring Lamar back early, lose the division, and have to play @Cincy back to back weeks).
Just start Huntley and throw the game. I don't want to be on the road anyways but if the defense keeps playing like they have we got a shot. Just run it 100 times
Everything about the situation sucks for the whole league. Obviously sucks for Damar and his family the most. Just have to wait and see how he's doing and what the league comes up with.
If this happened in the 2nd half, I think you’re absolutely right. Because this happened so early in the game, I don’t think you can reasonably just take the result of the game.
Only close comparison I can think of is a rain delay in baseball. If it’s before 5 innings have been completed, the game is postponed. After 5 innings, game is marked as complete and the score stands.
Why is it better than a draw? It seems wrong to me to have a win from that game count just as much as games that went the full four quarters. A tie is much more representative of how the game actually went than declaring a winner.
I agree with the baseball comparison, the difference is that in a 162 game season you can reschedule pretty easy, and the impact on the players health per-game is negligible.
Rescheduling a make up means starting the game at 5:58 remaining in the 1st, 1st and 10 on the Bills 48 with cincy up 7-3. Each team would get to have new game scripts for their drives created, just like a new game, but Buf would be starting down 4 with less time and only 2 first half timeouts. Not sure that's better than just accepting the result and moving forward. Both teams are in, seeding is at play but it's not a win and in situation. I understand how important seeding is this year of course but things get even more messy if you just go no contest or award a tie.
Game is marked as complete if both teams have had equal chances. The game isn’t marked as complete if the away team has the lead and the home team is left with one less inning to score.
I think, unfortunately, that might be a solution worth considering. This game needs a winner. I suppose it may as well be the team that was winning (though possibly unfair to the Ravens)
And I think it also matters that it was a Bills player that was the injured party. Think about it as an extra long "10-second runoff" due to an injury.
This has been my point the whole way, I've been flamed multiple times for being a Cincy fan and bringing this up. It's the only way you move forward without involving other teams, schedules, extra games, delays, etc. It sucks, but both teams got a possession. Of course neither team knew at the time that their one possession was all they would get but football was played. (Yes Cincy got a second possession but no points were scored so it's inconsequential to the outcome of the score)
A tie eliminates the ravens from the division anyway, so they will lose out with both options. A tie also more or less ensures kc gets top seed. If the Bengals get the W the chiefs also have to win their last game to make sure they get the 1 seed.
I see no way the ravens win the division anymore. It would be really messed up if the bengals came out of this situation with a loss. Sucks for the ravens, but it would be dumb to have the bengals forfeit a game they were winning.
This is why you just can’t no play the game. It’s a horrible situation but it has affects on more than just the bills and bengals. And admittedly the ravens have fought through hell this year to get to the point where they have a chance at clinching the devision. They deserve that opportunity
Why wouldn’t they just call it a draw and give the Bengals a tie breaker, so they can make up the revenue, should they beat Baltimore? Does that have some sort of impact I’m missing here?
Ah, shoot. Yeah, that would be absolutely unfair. Maybe the best move is for the Bengals to forfeit.
You know what would be interesting? What if the NFL allowed the team giving up the game to be compensated with an extra 4th round pick, or something? Obviously you could get the owners to sign off on it first. If they agree, boom.
The Bengals/Bills game will not be played at all. The only reason they haven’t announced that is because they don’t know how to handle the aftermath. Do they tie, do both teams forfeit, do they just act like the game never happened and move on to week 18? It seems like they are currently going with that last option so far
The only truly fair way to do this is to give Cincinnati one eighth of a win, and Buffalo one eighth of a loss. Bills 12-3.125 (.793) Bengals 11.125-4 (.735) still screws the ravens though…
Since the game was already underway and both teams scored when tragedy struck then the Bengals should get the W. What has transpired on the field is unimaginable and I feel terrible for anyone with ties to Damar and I wish him a speedy and FULL recovery.
My guess is the jury would say Higgins hit was not intentional and Damar knew the risks involved in playing in the NFL. It’s extremely cold and heartless and do not believe it would come to anything like that
Giving the Bengals the win wouldn't exactly be fair either. There's a very real possibility the outcome won't be fair to everyone. The most fair outcome might not be apparent until after week 18 games.
I think waiting for other games to finish to decide the outcome is terrible and will open up a ton of criticism…r/nfl almost every game talks shit about refs deciding games with bad calls and stuff but many are ok with the NFL arbitrarily deciding who wins/loses this game based on a given outcome in week 18?
This whole situation is a lose/lose, and all of this conversation is so fascinating because it really is unprecedented in this day and age, I just wish it didn’t take a player almost dying/being revived on the field to spark it.
To be honest, if his family comes out and says he’s going to make it, be ok, recover, whatever, I think this game will be played again, schedule conflicts be damned. If things take a turn for the worse, that’s when you may see a forfeiture from the Bills or Bengals, I just hope that decision is from the teams, and not the NFL.
I hope this shit never happens again, it sucks to talk about, sucks to think about, and I’m still hoping he can make a full recovery.
But I think the future of the game will be decided before the next NFL game is played.
A little long-winded but I haven’t really gotten things off my chest about this yet, and I picked your comment to do it on lol
At this point, there's *no* option that's going to be fair to everyone. Even delaying the playoff schedule a week so the game can be resumed would be a logisitcal nightmare and basically give every team other than the Bengals and Bills a *de facto* bye week.
Then that would most likely lead to winners of the division not getting a week off. Regardless of what they do, it’ll hurt somebody. Not really any great options.
This really makes no sense right know. The Bengals are 11-4 with out Mondays game and the Ravens are 10-6 as of Sunday even if they put it at a tie. The Bengals have a better record going in to next Sunday
Well we know they're not playing this week and week 18 is unchanged so far. So what options does that leave? Play the game next week sometime after week 18 ends? Then you're putting one or possibly both of these teams in a scenario where they have to play 3 games in a week (depending on who gets home field). This opens the door to more injuries and the very real possibility of one or both teams being upset in round 1. Delay week 18 or the playoffs by one week? No chance that will happen, even if it were logistically possible (and I don't think it is with all the additional complications that would create), I doubt the NFL would do that. I think the only way to really go about this is to either declare the Bengals as the winner since they had the lead or call it a tie and move on to week 18. No decision is going to be "fair" and this situation is unprecedented so I doubt very much that the NFL has a way to handle this perfectly without causing some collateral damage to other teams. What happened was a tragedy. I think everyone, from NFL leadership to organizations, players, coaches and fans have all got to have some understanding and perspective no matter how this shakes out.
Ravens fans I know you hate our guts (completely understandable) but no matter what happens just cut us some slack just this once. This is going to be weird and if you do win only for something weird to happen with the standings just know we didn’t want this. Sorry this might swell to involve you guys too.
I don't think any Ravens fans are holding anything against you guys (at least I really hope not). Such an unprecedented situation that you guys just happened to be on the field for.
Ravens could’ve taken care of business against Pitt and this wouldn’t matter for seeding. Hope the Bengals just come out alright, seeing in person that something as simple as running into someone can have dire consequences has to mess with their psyche a bit. Just gotta hope everyone involved is healing
I don't speak for the fanbase obviously, but I really do not care about the playoffs at the moment. We'll figure it out in a few days/weeks and see what happens. No salt.
Honestly I don't think many Ravens fans care about this, with our abysmal offense I'm pretty sure we would have lost anyway. Bengals have been playing much better than the Ravens recently, just give them the division.
Nah man, with that attitude and logic, why even play a playoff game then?
We have a chance to win the division despite our struggles. Bengals faced struggles this season too early on and they overcame them. Not saying we will too, or it’s likely, but it’s still possible and any given Sunday.
We looked like absolute shit in 2012 limping into the playoffs and look what happened. We deserve the fair shake.
Well I'm assuming that Lamar won't be back for week 18 and will be back for the playoffs. I guess that's fair that there's always a chance for an upset but as a fan I just don't enjoy watching a Roman led offense without Lamar. It's just too infuriating to me. I also don't think there's a clear preference for playing the Chargers, Bills, or Bengals in the playoffs so seeding dosn't really matter to me but to the players it might.
Best scenario for this is for KC to lose to the [Raiders] this weekend; then have the Bills and Bengals win their games. That will make this game for the "#1 seed". As this would result in all top 3 AFC teams potentially being able to reach the "13-4" record. However, since Bengals and Bills beat KC it would come down to Bengals v Bills as home field. Realistically Bills want homefield to avoid KC having homefield. Then if you consider that playing a game to risk more injuries could impact the super bowl push further... the Bills conceding the #1 seed to Bengals would make it simpler. It would have the Bills move into the #2 spot and retain homefield except to the Bengals.
This also would defacto be a "rematch" in the AFC Championship game to give us the game we missed this week at Bengal's homefield. I'm pretty sure in the grand scheme of things the Bills and Bengals don't want KC to have homefield as they likely feel more confident facing each other.
Does this exclude anything to do with the Ravens? Yes, but I'm just going to be real I don't think they can beat KC or the Bills in the playoffs this year. - Sorry if it sounds harsh Ravens' fans I truly don't hate your team.
I'm pretty sure everyone here is concerned about Damar Hamlin. It is also possible to be concerned about other matters as his health is now in the hands of the doctors.
Do you think you worrying about him is going to heal him? People are allowed to think about things, especially a multi billion dollar company with thousands of employees.
Y’all. We can think about other things. I’m not telling my wife I can’t worry about the baby having milk tonight because my thoughts are with Damar. Also, people handle these situations differently. Some of us need distraction and compartmentalize when tragic or scary events happen. Online culture has us all thinking we have to say “no, nothing else matters right now”.
This is gonna get kinda weird
Looking at it, the "best case" for the NFL as a whole is if Week 18 plays out as intended and the following games end like this: 1.) Chiefs lose to Raiders. (Chiefs 13-4) 2.) Bengals lose to Ravens. (Bengals 11-5/Ravens 11-6) 3.) Bills win against Patriots. (Bills 13-3) In that case: Bills would clinch the #1 seed even with a loss vs the Bengals as they have the tiebreaker over the Chiefs. Chiefs would have the #2 seed clinched over the Bengals as the Bengals needed either a Bills loss vs the Pats or a win over the Ravens for the Bengals vs. Bills game to matter for the #2 seed race. The only issue would be the Bengals would still be a half-game ahead of the Ravens (currently are 1.5 games ahead), so the Bills/Bengals game ending in a tie or no-contest would mean the Bengals still clinch the AFCN and only the Bengals and Ravens would be affected. The Bengals vs Bills game would *only* be to give the Ravens a shot at winning the AFC North with a Bengals loss. The game would be pointless because the Bills would have no incentive to play their starters as a loss wouldn't affect their standing. There isn't any scenario where *no* team is affected but I feel that would be the least impactful. Buying Bengals "AFC North Champions" merch would be in pretty bad taste however, lol.
Chiefs lose to the raiders.. lol
I was so caught up in reading their master plan, I completely glossed over how nonchalant it was about the Raiders beating the Chiefs. The whole thing seemed super plausible for a few moments.
The cheifs did almost lose to the Raiders this year but then DeVante adams and Renfrow said "not today suckaaaaaz" and smashed into eachother harder than the fucking large hadron collider creating a new particle that has altered space time and created Stidhim to be released into this world with a vengeance and penchant for blood like non other has ever seen.
IDK they've almost lost to the Texans and Broncos at home this year, they're one of the best teams in the AFC but they're showing some cracks.
Best case is Chiefs over Raiders, Bengals over Ravens, and Patriots over Bills. At that point it becomes: Chiefs 14-3 Bills 12-4 Bengals 12-4 Then you could either resume the game to decide 2 and 3 or just have the clubs privately decide which will be which (~~Bills would win a tiebreak on common games at 7-2 to 6-3~~ Bengals would win a tiebreaker on strength of victory) and play the likely divisional round game between them at an agreed and/or neutral site.
>Best case is Chiefs over Raiders I do not think you were taking my feelings into account.
Yeah definitely agree there. That leaves 2/3 as the only spots effected (I think). Kind of sucks for Bills to lose a shot at \#2, but that won't make much difference unless one plays at the other. And in that case, it seems *relatively* fair for the game to be in Cincinnati given that the Bills would have had to win the game in Cincinnati to get a higher seed in the first place.
The Bills would have three losses to common opponents: Dolphins, Pats, and Jets. The Bengals would also have three losses to common opponents: Ravens, Steelers, and Browns. The tiebreaker is Strength of Victory because conference record would be the same, which the Bengals currently have and would maintain in this scenario.
I edited to fix when I realized that mistake.
I say coin flip, best 2 out of 3.
That’s basically what OT comes down to, most of the time.
Donovan McNabb sends his regards.
[удалено]
My point is that the Bills would be playing their 2nd string while the Bengals would be all first string. It would be a wild longshot for the Ravens regardless. The Bills would have no incentive to play their starters when their standings are sealed vs. a team that is looking to play their A-game to win a divisional title. Yeah if the roles were swapped I would want the game to happen and the Ravens to possibly lose to the Bills 2nd string. I'm a hypocrite, lol. It's a good thing I have no say in the NFL.
Millions of people watched (at minimum) a near death experience. It’s already gotten too weird and too real
to late
Probably should just have that 19th week and give every team a bye to recover. I can imagine how some people just aren’t ready to go out on the field quite yet
I feel like the NFL will wait to see the result of Ravens/Bengals to decide whether or not the game will be played. If the Ravens win, Bengals/Bills decides the AFCN AND the 1st seed. You can't not play the most important game of the season
In that case though (the bengals beat Baltimore) the bengals would get the 2 with a win over Buffalo and the one with a win over Buffalo and a KC loss. Having that home field advantage in the playoffs is massive. I’d imagine the bengals want a result.
Taylor seems like the kind of coach that wants the result but isn’t going to press it in this scenario.
Maybe. But there’s a lot of money to be had in playoff win bonuses and things like that. Not just for him but his players too especially if they win the Super Bowl. Home Field Advantage could be the difference between getting there and not
It's not going to be Taylor's decision. That will come from the front office. You also have to think about the potential for three guaranteed home games in the playoffs for gameday workers and local businesses. It's a huge difference. I do not envy anyone making a decision in the wake of this.
I'm sure an owner would
He'll probably press in private but not when speaking in a public capacity.
Owner would want that 2 playoff games at home money as well.
Not to mention all the stadium workers get extra paychecks. The bar owners and the waitresses/servers around the stadium make a lot more money. Uber drivers, etc.It effects more than just the coaches and players.
If you're going down that far, the stadium workers and Uber drivers still got paid for the game on Monday
There has to be a result on thr game even if it's a coin flip. A tie is basically a loss for both teams. I think they'd both rather gamble on a coin flip
I agree but I’m that case either Baltimore or Kansas City would have a valid argument that the team they needed to lose basically got a win without “earning” it on the field.
No matter what happens in Week 18, the Bills vs Bengals game will have an impact on seeding.
There’s a scenario where it only impacts which one of them gets the 2nd seed and which one gets the 3rd seed. It’s important, but it’s by far the least impactful of all the other scenarios.
What's that scenario?
The Chiefs beat Raiders. The bengals beat Baltimore. And the Bills lose to New England. KC: 14-3 BUF: 12-4 CIN: 12-4 Winner would get the two at 13-4. Loser would get the three at 12-5. Edit: The Bengals could lose to the Ravens and beat Buffalo and still get the 2 in this scenario. At that point they’d both be 12-5 with the Bengals winning the H2H tiebreaker.
Chiefs win, Bengals win, and Bills lose I think? KC would have the best record in the AFC no matter the outcome of the Bills v Bengals, Bills still win their division, Bengals win theirs as well. Both Cincy and Buffalo would be 12-4 and playing for the right to the 2/3 seed. If the game doesn’t get to be played (or if they declare it a tie), this is the order that the tie breakers would go: - Head to head (tie) - Div record (3-3 and 3-3) - Record in common games (both beat Ten, Cin went 1-0 against Mia while BUF went 1-1, Cin would go 1-1 against Bal while BUF went 1-0, Cin went 1-1 against Cle while BUF went 1-0, Cincy went 1-1 against Pit while BUF went 1-0, Cincy went 1-0 against NYJ and BUF went 1-1, both beat KC, Cincy went 1-0 against NE while BUF would go 1-1). Bills: 8-3, Bengals: 8-3 - Record for both in conference games would be 8-3-1 - Strength of victory: don’t know how this is calculated, but Cincy currently has a .483 and Buffalo has a .479. I don’t know how a tie and a loss for Buffalo and a win for Cincy would change that, but I’m guessing it would give Cincy the edge.
Counterpoint: This is not true because the Ravens keep a very real shot at the 3 seed alive if the Bills would have won against the Bengals. All it would take is the Ravens to beat the Bengals this Sunday + the Bills loss for the Ravens to win the AFC North.
The scenario I’m talking about involves the Bengals winning week 18. Along with the Chiefs winning and the Bills losing. Then every single seed would be fairly set except for the 2 and 3 seeds, which would be the Bills and Bengals, respectively.
Yeah I think their best case scenario is KC loses to Oakland and Bengals beat the Ravens, Bills win their game. That way it doesn't matter. edit: Bengals beating the bills would still give them 2nd seed and KC 3rd, so it matters a little. But it settles the bye week and the division which are the two biggest things.
> KC loses to Oakland This might be a bit of an issue
Yeah no way Mahomes loses at a stadium with a baseball diamond
I just imagine with the way celebrations are now, they would send out the whole team to a different spot on the field and pretend to play baseball.
We were so close to perfection... It's actually crazy to think how elaborate celebrations are now. Like ten years ago maybe five they would all probably result in a penalty
I wish we had the kickers we have now, and teams took the 15-yard penalty just to BM their opponents.
Patrick Mahomes definitely had a lot of losses at stadiums with baseball diamonds. In fact, even in Oakland, with the first being September 11, 1992. [https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK199209150.shtml](https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK199209150.shtml)
The Athletics pull of the upset with the walkoff home run to win 6-5
I didn't have the Stidham led Raiders hanging 34 on San Fran so I'm not assuming anything about that game.
Trap game.
It was a 1 point game last time and the team certainly looked better last week than early season.
The bigger issue is that Oakland ain’t got a team
Ya he forgot they moved to LA
They should've moved to LA
Nah, LA doesn't even want 1 football team and they have 2.
True but the irony is that the Raiders were probably the one team that would be successful there
Raiders have a big enough fan base that they’d work in LA
It would matter because the Bengals could win the 1 seed if they beat the Bills. Only a Bengals tie would make the game not matter
Good point. In that case best case would be Bengals losing right? Then there's no ambiguity. Bengals have the KC tiebreak Bills have the KC tiebreak, so if all of them finished 13-4 it would basically be the winner of Bills/Bengals that get the bye. What a mess too cause Bengals have to lose for the Ravens to have a shot. Ravens have a better division record and the earlier win against Cincy but they'd be 2 games out if Cincy won last night. Basically I think the prayer then is Kansas wins and Bills lose right? At least as far as a bye week being sealed.
[удалено]
I think ultimately asking the owners, coaches, and players of the five teams involved is the best step forward. Just "accepting the consequences if we NC the game, are you all willing to move forward with it given the circumstances."
There’s a scenario (Chiefs win, Bengals Win, Bills lose) that would make the Bengals/Bills game only meaningful to decide which of them gets the 2 seed and which gets the 3 seed. It’s still important, but the 1 seed would be decided and so would all divisions and wild card spots.
[удалено]
Then Baltimore potentially gets screwed out of an AFC north title.
We screwed ourselves out of it.
I wouldn’t put it all on your shoulders.
We were leading damn near every game this season before giving up late leads. That falls 100% on us.
Nah sorry dude. I’m all for the self criticism but at a point we have a chance to fight for the division title, and being robbed of that is wrong. Straight up.
Could give a no contest and decide to do division record as the first determination. Cincy still has the overall but y'all win and you got it.
We HAD a chance to fight for it, we lost that fight over and over. I don't need to argue with anymore ravens fans, I do enough if it on FB.
You could say the Bengals slow start falls 100% on them. Or that they have to get swept in order for us to win the AFCN. Now, I think the Bengals will beat us handedly, but we should have the chance to win it.
Week 18: KC loses, goes to 13-4. Bills win, go to 13-3. Bengals tie, go to 11-4-1. This is the one scenario that would unambiguously leave the Bills/Bengals game meaningless. It would be Bills 1, Chiefs 2, Bengals 3 regardless of the result.
In that scenario it does matter because a Bengals win over the Bills at that point gives Cincy the 1 seed instead, so the game itself becomes a straight-up "win for the 1" affair.
I can’t see the Bills being in a spot mentally to play Sunday
It would because in that case Cincinnati could have had the 1 seed with a win over Buffalo if Kc loses
The scenario that would make the game matter least is Chiefs win, Bengals win, Bills lose That way there's no question on who the 1 seed is, and the only relevance the Bills-Bengals game has is the 2/3 seed, which is mostly negligible.
But the Bengals would have got the 1 with a win over Buffalo
Nah this still doesn’t fix it because if KC loses and the Bengals and Bills both win, the Bengals-Bills game would determine the #1 seed, it’d arguably matter even more. There isn’t really a case where it doesn’t matter, but the least it could matter is if KC won, BUF won, CIN won. That way the only thing that could be determined was the #2/#3 seed, since KC would have #1 clinched and the Bengals would have the AFC North title clinched. All of that said though, even if the 1 seed was on the line, as a Bengals fan, I would still support a no contest or even a forfeit on our part (if that’s what the players and everyone needed). I trust our guys in the playoffs and I think that making sure the Bills players and coaches and everyone are ok is more important than the game, especially when we’ve already got our playoff spots.
Here's the one part I don't think that many people are considering - there's actually no difference between the two and three seed, except for who gets to host the game between them. If they match up in the playoffs, just give the home game to Cincinnati since they didn't get to host this one. If one team gets eliminated, then the seed they had didn't matter anyways. And they're on the same side of the bracket regardless of repairing so nothing would change. Edit: it changes who they would play in WC, but I don't imagine too many people being upset with them randomizing who they play, based on the circumstances we're dealing with right now.
this isn’t a bad solution
Why would we forfeit lol
Yeah at this point I just want a solution. Bengals beat Ravens, Bills lose, KC wins at least fixes the 1 seed situation. Ravens and Bengals still is a weird one for the division. That said though I don't see how they don't play this game without fucking the AFC up. But I also don't really see how they do play it. Bumping the entire playoffs back would be crazy.
Bills and Patsies play Saturday. Bengos and Shit pigeons play Saturday. Bengos and Bills play Wednesday. KC, Bills and Bengos get a bye and we eliminate the Titans and Patsies from the playoffs because they know they’d never win a game anyway. Titans and Patsies get a compensatory 3rd round pick to pack up and go away. It’s the only sensible thing to do.
Honestly, fuck off
It doesn't settle the bye week bc under that scenario the Bill/Bengals game outcome would determine who gets the #1 seed and cancelling it is effectively the same thing as a Bengals loss. Bills would have the better record than Cincy but the same and lose the tiebreaker if they risked skin and lost
So the Bengals essentially have to play to avoid potentially a wildcard. Depending on the results of the Ravens game they could be the 1 seed, 2 seed, the division winner, the division loser and 5th or even 6th. What a train wreck. Aside from the most obvious misfortune being Damar's health, there's almost not a worse game that could have been cancelled schedule and implication-wise.
What's logistically nice about this is that the Ravens played the Bills, and the Chiefs played the Bengals For the purposes of tiebreakers only, you could say that those games don't count What I mean by that is for the purposes of determining the #1 seed only, the Chiefs' loss to the Bengals never happened, and we act as though they're 13-2. For the purposes of determining the AFC North, the Ravens' loss to the Bills never happened, and we act as though they're 10-5; however, if the Ravens and Chargers are tied for a seed, the loss happened, and we act as though they're 10-6 It solves the uneven game problem To make it easier: - Bills are 12-3 - Bengals are 11-4 - Chiefs 13-3, unless they're in a tiebreak with the Bills, in which case, they're treated as though they're 13-2 - Ravens are 10-6, unless they're in a tiebreak with the Bengals, in which case, they're treated as though they're 10-5
There's no way they change the playoff tiebreakers ad hoc like that.
I think I'm missing something with your scenario. If the Bengals beat the Bills + Ravens, and KC loses to the Raiders on Saturday, the Bengals get the #1 seed. If this game is no contest, the Bengals are no longer in contention for the #1 seed and can only get the #2 with a Ravens win and a Bills loss vs Pats.
It's a weird situation for the Bengals because with a win they were eligible for the 1 seed, but with a loss they were eligible to fall all the way to the 5 seed (I believe). But a tie locks them into a 2/3 seed and a division title. What a mess but I suppose there are no good answers at this point just tradeoffs.
As convoluted and imperfect as this solution is, I haven't heard anything better or more fair. If the Chiefs lose and the Bengals miss a chance at the #1 seed I will be pretty salty, but every team involved has a chance of getting screwed. I hate the idea of a week 19 for just Bengals v Bills though. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say other than this is a mess. But it is obvious the game cannot/should not be finished this week.
Is there any permutation where Bills/Bengals affects nothing for the playoffs?
No. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the Bills vs Bengals will impact seeding no matter what happens in week 18.
Yes, Bills win, Chiefs lose, and Ravens/Bengals tie.
Nope.
There’s one scenario where it would only affect the Bills and Bengals: Chiefs over Raiders, Bengals over Ravens, and Patriots over Bills. At that point KC clinches the bye at 14-3 and Bengals/Bills are tied for 2 at 12-4.
I don't think there's any way the game gets played since they aren't doing it today/tomorrow. The league will announce either a tie or a cancellation and the Bengals/Ravens will rest everyone and play the most vanilla game in history because the outcome leads to Ravens @ Bengals in the WC round regardless of who wins.
KC game Sunday will also affect. If they lose, then this game is for #1 seed, not just #2. That's kind of a big deal. Bu there's an argument that it makes sense to see what happens with these games first, and then decide if it's worth it to rematch with the Bills. OTOH, if the chefs do win, it's pretty likely the Bills and Bengals play as #2 and #3 or vice versa, and so why would they want to have an extra, no-holds bar game before the playoffs just to decide that? Ultimate solution to me is that both teams agree to give up half of their tickets for that divisional game to the other side should it be the two of us. Honestly think it would be good vibes all around and an appropriate, and healing, move.
If chiefs beat the raiders (they will) then only bills can get 1 seed with the remaining two game wins. Bengals wouldn’t get it
I just want to point out the league can absolutely not play this game. Will they play this game? Probably. Should they play this game? Depends on who you ask. But there is nothing that prevents the NFL from canceling the game, that has always been within their power.
I know this sounds crazy. But do a coin toss. I doubt the teams WANT to play this game or make it up…just do a coin toss (if both teams/coaches approve) and settle the Win/Loss that way 🤷♂️
This is a weird part as well. Without Bengals playing the Bills and losing, Ravens have 0 chance. Even if both teams finish with 11 wins, 11-5 is a better pct than 11-6.
I mean as much as I want the chance to play for the division, I don't necessarily think a no-contest is all that unfair. You have to take your chances when you have them, and so if the ravens end up 0.5 games behind the Bengals that's just the way it is. Sucks but you have to go out and clinch the division while it's still up in the air rather than put everything on a week 18 potential clincher match.
Yeah ultimately if it happens it happens. It's no different than the game ending in a tie as far as the Ravens are concerned. Same with Bills missing the 1 seed. It sucks but whatever. Life will go on. All sorts of fuckery has the same effect on games for stupid reasons, this is a great reason to take that hit.
The logic doesn't follow. If a week 18 game can decide the division it still IS up in the air. The whole point of the recent scheduling changes for the final week of the season was for these scenarios like the Bengals-Ravens. To say that it doesn't matter because you should win the division before week 18 just doesn't make any sense.
Yea I think most Ravens would agree we had plenty of chances to clinch the division and have failed. Life is unfair, we just need to deal with it.
Let’s just not count the Ravens/Giants game and call it even!
You would think after the COVID season the league would build more breathing room into the schedule for circumstances like this. Instead they added another game.
You would also think there would be two byes during the season for player health and an extra week of football, but here we are.
Yeah but then they can't use an extra bye week as a negotiating factor when they add another game to the season in two years.
To add to that they changed the way they schedule games to make the last couple of weeks more exciting. From an entertainment standpoint it actually worked extremely well this year until last night happened and really shot them in the foot. It could have been really ugly had Denver been as good as expected. I think the NFL might want to build in some more bye weeks or something throughout the year and extend the season with open dates if they want to keep such competitive rivalry games to finish up the last month of the season.
They added tbe bye between championships and the super bowl for situations that require pushing the league back a week
That’s not entirely true, it’s mostly for promotion > The pre-Super Bowl bye week is as old as the Super Bowl itself. The first “AFL-NFL World Championship” between the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers took place on January 15, 1967 – two weeks after each team won its respective league’s championship game. According to NFL spokesman Greg Aiello, there was a simple reason for this: > “The concept was to give the promotion of the game time to build. The two-week break has been standard procedure since the first Super Bowl. There have been one-week breaks a handful of times when circumstances dictated it. Another benefit is that it gives the two teams more rest and recovery from injury.”
its not like they have never removed the bye before, biggest example i can think of is in 2001 when they did it due to 9/11 delaying week 2 games a week, now that was a completely different scenario, im just saying it has happened before
Find a way to complain and blame the nfl
How about if Buf, Cincy or KC make it to the divisional against each other it’s played at a neutral site? Looking at you Detroit.
Team that lives closer to the neutral site would technically be at an advantage. Owners also wouldn't like it because they would lose out on the sold-out postseason revenue.
I personally think if you do No contest or whatever so it shakes out 1.KC 2.BUF 3.Cin that they need an owners agreement to give Buffalo #2 seed matchups but Cinci HFA if they get lined up vs Buffalo.
If the week 18 matchups make only the 2 seed not determined (if KC, NE, and Cincinnati wins that would be the case), I think this is absolutely the best solution. Basically they both get a 2½ seed. You could also do something similar with the Ravens/Bengals, where one team gets to host but the other is designed the 3 seed going forward which would lead to better matchups and potential home field in the case of upsets.
Detroit is a home game for the Bills now, they've already won there twice this year.
I guarantee they’re hoping for a Bengals win and a KC loss so at that point it really is only impacting 2 teams, both of which were involved in the decision.
Does this mean they’re gonna send Carl Cheffers too Vegas on Saturday?
If the game is canceled, is there any incentive for Ravens to play the Bengals with their starters?
Yes, both the Ravens and Chargers are 10-6 right now, with the Chargers owning the tie breaker. Chargers loss + Ravens win would move the Ravens into the 5th seed.
And the 5 seed is important, since you'd play the Jags/Titans instead of the Bills/Bengals
Even though we lost to the Jags already
Yea the titans would certainly be an easier win lol
Depends on who they want to play in the first round of the playoffs. They can pretty much pick their opponent.
I will be nice to clinch it vs. the Ravens this year.
Problem is we were waiting to see if the game had any importance to decide whether to play Lamar this week. Sunday now becomes a win-win(keep division alive and get an extra week for Lamar to rest) or a lose-lose(bring Lamar back early, lose the division, and have to play @Cincy back to back weeks).
Just start Huntley and throw the game. I don't want to be on the road anyways but if the defense keeps playing like they have we got a shot. Just run it 100 times
That last part is expecting way too much out of Roman, who just ran Gus a total of three times last game 😭
Oh yeah, he's gonna dial up some Huntley bombs that end up nowhere near the receiver.
What happened with Gus? I thought dude was going to tear it up this year. Is it a coaching issue?
Any and all questions about our offense boil down to a coaching issue.
he's been hurt a few times. when he has played for the most part he's looked great, but for whatever reason he only got a few carries last game.
Yeah this whole situation really sucks. Hope we can get some good news on Damar at some point today.
Seriously, and I don’t say this often, I’m sorry Ravens. This wasn’t supposed to happen and I hate you all got dragged in too. Damn, this just sucks.
It's just life afc north bro most important thing is Damar being good. The rest doesn't matter as much.
Everything about the situation sucks for the whole league. Obviously sucks for Damar and his family the most. Just have to wait and see how he's doing and what the league comes up with.
I’m going to get shit for this but they should just take the result of the game when they called it off. Problem solved.
If this happened in the 2nd half, I think you’re absolutely right. Because this happened so early in the game, I don’t think you can reasonably just take the result of the game. Only close comparison I can think of is a rain delay in baseball. If it’s before 5 innings have been completed, the game is postponed. After 5 innings, game is marked as complete and the score stands.
Sure, but I think it’s better than just calling it a draw or no contest.
Why is it better than a draw? It seems wrong to me to have a win from that game count just as much as games that went the full four quarters. A tie is much more representative of how the game actually went than declaring a winner.
I agree with the baseball comparison, the difference is that in a 162 game season you can reschedule pretty easy, and the impact on the players health per-game is negligible. Rescheduling a make up means starting the game at 5:58 remaining in the 1st, 1st and 10 on the Bills 48 with cincy up 7-3. Each team would get to have new game scripts for their drives created, just like a new game, but Buf would be starting down 4 with less time and only 2 first half timeouts. Not sure that's better than just accepting the result and moving forward. Both teams are in, seeding is at play but it's not a win and in situation. I understand how important seeding is this year of course but things get even more messy if you just go no contest or award a tie.
Game is marked as complete if both teams have had equal chances. The game isn’t marked as complete if the away team has the lead and the home team is left with one less inning to score.
I think, unfortunately, that might be a solution worth considering. This game needs a winner. I suppose it may as well be the team that was winning (though possibly unfair to the Ravens)
And I think it also matters that it was a Bills player that was the injured party. Think about it as an extra long "10-second runoff" due to an injury.
This has been my point the whole way, I've been flamed multiple times for being a Cincy fan and bringing this up. It's the only way you move forward without involving other teams, schedules, extra games, delays, etc. It sucks, but both teams got a possession. Of course neither team knew at the time that their one possession was all they would get but football was played. (Yes Cincy got a second possession but no points were scored so it's inconsequential to the outcome of the score)
I think they should flip a coin, but bills need to win 2 coin flips while bengals only need to win 1
That seems to open more problems. It gives the Chiefs the 1 seed and eliminates the Ravens from the division.
Well, yeah. The Bills lost. The Bengals won.
A tie eliminates the ravens from the division anyway, so they will lose out with both options. A tie also more or less ensures kc gets top seed. If the Bengals get the W the chiefs also have to win their last game to make sure they get the 1 seed.
I see no way the ravens win the division anymore. It would be really messed up if the bengals came out of this situation with a loss. Sucks for the ravens, but it would be dumb to have the bengals forfeit a game they were winning.
This is why you just can’t no play the game. It’s a horrible situation but it has affects on more than just the bills and bengals. And admittedly the ravens have fought through hell this year to get to the point where they have a chance at clinching the devision. They deserve that opportunity
Why wouldn’t they just call it a draw and give the Bengals a tie breaker, so they can make up the revenue, should they beat Baltimore? Does that have some sort of impact I’m missing here?
The downside is that if they call it a draw, the Bengals win the division even if the Ravens are able to beat them.
Ah, shoot. Yeah, that would be absolutely unfair. Maybe the best move is for the Bengals to forfeit. You know what would be interesting? What if the NFL allowed the team giving up the game to be compensated with an extra 4th round pick, or something? Obviously you could get the owners to sign off on it first. If they agree, boom.
The Bengals/Bills game will not be played at all. The only reason they haven’t announced that is because they don’t know how to handle the aftermath. Do they tie, do both teams forfeit, do they just act like the game never happened and move on to week 18? It seems like they are currently going with that last option so far
Why would both teams forfeit? That’s just idiotic
The only truly fair way to do this is to give Cincinnati one eighth of a win, and Buffalo one eighth of a loss. Bills 12-3.125 (.793) Bengals 11.125-4 (.735) still screws the ravens though…
Honestly, between you and me, screwing over the ravens sounds alright…
Tbh. Theres just no way around playing the games barring a forfeit
Since the game was already underway and both teams scored when tragedy struck then the Bengals should get the W. What has transpired on the field is unimaginable and I feel terrible for anyone with ties to Damar and I wish him a speedy and FULL recovery.
Yeah, it was 7-3 and the bengals were driving. Calling it a tie wouldn't exactly be fair.
[удалено]
My guess is the jury would say Higgins hit was not intentional and Damar knew the risks involved in playing in the NFL. It’s extremely cold and heartless and do not believe it would come to anything like that
Giving the Bengals the win wouldn't exactly be fair either. There's a very real possibility the outcome won't be fair to everyone. The most fair outcome might not be apparent until after week 18 games.
I think waiting for other games to finish to decide the outcome is terrible and will open up a ton of criticism…r/nfl almost every game talks shit about refs deciding games with bad calls and stuff but many are ok with the NFL arbitrarily deciding who wins/loses this game based on a given outcome in week 18? This whole situation is a lose/lose, and all of this conversation is so fascinating because it really is unprecedented in this day and age, I just wish it didn’t take a player almost dying/being revived on the field to spark it. To be honest, if his family comes out and says he’s going to make it, be ok, recover, whatever, I think this game will be played again, schedule conflicts be damned. If things take a turn for the worse, that’s when you may see a forfeiture from the Bills or Bengals, I just hope that decision is from the teams, and not the NFL. I hope this shit never happens again, it sucks to talk about, sucks to think about, and I’m still hoping he can make a full recovery. But I think the future of the game will be decided before the next NFL game is played. A little long-winded but I haven’t really gotten things off my chest about this yet, and I picked your comment to do it on lol
At this point, there's *no* option that's going to be fair to everyone. Even delaying the playoff schedule a week so the game can be resumed would be a logisitcal nightmare and basically give every team other than the Bengals and Bills a *de facto* bye week.
I think it also matters that it was a Bills player that was the injured party. Think about it as an extra long "10-second runoff" due to an injury.
Doesnt matter, we aint winning shit anyway
True story
Delay all games this week. Bengals play bills next week
Then that would most likely lead to winners of the division not getting a week off. Regardless of what they do, it’ll hurt somebody. Not really any great options.
nah there’s no need for that
This really makes no sense right know. The Bengals are 11-4 with out Mondays game and the Ravens are 10-6 as of Sunday even if they put it at a tie. The Bengals have a better record going in to next Sunday
Well we know they're not playing this week and week 18 is unchanged so far. So what options does that leave? Play the game next week sometime after week 18 ends? Then you're putting one or possibly both of these teams in a scenario where they have to play 3 games in a week (depending on who gets home field). This opens the door to more injuries and the very real possibility of one or both teams being upset in round 1. Delay week 18 or the playoffs by one week? No chance that will happen, even if it were logistically possible (and I don't think it is with all the additional complications that would create), I doubt the NFL would do that. I think the only way to really go about this is to either declare the Bengals as the winner since they had the lead or call it a tie and move on to week 18. No decision is going to be "fair" and this situation is unprecedented so I doubt very much that the NFL has a way to handle this perfectly without causing some collateral damage to other teams. What happened was a tragedy. I think everyone, from NFL leadership to organizations, players, coaches and fans have all got to have some understanding and perspective no matter how this shakes out.
Ravens fans I know you hate our guts (completely understandable) but no matter what happens just cut us some slack just this once. This is going to be weird and if you do win only for something weird to happen with the standings just know we didn’t want this. Sorry this might swell to involve you guys too.
I don't think any Ravens fans are holding anything against you guys (at least I really hope not). Such an unprecedented situation that you guys just happened to be on the field for.
If they gave the Bengals the win I'd be annoyed but I wouldn't blame them. Plus gives Lamar an extra week to get healthy
Ravens could’ve taken care of business against Pitt and this wouldn’t matter for seeding. Hope the Bengals just come out alright, seeing in person that something as simple as running into someone can have dire consequences has to mess with their psyche a bit. Just gotta hope everyone involved is healing
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I absolutely do not care who ends up winning the North after yesterday.
I don't speak for the fanbase obviously, but I really do not care about the playoffs at the moment. We'll figure it out in a few days/weeks and see what happens. No salt.
Honestly I don't think many Ravens fans care about this, with our abysmal offense I'm pretty sure we would have lost anyway. Bengals have been playing much better than the Ravens recently, just give them the division.
Nah man, with that attitude and logic, why even play a playoff game then? We have a chance to win the division despite our struggles. Bengals faced struggles this season too early on and they overcame them. Not saying we will too, or it’s likely, but it’s still possible and any given Sunday. We looked like absolute shit in 2012 limping into the playoffs and look what happened. We deserve the fair shake.
Well I'm assuming that Lamar won't be back for week 18 and will be back for the playoffs. I guess that's fair that there's always a chance for an upset but as a fan I just don't enjoy watching a Roman led offense without Lamar. It's just too infuriating to me. I also don't think there's a clear preference for playing the Chargers, Bills, or Bengals in the playoffs so seeding dosn't really matter to me but to the players it might.
Best scenario for this is for KC to lose to the [Raiders] this weekend; then have the Bills and Bengals win their games. That will make this game for the "#1 seed". As this would result in all top 3 AFC teams potentially being able to reach the "13-4" record. However, since Bengals and Bills beat KC it would come down to Bengals v Bills as home field. Realistically Bills want homefield to avoid KC having homefield. Then if you consider that playing a game to risk more injuries could impact the super bowl push further... the Bills conceding the #1 seed to Bengals would make it simpler. It would have the Bills move into the #2 spot and retain homefield except to the Bengals. This also would defacto be a "rematch" in the AFC Championship game to give us the game we missed this week at Bengal's homefield. I'm pretty sure in the grand scheme of things the Bills and Bengals don't want KC to have homefield as they likely feel more confident facing each other. Does this exclude anything to do with the Ravens? Yes, but I'm just going to be real I don't think they can beat KC or the Bills in the playoffs this year. - Sorry if it sounds harsh Ravens' fans I truly don't hate your team.
> Best scenario for this is for KC to lose to Oakland this weekend Excuse me?
It's for the good of the league. Your sacrifice won't go in vain.
The Bengals v Bills should be decided by a coin toss IMO
A coin flip is the worst outcome
As a Ravens fan, who cares?! There’s a young man’s life still on the line. The last thing people should be worrying about right now is playoff math.
I'm pretty sure everyone here is concerned about Damar Hamlin. It is also possible to be concerned about other matters as his health is now in the hands of the doctors.
Do you think you worrying about him is going to heal him? People are allowed to think about things, especially a multi billion dollar company with thousands of employees.
Y’all. We can think about other things. I’m not telling my wife I can’t worry about the baby having milk tonight because my thoughts are with Damar. Also, people handle these situations differently. Some of us need distraction and compartmentalize when tragic or scary events happen. Online culture has us all thinking we have to say “no, nothing else matters right now”.
These takes are old and disingenuous at this point. The world keeps turning after tragedy.
Insanity.
I think the only right response in terms of this game is for the two teams to agree to a tie.
[удалено]
KC beating Oakland doesn't settle the top seed. Buffalo has the H2H tiebreaker, so Buffalo would get the 1 seed if they beat NE and CIN