BLeonard

Nope. The game was cancelled, so it in effect does not exist. As a result, the Bills would finish 13-3, while the Bengals would be 12-4. You have to look at it as if the Bills and Bengals weren't scheduled to meet at all this season. There is no tiebreaker because there is no tie. The Bills have the better record, so they host.

Long story short here is, as long as the Bills win Sunday, they will not go on the road, unless they play KC and even that would be at a neutral location. IF KC loses Saturday and the Bills win, the Bills could host KC in the AFC Championship in Buffalo.

The only way it would be at a neutral site is if the Bills make it as the road team. Regardless of what else happens, if the Bills win Sunday, they will not go on the road, except if they play the Chiefs and that would be at a neutral site.

So, long story short for the Bills: KC loss + Bills win = Bills #1 Seed - Bye and HFA KC win + Bills win OR CIN loss = Bills #2 Seed - Potential Wild Card Round matchups are JAX, NE, MIA, PIT Bills lose + Bengals win = Bills #3 Seed - Hosting BLT in the Wild Card Round Of the remaining teams in the playoff hunt, the Bills cannot play the Titans or Chargers in the Wild Card Round.

I don't see why the Bills wouldn't get the #1 outright if the Chiefs lose and the Bills win. They'd be a game up in the loss column, plus they'd have the tiebreaker on KC.

Crazy how one play can completely change a season, huh? Last year, the QB sneak against Tennessee cost the Bills the #1 seed and now this one play could end up doing the same.

I don't think a forfeit is happening, regardless. Even announcing it as a tie messes with winning percentage. I'm guessing it's ruled a no contest.

I mean, they looked ok last week without him. Not saying they WILL beat KC, but Houston took the Chiefs to OT and the Colts beat them, so it's not like it's impossible.

If KC loses to the Raiders and the Bills beat NE, they'd be a game ahead of KC in the loss column, along with having the tiebreaker. I don't see how the Bills wouldn't be awarded the #1 seed, along with the bye and HFA if that were to happen.

If the Bills lose to NE and the Bengals beat Baltimore, the Bengals would be the #2 and play New England. Bills would host the Ravens.

That's why I said before, if you're splitting the bye and HFA, you don't have any "neutral field" nonsense. That would nullify the advantage the team that receives HFA would get, if they would have to play at a neutral site anyway.

How you gonna give two teams a bye with 8 teams involved? You'd have 6 teams playing and 2 on a bye. The 6 teams play 3 games, producing three winners. 3+2 = 5

Doesn't make sense to split the 1 seed benefits AND have the AFC Championship at a neutral site. If KC, for example, chooses the bye, then the Bills should get HFA throughout, regardless of who's playing. 8 teams with two byes means 6 teams playing 3 games on WC weekend, producing 3 winners. Meaning there would be 5 teams in the divisional round. So, that wouldn't work, unless you can find a way to have three teams play in one game.

It's coming soon, I'm pretty sure:

There's your answer. New season, new bottle. Also, obviously, NEVER pull a bottle out again until the clock is at triple zeroes. Can't agree with keeping the bottle. Keeping it too close to a new bottle could pass on bad juju.

https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-buffalo-bills-cincinnati-bengals-sports-nfl-football-0aaf8589e7bc364a6625b19eb48f3233 No new news on playoff status.

What have you done in the past? Like, what happened to the bottle from the 2020 AFC Championship Game?

Not necessarily. If the Bills lose and the Bengals win, the Bengals would get the #2 seed based on the strength of victory tiebreaker.

Or, Bengals/Chiefs. That's how I am reading it as well. That said, I also read this as either/or. Either they're gonna have the AFC Championship at a neutral site, if two of those three teams are involved, OR the #1 seed gets a choice between home field and a bye, while the #2 gets the other. It makes no sense for the Chiefs to get to choose a bye or HFA, only to have the game at a neutral site, if 2 of the Bills, Bengals and Chiefs are in it. If the Chiefs choose the bye, the Bills should get HFA, regardless of who they play.

They'd also have a chance to lose the AFC North to the Ravens. The Bills/Bengals game not being played essentialy hands the division to the Bengals. I get that no solution is gonna be victim proof here. That can't be avoided. A couple teams are gonna get a bit burned here. What CAN be done is to split the benefits of the 1 seed in half to balance things a bit. If the Bills and Chiefs win, KC would then get the choice of a bye or HFA. The Bills get the other. If the Bills and Chiefs lose, while the Bengals win, you could again split the HFA and bye between KC and Cincy. If the Bills and Bengals win, while the Chiefs lose, the Bills get the 1, while you could have KC choose between having the 2 or 3 seed, based on the matchup, or having HFA if the Chiefs and Bengals meet in the divisional round. Again, at least every team would have something to play for, while not weighing one seed over the other as dramatically as it would be normally.

The issue Baltimore would have is that, if they beat Cincy on Sunday, they'd have beaten them both times and only have one more loss. But, the Bengals would be awarded the division based on better winning percentage, despite playing less games. Pittsburgh can still get in. This only affects their chances if the Bills rest starters vs NE due to not being able to get the 1 seed. If I had to guess, I'd say the Bills will want to put their best effort forward for Damar and the chance of locking down the 2 seed at minimum. I don't see KC getting the #1 seed as a "small benefit." They'd be getting a bye AND HFA. The fact that the Bills and Bengals BOTH beat KC head to head make it an even bigger benefit. Again, there's no 100% fair way to do it, but I'm leaning towards, if KC is getting the 1 seed that way, they should have to choose between having the bye or HFA, not both. IMO, this is about as fair as you can make it, without disrupting everything. If KC beats the Raiders and the Bills beat the Patriots, they'd each have 3 losses. Due to the extra game, KC would have a higher winning percentage. So, they get the choice of either HFA or a bye to the divisional round. The Bills get the other. The team that got the bye would then have to go on the road if the two teams met in the AFC Championship. It also helps ensure that all of the games this weekend still have at least some level of importance, so nobody is playing backups. At least, in that situation, KC isn't just being handed the #1 seed and all of the benefits that go with it.

Oh, I don't disagree that it's a better solution than shoehorning the game in. Just kinda sucks that, after all of the focus on getting the #1 seed, it's gone because of this and the one team that both the Bengals and Bills beat head to head is the beneficiary. Thinking about it more, I'm curious why they couldn't use another metric besides winning percentage, since there would be an uneven amount of games played. Why not strength of victory? At least that would allow the uneven number of wins to be weighted in an even metric. Another idea that I've seen floated is to split the benefits of the #1 seed between two teams if all three win this weekend. Give KC the option of either HFA OR the bye. The Bills would get the other. As I've said in other posts, there's no clean, simple answer and some team (or teams) are gonna get shafted a little here.

Well, they cut Rhodes today, so guessing that's a no. In all seriousness, the discussion has been had elsewhere and we're in uncharted territory. I don't recall a suspended game ever being resumed at a later date, so no idea what the roster rules would be. I would THINK that, if they were to resume the game, the teams would be limited to who was on the active roster when the game started, but again, that's just my guess and, to the best of my knowledge, there's nothing in the rulebook about it, either.

Really sucks that the Chiefs would benefit here, especially since they lost to both the Bills and Bengals, but it's also most likely the easiest solution.

Forfeit? I doubt it. Rest starters? Quite possible. Even though the #2 seed doesn't get a bye, they would still get HFA in the divisional round, so it's not exactly a "nothing to play for" situation.