UKBillFan

I think the Bills will play the Patriots. Will it be a full roster of available players? That I have doubts about.

And it is for the players and coaching staff to decide. Not for any of us to decide for them.

In that scenario, the game would “need” to be played from the point of view of the Ravens. Though the Bills would probably field back ups as they’d have nothing to play for.

The only issue is how does the NFL respond to a no contest? I presume winning percentages to decide the seeding order. As long as the Bengals beat the Ravens on Sunday this won’t affect any other team - if the Chiefs beat the Raiders they’ll have the better winning percentage; if they lose and the Bills beat the Pats then the Bills will have the better winning percentage. The problem would be if the Ravens beat the Bengals. By winning percentage, the Bengals would still hold the three seed over the Ravens.

One thing I’d say about playing the game - if we do so, let it be a Thursday night game rather than a Sunday night. Give another couple of days to recover before the Wildcard round. The big question is is the week’s gap between the Conference Championships and Super Bowl needed? The neatest thing would be to remove it.

Though it’s only a rumour at this stage. If the Chiefs beat the Raiders and Bengals beat the Ravens I’d be tempted to said the back ups to Cincinnati at forget about the number one seed.

We’re playing the Bengals to round off the regular season. The remaining AFC teams in the play offs get a bye.

There’s more on Bengals-Ravens that Patriots-Bills, though obviously there’s an emotional connection for many to the latter.

Yes. Is it much worse than the seventh seed managing it?

To negate the advantage of the number one seed; to lessen it's importance. Do that and it's easier to waive Bengals-Bills, particularly if the Benglas beat the Ravens on Sunday.

Just to say, Hendrickson, not Hutchinson. Both plays should be cited. If either had resulted in serious injury I would have no sympathy for the defensive player like I do Tee Higgins right now.

Though, in this scenario, plans wouldn’t be disrupted beyond Chiefs, Bengals or Bills possibly not getting to play one or two games at home despite holding a weakened number one seed. And the Bills were forced to play a home game elsewhere in the regular season to start with. Plus two further teams get a shot at the play offs. In fairness, the title of the OP is “if Bills-Bengals is not replayed”.

The other possibility is for the NFL to change the structure of the Play Offs. Open the Play Offs to eight teams rather than seven, and scrap the bye for the first seed. In the AFC, if/when the Chiefs, Bengals and/or Bills meet, the game/s will be held on a neutral field. That negates much of the first seed advantage and placings can then be decided by win percentage without completing Bills-Bengals.

Except the Ravens who, in that scenario, would claim the third seed if the Bills beat the Bengals. Not that the Bills would, because they’d rest the starters.

Agreed. I think at least one of the Chiefs or Bengals will win at the weekend so the number one seed would still be up for grabs, as long as the Bills beat the Pats. But, should they both lose and the Bills win, then they’d as good as forfeit the Bengals game anyway. It would be pointless and I can understand the Ravens not being impressed (whilst acknowledging they’d do the same thing in the Bills position).

Not quite. If the Bills, Ravens and Raiders win, then the AFC North and the number three seed is still up for grabs. If the Bengals beat the Bills they take it; if the Bills beat the Bengals then the Ravens do.

If the Bills beat the Pats whilst the Chiefs/Bengals both lose then the number one seed is sewn up. The Bengals game would not matter to us. I said we may as well forfeit as we’ll field the back up players at Paycor in this scenario to protect the first team players for the play offs. If the Bengals lose to the Ravens then us forfeiting the Cincinnati game would mean Baltimore miss out on the chance of the third seed.

The only chance is if Bengals-Bills is played on Thursday 12th January. Both teams will then get a mini bye heading into the following wildcard weekend. It’s not perfect in the slightest but nothing is in this situation. Of course, if the Bills beat the Pats whilst the Chiefs and Bengals both lose in week 18 (unlikely IMO) then the game becomes pointless for the Bills, though will still have something riding on it for the Bengals.

And if the game is then played again the Bills will field a weakened side in that scenario anyway. So they may as well forfeit and be done with it for all the good it would do the Ravens.

Is he? Can’t see anything of the sort on his Twitter account. Or do you mean Darren Revell?

The Ravens won’t have a chance of winning the division; they would if we beat the Bengals. It also means the Chiefs hold the number one spot. If the Bills had beaten the Bengals, they would be heading he conference going into the game against the Pats.

Yes. For the Patriots it’s a case of win and in.

In fairness, I wish the Vikings had in that scenario…

If KC and the Bengals win then we still get the number one seed by beating the Bengals. Of course, they may rest a bunch of starters against us in that scenario as they won’t be in the fight for first seed.

Yes, we had definitely lost. Have no idea why the Vikings didn’t pack up and leave halfway through the game against the Colts either.