Playoff Solutions Assuming they don’t replay the Bengals game.

[BRH]

I haven't read all the suggestions, but my son just said this:

 

- Don't play this game.

- Cancel the KC-Raiders game next Sunday because the Raiders are out of the playoffs and KC has already won their division.

- Let Cincinnati and Buffalo play their games because they involve a division title (in Cincinnati/Baltimore's case) and a playoff berth (in New England's case).

 

No playoff games are eliminated or moved.

 

I kind of like it.  It's completely unfair to give KC the 1 seed outright because of this game being canceled.  KC already played their game this week and won.  Let Cincinnati and Buffalo have their games next week.  Then all three teams have played 16 games and the 1 seed/bye can be more fairly decided.

[Dr. Who]

Just now, Nineforty said:

or they could play the game asap. I know it's tough. and I think the players/coaches should be the ones making this decision. But I do think many are underestimating the will some of the players would have to play. 

 

with the family making a statement later, that probably would go a long way towards how the players would feel about that.

Unless there were really good news coming out sooner than seems plausible, I can't imagine the players being anywhere near wanting to play.

[Mr. WEO]

1 hour ago, Big Blitz said:

 

There is ZERO chance the Bills are playing 2 games in 5 days then possibly a playoff game 6 days after any Monday night game. 
 

I said this last night I’ll say it again.  If the updates on Damar are still critical, there will not be any games this weekend.  

 

NFL would wipe out there week 18 if he's still in a coma?

 

that's not going to happen.

[dave mcbride]

10 minutes ago, BBills_88 said:

Give both Buf and Cin a Tie.

Allow 1 more team the playoff a spot for this scenario. and give the 1 & 2 seed a BYE week. 

 

Next week's game will count 

That's actually a really good solution that has the added benefit of making another fanbase happy. No one loses!

[26TrapDraw]

18 minutes ago, Pabstblueribbon said:

I think the NFL will reschedule this game to tomorrow/Thursday night and push the respective teams upcoming games further into next week. From there it will likely be buffalo's decision whether they want to forfeit or play. The circumstances and optics are horrible but it's the least intrusive way to try and contain this and minimize impacting the rest of the league IMO.

 

 

I’m thinking it will go along these lines or something like it. As gutted as we are for Damar it was our player and the whole league has to abide by the same set of rules. If there is a disadvantage unfortunately it should be the Bills that get it in trying to finish this game. If it’s back in Cincy Thursday with 8 min left in first quarter with the score being 7-3 then the Bills will need to suck it up and play as harsh as that is and as heavy hearted as they will be I’m sure it is the fair way this goes down.

[Boatdrinks]

1 minute ago, BeefCurtns said:

I’m thinking it will go along these lines or something like it. As gutted as we are for Damar it was our player and the whole league has to abide by the same set of rules. If there is a disadvantage unfortunately it should be the Bills that get it in trying to finish this game. If it’s back in Cincy Thursday with 8 min left in first quarter with the score being 7-3 then the Bills will need to suck it up and play as harsh as that is and as heavy hearted as they will be I’m sure it is the fair way this goes down.

In such a scenario the Bills could decide to ( not “ have to” ) forfeit the game and that would be fine. 

[dma0034]

1 minute ago, dave mcbride said:

That's actually a really good solution that has the added benefit of making another fanbase happy. No one loses!

 

It's not though because the Bengals wouldn't get a bye despite having the game at home and up 7-3 to jump to the 2 seed.

 

You go that route you need to do 9 teams and they should be locked in now. Pats, Dolphins, Steelers. 

 

Round 1:

Steelers at Jags

Dolphins at Chargers

Pats at Ravens

[90sTillNOW]

Dont know how true .

[Einstein's Dog]

6 minutes ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

Assuming the ‘it was mcdermotts decision to not put his players out there to finish the game’ point is true ,  there’s no way I’d even consider doing anything to be an nfl company man after the actions of last night if I were McDermott.
 

Good point.  No need to help out the league in that case.

 

I don't mind the Tie/win percentage route.  Kind of hurts Cincy in a little and helps KC some, because if KC/Cincy/Bills win, then the order would be KC/Bills/Cincy.

 

Still seems like a cleaner/better move than all these complex extra game scenarios.

[SinatraSinger]

2 minutes ago, Boatdrinks said:

In such a scenario the Bills could decide to ( not “ have to” ) forfeit the game and that would be fine. 

Why do so many people think it would be OK to forfeit the game.  Do you really think that Damar Hamlin would want his team to forfeit the game, I certainly don't.

[Fleezoid]

10 minutes ago, Greg S said:

 

The league might allow the Bills to forfeit the Bengals game, but I doubt they allow them to forfeit the Pats game. The outcome of that game affects the Steelers and Dolphins as well.

 

Agreed. Teams play meaningless games at the end of every season. I understand this is a different situation with the player's mindsets.  I just can't see the league allowing the game to go un-played

[DapperCam]

The league will offer the Bills another date to resume the game and it will be up to the Bills to forfeit or play IMO. Other solutions require too many other moving parts.

[Boatdrinks]

1 minute ago, SinatraSinger said:

Why do so many people think it would be OK to forfeit the game.  Do you really think that Damar Hamlin would want his team to forfeit the game, I certainly don't.

It would be okay if that’s what the TEAM wanted - which may very well be the case. McD would obviously have a good read on this by talking to his players. Perhaps they would decide otherwise and that would be fine too.. if that’s what they wanted to do 

[Airseven]

4 minutes ago, DapperCam said:

The league will offer the Bills another date to resume the game and it will be up to the Bills to forfeit or play IMO. Other solutions require too many other moving parts.

 

Exactly right, likely Thursday.

[BillsShredder83]

10 hours ago, Buffalo Ballin said:

Yeah. What's so difficult about it? Just get it over with.

 

Can't gift Kansas City Chiefs anything.

No one gets hurt in this process and can move on quickly to the next game.

Doesn't hurt the schedule.

Neither us or Cincinnati have an unfair advantage with the coin flip. It's a neutral process.

Cinci can have all the compassion in the world and not like this IMO. Obv it was very early, amd they were winning, looking like they had better stuff.

If something happens where Cinci pushes back against this, i think itll be unfair to make them out t9 be the bad guy. Theres just no good answers here. 

Regardless, Bengals coach has my full respect. I think a lot of coavhes woukd be tempted to accept a forfeit.... seems like he stepped up and "refused to play", helping us avoid an outright forfeit. Glad to see blame deflected at NFL FO, where it belongs

[LabattBlue]

The Bills refusing to play and forfeiting the game(taking a loss) would be a really bad look for the NFL.  I am positive the league will come up with a solution to avoid a “forfeit”. 

[SinatraSinger]

3 minutes ago, Boatdrinks said:

It would be okay if that’s what the TEAM wanted - which may very well be the case. McD would obviously have a good read on this by talking to his players. Perhaps they would decide otherwise and that would be fine too.. if that’s what they wanted to do 

I can't see the TEAM wanting to forfeit the game.  The game may be forfeited but it would not be the TEAM making that decision.  It would be higher up the food chain making that decision.  I don't think for one second that Damar would want this game forfeited which is why the TEAM will not want to forfeit.

[Since1981]

I would forfeit on principle. travel again for a game tomorrow? and play Sunday?  Lose both? Goodell is a tool. 
 

the bills have been thru the wringer this month. It’s nuts. They even illegally drove home. I’d stand up for my guys and say “no” 
 

Edited January 3, 2023 by Since1981

[BLeonard]

9 minutes ago, BRH said:

I haven't read all the suggestions, but my son just said this:

 

- Don't play this game.

- Cancel the KC-Raiders game next Sunday because the Raiders are out of the playoffs and KC has already won their division.

- Let Cincinnati and Buffalo play their games because they involve a division title (in Cincinnati/Baltimore's case) and a playoff berth (in New England's case).

 

No playoff games are eliminated or moved.

 

I kind of like it.  It's completely unfair to give KC the 1 seed outright because of this game being canceled.  KC already played their game this week and won.  Let Cincinnati and Buffalo have their games next week.  Then all three teams have played 16 games and the 1 seed/bye can be more fairly decided.

It's not a bad solution on the face, but without the Bills/Bengals result, the Ravens cant' win the North even if they beat Cincy.  Baltimore would be 11-6, while Cincy would be 11-5.

 

On top of that, I highly doubt they cancel the Chiefs/Raiders game, especially since it's the first game Saturday.  It's also not meaningless for fans that bought tickets and made plans to attend.

 

Any way you slice it, some team somewhere is gonna get the short end of the stick.  I just don't see a way to avoid it.

 

At this point, the easiest way that I'm seeing is to just not play BUF/CIN and play week 18 as scheduled.  If KC beats the Raiders, they'd be the #1 based on win %, essentially punishing the Bills.  If the Bills win, they'd be the #2, essentially punishing CIN.  Baltimore gets a bit of a punishment by not having a chance to win the division, but they're still in the playoffs at least.  KC would be rewarded, but every other team involved remains unaffected.

 

Again, really no way to avoid a scenario that is fair to everyone and doesn't affect a number of teams, but at this point, it may be the way to minimize the fallout.

[Rochesterfan]

1 hour ago, DapperCam said:

The Bills didn’t have lodging in Cincinnati. They had to fly home. Why would they stay 2 nights there anyway if it were moved to Wed night?

 

I’m not advocating for it, I just think that is what the NFL is going to push the teams to do.

 

If they didn’t have Rooms for Monday night to stay over what are the chances today or tomorrow they can book 100s of rooms to come back.  Logistically they make these reservations as the schedule is being shared not at the last minute.

 

If they end up trying to force the game to be played - Which I believe the NFLPA will nix do to player mental state - it will require Buffalo to fly in and out the same day and I can not imagine the mental state the Bills would be in having to quickly flip around like that and return to the field the incident happened on.

 

Leadership on the team wouldn’t allow it - so the NFL will be forced to review other options and work with the teams and my guess is they will agree that canceling is best and that if it means KC has the #1 seed - the teams will deal with that.