Official: (Bengals) Game will not be resumed this week UPDATE: OFFICIALLY CANCELLED

[Dan]

It would seem to me the easiest (easiest maybe not best) solution for  the league regarding playoff seeding  is to determine a winner/loser from Monday night. They can call it a no contest in the record books.  But they need to figure out a winner for playoff matchups. 
 

Coin flip, rock paper scissors, pick a number, etc.  just  have the 2 teams agree to it and go. This way... no other teams are involved, its quick, and you can resume the playoffs on time.  
 

[Watkins101]

4 minutes ago, Humane227 said:

Someone said it earlier and they’re right - the health of Hamlin is biggest concern.

 

I do not know what the league will opt to do regarding rescheduling the game or playoff seeding. There seem to be very few good choices, and no matter what is decided some teams will feel the decision unfairly impacts them and their playoff odds.

 

What I do believe is that the league MUST announce how they plan to handle the currently postponed Bills/Bengals game and playoff seeding prior to Saturday. If they do not then seemingly half the AFC would be unsure if their games mattered or not.

 

I believe the NFL will wait either as long as possible or until there is some POSITIVE news regarding Hamlin’s health status to announce anything. They don’t want to appear callous.

The only team the bold applies to is the Ravens. Regardless of who won the bills/bengals game, Chiefs still need a win to secure 1/2 seed. (Bengals win, chiefs just need a win for 1 seed, bills win, Chiefs need a win for 2 seed or win and bills loss for 2 seed)The Bengals-ravens game only matters if bills beat the bengals, but that is the only game where the outcome of bills/bengals could make it meaningless.

[Fleezoid]

1 hour ago, Aussie Joe said:

Can’t make chicken salad out of chicken poo…

 

Sure you can. It just won't taste the same. Probably not very good either.

[WotAGuy]

Give Cincy the W and play out the last week. Bills have the 3 seed locked up. Just move on. It’s not that important anymore.  

[hondo in seattle]

I feel the Bills-Bengals game should be a no-contest simply because that was what it was.  Circumstances beyond either team's control caused the game to end in the 1st quarter.  Neither team earned a win or loss.

 

The playoffs should be determined by win-loss percentage as normal (with the Bills and Bengals having each played only 16 games). 

 

There's nothing random about this.  Each team will be evaluated against the record they truly earned.  

[Humane227]

8 minutes ago, Watkins101 said:

The only team the bold applies to is the Ravens. Regardless of who won the bills/bengals game, Chiefs still need a win to secure 1/2 seed. (Bengals win, chiefs just need a win for 1 seed, bills win, Chiefs need a win for 2 seed or win and bills loss for 2 seed)The Bengals-ravens game only matters if bills beat the bengals, but that is the only game where the outcome of bills/bengals could make it meaningless.

Yes and no. It all depends on the plan.

 

If the decision is the Bills/Bengals game is replayed in week 19 then suddenly everyone else has a bye.

 

If the decision is to expand the playoffs to 8 teams per conference (believe that was the COVID plan), then additional teams may now be in the hunt.

 

It does not seem to me (and I’m no expert by any means) that any scenario does not have larger reaching implications. Hence why I think the NFL has to announce how they plan to handle this by Saturday.

[Brand J]

I like the idea of scrapping all results from week 16, thus giving every team a 16 game schedule. Something Albright has also said is on the table. Don’t know how this works in regards to stat keeping though, can’t imagine players would be happy.

Edited January 4, 2023 by JayBaller10

[CapeBreton]

11 minutes ago, WotAGuy said:

Give Cincy the W and play out the last week. Bills have the 3 seed locked up. Just move on. It’s not that important anymore.  

 

I like the idea of giving Cincy the W, and just consider week 17 a bye week of sorts for the Bills. They already lost Hamlin and Taron Johnson in the game so maybe for the best that they just take the L and move on. Unfortunately it gives the Chiefs a wildcard bye which obviously sucks, gotta hate that.

[WotAGuy]

1 minute ago, CapeBreton said:

 

I like the idea of giving Cincy the W, and just consider week 17 a bye week of sorts for the Bills. They already lost Hamlin and Taron Johnson in the game so maybe for the best that they just take the L and move on. Unfortunately it gives the Chiefs a wildcard bye which obviously sucks, gotta hate that.

Eh, our Super Bowl will be Damar walking out of the UC hospital. 

[Dan]

18 minutes ago, hondo in seattle said:

I feel the Bills-Bengals game should be a no-contest simply because that was what it was.  Circumstances beyond either team's control caused the game to end in the 1st quarter.  Neither team earned a win or loss.

 

The playoffs should be determined by win-loss percentage as normal (with the Bills and Bengals having each played only 16 games). 

 

There's nothing random about this.  Each team will be evaluated against the record they truly earned.  

Thats a bit how I see it.   Separate the 2.   The game was a no contest, it goes in the books as such.  No need to replay it in any fashion.  End of discussion. 

But then you do have to figure out the playoff seedlings.  Win percentage is one way and perfectly acceptable.  But you do have to het KC and Baltimore (i think that is all) to agree to that.  Or in my mind you do.  A coin flip also does the same but it just involves the Bengals and Bills to determine the “winner” for seeding purposes. 

 

[Motor26]

43 minutes ago, Dan said:

Thats a bit how I see it.   Separate the 2.   The game was a no contest, it goes in the books as such.  No need to replay it in any fashion.  End of discussion. 

But then you do have to figure out the playoff seedlings.  Win percentage is one way and perfectly acceptable.  But you do have to het KC and Baltimore (i think that is all) to agree to that.  Or in my mind you do.  A coin flip also does the same but it just involves the Bengals and Bills to determine the “winner” for seeding purposes. 

 

The NFL doesn’t have to get KC and Baltimore to agree to anything. The decision for playoff seeding will be up to the NFL, they won’t consult KC or Baltimore at all.

[BillsFanSD]

2 minutes ago, Motor26 said:

The NFL doesn’t have to get KC and Baltimore to agree to anything. The decision for playoff seeding will be up to the NFL, they won’t consult KC or Baltimore at all.

The odds of them making this decision without consulting KC/BALT is approximately zero.  Those teams absolutely have a valid right to provide input on this decision.  They may not get their way (somebody is going to be stuck with an outcome they perceive as unfair), but they're just as much a party to this as our team is.

[boyst]

3 hours ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

I would hope if they actually do use a random number generator to do this, our game against them would not be eligible to change

 

i would think because of tie breaker scenarios it would not be put into play.

1 hour ago, Bruffalo said:

Each team gets one player from the offense and one player from the defense, 2v2, all madden difficulty. 

screw that. i say oklahoma drill for the 1 seed.

1 hour ago, hondo in seattle said:

I feel the Bills-Bengals game should be a no-contest simply because that was what it was.  Circumstances beyond either team's control caused the game to end in the 1st quarter.  Neither team earned a win or loss.

 

The playoffs should be determined by win-loss percentage as normal (with the Bills and Bengals having each played only 16 games). 

 

There's nothing random about this.  Each team will be evaluated against the record they truly earned.  

it's bull#### to give the chiefs home field advantage when both teams beat them and one of them would shirely be ahead of them.

[boyst]

55 minutes ago, Dan said:

Thats a bit how I see it.   Separate the 2.   The game was a no contest, it goes in the books as such.  No need to replay it in any fashion.  End of discussion. 

But then you do have to figure out the playoff seedlings.  Win percentage is one way and perfectly acceptable.  But you do have to het KC and Baltimore (i think that is all) to agree to that.  Or in my mind you do.  A coin flip also does the same but it just involves the Bengals and Bills to determine the “winner” for seeding purposes. 

 

i think the nfl is running around crazy now to figure out something to do on like thursday night to do a media event of a coin flip or prime time announcement.

 

they are too big on seeking attention and marketing to just release a statement.

[Warriorspikes51]

3 minutes ago, boyst said:

i think the nfl is running around crazy now to figure out something to do on like thursday night to do a media event of a coin flip or prime time announcement.

 

they are too big on seeking attention and marketing to just release a statement.

 

They may want to wait until after week 18.  If they do something now, it will effect how multiple games are played.

 

Bengals would already have won their division with a "No contest" or Win
 

I still say Coin Flip, best of 3 is fair 

Edited January 4, 2023 by Warriorspikes51

[boyst]

1 minute ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

 

They may want to wait until after week 18.  If they do something now, it will effect how multiple games are played.

 

Bengals would already have won their division with a "No contest" or Win

if they don't do it ahead of the games then you give TERRIBLE optics on favoritism. 

 

they can discuss it as an owners group - and they should all agree - and tell the teams without unveiling it - but there must be something set in stone.

[Dan]

3 minutes ago, boyst said:

i think the nfl is running around crazy now to figure out something to do on like thursday night to do a media event of a coin flip or prime time announcement.

 

they are too big on seeking attention and marketing to just release a statement.

Agreed.    And at the same time... waiting to see what unfolds with Damar.  If they said anything now, its rushed and callous.   The league protects the shield. 

[Motor26]

1 minute ago, boyst said:

if they don't do it ahead of the games then you give TERRIBLE optics on favoritism. 

 

they can discuss it as an owners group - and they should all agree - and tell the teams without unveiling it - but there must be something set in stone.

There will be no solution that all 32 owners will agree on. Goodell and the NFL need to make a decision and go with it. I don’t really care if it negatively affects the Bills at this point, but they need to make some sort of decision sooner than later.

[Warriorspikes51]

1 minute ago, boyst said:

if they don't do it ahead of the games then you give TERRIBLE optics on favoritism. 

 

they can discuss it as an owners group - and they should all agree - and tell the teams without unveiling it - but there must be something set in stone.

They may want to see how much the result of the Bills Bengals game will impact the Ravens and Chiefs first before deciding whether to play the game / how to determine an outcome

[HappyDays]

I suspect at this point the league is waiting for some kind of official update from the hospital on Hamlin's status before making any announcements about the game or playoff seeding. There's no need to rush.

[ColoradoBills]

2 hours ago, Dan said:

It would seem to me the easiest (easiest maybe not best) solution for  the league regarding playoff seeding  is to determine a winner/loser from Monday night. They can call it a no contest in the record books.  But they need to figure out a winner for playoff matchups. 
 

Coin flip, rock paper scissors, pick a number, etc.  just  have the 2 teams agree to it and go. This way... no other teams are involved, its quick, and you can resume the playoffs on time.  
 

 

I tend to agree with this option.  I think it is the fairest way to go forward.  I would even go so far as to say that a way could be figured

out to give the Bengals a slight (over 50%) chance to win the game due to the fact they were leading in the game.

 

11 Bengals balls and 9 Bills balls in the Lotto machine type situation and go on with the season.

This is not unprecedented in sports, as one could look to the NHL Draft.

The only question left would be, does the Lottery happen before or after this weekend's games.

[boyst]

57 minutes ago, Motor26 said:

There will be no solution that all 32 owners will agree on. Goodell and the NFL need to make a decision and go with it. I don’t really care if it negatively affects the Bills at this point, but they need to make some sort of decision sooner than later.

forgive me if i implied unanimous. they only likely need a majority vote. i'm sure the charter spells it out and they all agreed to this - which is where i took the term all agree to ashaving its weight. 

38 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

I suspect at this point the league is waiting for some kind of official update from the hospital on Hamlin's status before making any announcements about the game or playoff seeding. There's no need to rush.

imagine that phone call come friday night... "hey, can you offer anything for us about hte life of damar hamlin, we have a childs sports game in the balance!"

[blitzboy54]

22 minutes ago, ColoradoBills said:

 

I tend to agree with this option.  I think it is the fairest way to go forward.  I would even go so far as to say that a way could be figured

out to give the Bengals a slight (over 50%) chance to win the game due to the fact they were leading in the game.

 

11 Bengals balls and 9 Bills balls in the Lotto machine type situation and go on with the season.

This is not unprecedented in sports, as one could look to the NHL Draft.

The only question left would be, does the Lottery happen before or after this weekend's games.

Absolutely not. The "game was 1/2 of one quarter. The Bills certainly would have gone of 4th and short if they knew that was it. Come on. 50/50

[BillsFanSD]

1 hour ago, boyst said:

if they don't do it ahead of the games then you give TERRIBLE optics on favoritism. 

I agree.  And honestly, it's kind of amazing that the NFL doesn't have a plan in place for how to deal with a game that can't be played.  This contingency is pretty darn predictable.  

 

On a side note though, this is why I favor the idea of using a coin flip to determine the "outcome" of CIN-BUF.  It takes human decision-making out of the equation (aside from the meta-decision of flipping a coin to decide) and leaves the other 30 teams completely unaffected.  From their vantage point, having this game decided by a coin flip is indistinguishable from having it played out on the field as usual.  The only teams affected are us and the Bengals, and I think we'd both agree to settle it this way if the alternative is trying to shoehorn the game into the calendar somehow.

[ColoradoBills]

1 minute ago, blitzboy54 said:

Absolutely not. The "game was 1/2 of one quarter. The Bills certainly would have gone of 4th and short if they knew that was it. Come on. 50/50

 

I said, "I would go so far".  

 

One thing for certain.  This is unprecedented and whatever decision is made by the league on how to rectify this situation, there will be

criticism as to the choice.

[Kiva]

Do we have an update on when this game will be finished? 

[Amaru523]

2 minutes ago, Kiva said:

Do we have an update on when this game will be finished? 

Not yet, but I'm guessing it won't be finished.

[Greg S]

3 minutes ago, Kiva said:

Do we have an update on when this game will be finished? 

 

Probably going to see how week 18 results play out. My guess if we hear anything is Sunday night or Monday. 

[MasterStrategist]

1 minute ago, ColoradoBills said:

 

I said, "I would go so far".  

 

One thing for certain.  This is unprecedented and whatever decision is made by the league on how to rectify this situation, there will be

criticism as to the choice.

100% agree.  No easy decision/solution, or it would have been made already.  

 

JMO, but I tend to like the coin flip idea:

1. It doesn't change, or adjust, any other NFL teams games already played.

 

2. No reason to try and reschedule this game, given circumstances and late season scheduling dilemma.  *If this was prior to a bye week, or even a few weeks ago, then schedules could have been adjusted by a few days each week to accommodate.

 

3. Fairest thing for seeding is to determine a winner/loser.  Keeping everything on the basis of 17 games played per team.

 

4. Finally, million dollar question...how to determine the winner? nothing more fair than a coin flip.  Its 50/50 odds and given how evenly these teams were supposed to matchup, this wouldn't bias any outcome.  

 

Again, that's just the simplest solution at this point.  I'd be partial to doing this coin flip prior to Week 18 games (just as if the result would have been known by now), but going to guess the NFL won't want to create any unnecessary controversy, unless needed.

 

 

 

[DapperCam]

If it isn’t going to be played, just flip a coin and be done with it. You can weight the coin slightly if we want to give the Bengals a small advantage since they were winning. Call the game a 2-0 victory and move on.

[hondo in seattle]

1 hour ago, boyst said:

i would think because of tie breaker scenarios it would not be put into play.

screw that. i say oklahoma drill for the 1 seed.

it's bull#### to give the chiefs home field advantage when both teams beat them and one of them would shirely be ahead of them.

 

I agree, its BS.  But that's how it's playing out. 

 

Unless the NFL figures out a fair way to complete the Bills-Bengals game, the Chiefs have more wins, a better win percentage, and thus homefield advantage.  I don't know if extending the season by a week to allow the Bills-Bengals game to be completed is logistically realistic.  If so, great.  Otherwise, you have to assign wins and losses as they happened.  

 

I'm hoping for a KC loss this week.  

[YoloinOhio]

 

[RiotAct]

38 minutes ago, blitzboy54 said:

Absolutely not. The "game was 1/2 of one quarter. The Bills certainly would have gone of 4th and short if they knew that was it. Come on. 50/50

I think it was 4th and 4… I did still think they’d go for it, however. 

[TheFunPolice]

if they wanted to re-start, they could do TNF next week to finish the game.

 

Sun 1/8 Bills and Bengals play their games

Thur 1/12 Bills and Bengals finish their game (picks up where it left off)

 

Wild Card Weekend:

 

Sat 

Sun

Mon

Tue (for the Bengals and Bills, or just the Bengals, if the Bills win #1 seed). 

 

Divisional Round:

 

Sat

Sun

Mon (for the winner of the Tue playoff game) 

 

at that point, they would be basically back to normal schedule, minus 1 day

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2023 by TheFunPolice

[YoloinOhio]

 

[D. L. Hot-Flamethrower]

I would caution that it has been less than 48 hours and the NFL is correct in doing nothing so far rather than making a bad decision. Let things cool off and let Hamlin continue to improve. If it means people don't find out a decision when they think they need to-well tough.

 

As for the coin flip idea, I'd rather they played a computer simulation myself and used the results. 

 

As for the restarting the game from the point the game it left off that's ludicrous. Can you imagine at the same spot on the field where it all occurred and ref blows the whistle to play ball-not happening.

[YoloinOhio]

 

[BillsFanSD]

24 minutes ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

I agree, its BS.  But that's how it's playing out. 

 

Unless the NFL figures out a fair way to complete the Bills-Bengals game, the Chiefs have more wins, a better win percentage, and thus homefield advantage.  I don't know if extending the season by a week to allow the Bills-Bengals game to be completed is logistically realistic.  If so, great.  Otherwise, you have to assign wins and losses as they happened.  

 

I'm hoping for a KC loss this week.  

If we had simply lost to the Bengals and everyone held serve this week, the Chiefs would be the #1 seed despite losing H2H to both the #2 and #3 seeds.  It kind of sucks, and I understand why is everybody is salty because they ended up with a very favorable divisional schedule and scraped out some ugly wins, but that's sports.  It will just be that much sweeter when we end their season in their own stadium in front of their own fans.

[YoloinOhio]

 

[Boatdrinks]

3 minutes ago, YoloinOhio said:

 

Interesting … I still do not believe Bills/ Bengals will be resumed. jmo and I could obviously be wrong but I don’t see it happening. If all 3 teams hold serve then - 1 KC 2 BUF 3 CIN