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

[Albany,n.y.]

19 minutes ago, ImpactCorey said:

This is also not accurate.  If the Bills have a better record than Cincy (Bills win or both Bills and Cincy lose this weekend) then Bills host against Cincy as well.

 

There are only THREE scenarios where there is a neutral site:

 

No wonder Cincy is so PO'd.  They were the biggest loser in the vote. 

[ImpactCorey]

The important take away here is this:

 

If the Bills win this weekend, there is NO scenario where they would play at an opposing team's stadium in the AFC championship.

[UKBillFan]

18 minutes ago, The Red King said:

KC loses, CIN and BUF win and this whole mess goes away for us, BUF is 1st Seed, KC 2nd, CIN 3rd. The single outlier would be KC vs. CIN would be at a neutral site.

 

The Bengals will be annoyed that they didn't get a shot at number one seed.

[Buffalo Super Fan]

At the end of the day the Buffalo Bills are going to have to win football games regardless of rules the NFL uses to determine tie breakers and loss games on the schedule in my opinion. Go Bills! Let’s Go Buffalo 

[TBBills]

1 hour ago, Big Turk said:

 

Check-mate!

18 minutes ago, UKBillFan said:

 

The Bengals will be annoyed that they didn't get a shot at number one seed.

They were never gonna win that game anyway

Edited January 6, 2023 by TBBills

[Big Turk]

19 minutes ago, UKBillFan said:

 

The Bengals will be annoyed that they didn't get a shot at number one seed.

 

Don't throw 4 INT's against the Steelers in the first game of the year and have your kicker miss a game winning XP then. That's what they should be annoyed about.

Edited January 6, 2023 by Big Turk

[Bigvinny]

 

[Simon]

36 minutes ago, TBBills said:

Check-mate!

They were never gonna win that game anyway

 

I'll bet you that in none of those 5 games did the Bills base secondary consist of Siran Neal, Jaquan Johnson, an injured Poyer, a hobbled Tre White and Dane Jackson.

Allen was going to have to score on every possession just to stay in it.

[SWATeam]

7 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

I'll bet you that in none of those 5 games did the Bills base secondary consist of Siran Neal, Jaquan Johnson, an injured Poyer, a hobbled Tre White and Dane Jackson.

Allen was going to have to score on every possession just to stay in it.

Still might be better than Eli Apple and Cam Taylor-Britt

[BillsFan4]

If they are going to flip a coin to determine home field advantage for Cincy/Baltimore even though Cincy would have the better win percentage, then they should do the same for the #1 seed if both Buffalo and KC win Sunday.

 

Its certainly better than stripping the #1 seed from Buffalo to hand to KC even though Buffalo holds it now, and has for most of the season plus beat KC head to head.

 

At least a coin toss would give the Bills a chance to hold onto the #1 seed (if they go by win percentage).

Edited January 6, 2023 by BillsFan4

[TheFunPolice]

I don't think it's possible for Bills and Bengals to be the AFC Title game, since Bengals are pretty much locked into 3rd seed and if 2 and 3 are in the divisional round they would play each other, since another lower seeded team would be the team #1 would play. 

[newcam2012]

51 minutes ago, TBBills said:

Check-mate!

They were never gonna win that game anyway

I disagree. There was a pretty good chance the Bills were going to lose this game. The defense would have been down two starters. The home crowd was on a frenzy. Burrow and the Bengal offense were rolling. The Bills comebacks this season were all against sub par QBs and mostly inferior teams by a good margin. Sure the Bills could have won. Make no mistake about it that it would have been an uphill battle. 

[Warriorspikes51]

7 minutes ago, TheFunPolice said:

I don't think it's possible for Bills and Bengals to be the AFC Title game, since Bengals are pretty much locked into 3rd seed and if 2 and 3 are in the divisional round they would play each other, since another lower seeded team would be the team #1 would play. 

Raiders win it is 

[Koufax]

All three teams were hurt by this/helped by this, and I think it is the best situation given the circumstances.

Now that Damar is doing better, I think people will feel free to be a little more open about worrying about things that a couple days ago would have gotten you in trouble, but I still think it is pretty silly.

 

Complicated what-if arguments can and will be made for each hypothetical outcome of the canceled game plus the unfolding games actually played, but in the end they split the difference of what was a pretty close to 50/50 game, and avoided any one side being heavily penalized compared to the more favorable outcome of the canceled game.

 

I officially accept as reasonable the outcome, and promise not to say after we beat the Pats "no fair, we should have had a chance the bye and the home AFC title game".

[zow2]

Now that Zac Taylor is going scorched earth on the playoff adjustments, he's going to have his guys running through a wall and playing the world is against us card.  If the Bills play Cincinnati in the playoffs, that's gonna be our hardest game to get past.

[Warriorspikes51]

1 minute ago, zow2 said:

Now that Zac Taylor is going scorched earth on the playoff adjustments, he's going to have his guys running through a wall and playing the world is against us card.  If the Bills play Cincinnati in the playoffs, that's gonna be our hardest game to get past.

Nothing against them, but hopefully his negative comments are a distraction and the team is less focused than expected in the Wild Card 

[zow2]

5 minutes ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

Nothing against them, but hopefully his negative comments are a distraction and the team is less focused than expected in the Wild Card 

 

I kinda think he’s using this to get his club fired up to beat the Ravens and then into the playoffs.  

One thing the NFL did right, they made sure to keep the KC, Buffalo and Cincinnati games this weekend all meaningful. 

 

[TheFunPolice]

56 minutes ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

Raiders win it is 

 

Oh yeah, that's true 

[The Red King]

I still don't see how this mess is better then solving the Bills/Bengals game with a coin toss and everything going back to normal.

[TBBills]

1 hour ago, newcam2012 said:

I disagree. There was a pretty good chance the Bills were going to lose this game. The defense would have been down two starters. The home crowd was on a frenzy. Burrow and the Bengal offense were rolling. The Bills comebacks this season were all against sub par QBs and mostly inferior teams by a good margin. Sure the Bills could have won. Make no mistake about it that it would have been an uphill battle. 

Only uphill battle is your Bills fandom.

[BillsSbSoon]

I honestly think beane and mcd need to make the call and forfeit the game. This is a huge mess now and other teams are being punished when it was our guy that got hurt. The league is prolly punishing the bengals in a way because they didn’t force to keep playing on us when mcd called it off. If you don’t think they are heated about that behind closed doors I think it’s being foolish. They clearly wanted the game to continue IMO. 

[Supercoupe91]

3 hours ago, Success said:

 

I don't really get it. That game had barely started.  

 

I'm repeating myself on this thread, but we drove down the field as easily as they did.  The sentiments I'm seeing online now are "clearly, the  Bengals were going to win that game - they were locked in."  I guess, for people who just started watching the NFL this past week.

 

And there is a LOT of chatter online about how the Bills should have to forfeit the game, because it was our players that couldn't continue. Pretty sure I've heard multiple comments that both teams didn't want to play after that. And the league was universally reviled for the idea that the game should continue at that point.

 

It's gonna get to me - because it's only going to get worse.  People are turning on the Bills for some reason. It's getting ugly out there.

 

The main reason i think bengals were going to win was allen looked visibly rattled, and burrow was warming up to play. It was 50/50 until Hamlin went down.

 

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by Supercoupe91

[Draconator]

1 hour ago, newcam2012 said:

I disagree. There was a pretty good chance the Bills were going to lose this game. The defense would have been down two starters. The home crowd was on a frenzy. Burrow and the Bengal offense were rolling. The Bills comebacks this season were all against sub par QBs and mostly inferior teams by a good margin. Sure the Bills could have won. Make no mistake about it that it would have been an uphill battle. 

I wouldn't exactly call Lamar Jackson a sub-par QB, or the Ravens an inferior team. Not top tier, but definitely not inferior.  

[Bigvinny]

1 hour ago, zow2 said:

Now that Zac Taylor is going scorched earth on the playoff adjustments, he's going to have his guys running through a wall and playing the world is against us card.  If the Bills play Cincinnati in the playoffs, that's gonna be our hardest game to get past.

They could also lose a coin toss next week and play at Baltimore with Lamar coming back. According to their players the Ravens are better than us.

Edited January 6, 2023 by Bigvinny

[MasterStrategist]

18 minutes ago, Supercoupe91 said:

The main reason i think bengals were going to win was allen looked visibly rattled, and burrow was warming up to play. It was 50/50 until Hamlin went down.

 

 

I'm glad you decided to edit your post, because what you said before was inappropriate and lacked empathy the situation.

 

Nobody should act like they knew the outcome, or put any %s on it.  Both teams were rattled...and rightfully so. 

 

If I'm Cincy, I'd be upset that the NFL didn't stick with the "winning % rule".  It wouldn't let them get the 1 seed, but would have allowed them to rest players against Ravens this week (similar to what they did LY).  Beyond that, it is what it is.

[BillsFanSD]

22 minutes ago, BillsSbSoon said:

I honestly think beane and mcd need to make the call and forfeit the game. This is a huge mess now and other teams are being punished when it was our guy that got hurt. The league is prolly punishing the bengals in a way because they didn’t force to keep playing on us when mcd called it off. If you don’t think they are heated about that behind closed doors I think it’s being foolish. They clearly wanted the game to continue IMO. 

I think you're definitely right that most of the league would have preferred for the game to continue, and up until a few days ago that was the expectation.  But I think we need to acknowledge that social expectations have changed, and a large and very vocal segment of the population is not okay with players continuing a football game after a player is seriously injured.  It doesn't really matter whether we as individual support that change or not -- we just need to recognize that this change has occurred and move forward as best we're able.

 

This one particular game was literally unprecedented.  Not because of what happened to Damar Hamlin, but because for the first time one team chose not to return to the field.  So the league was left scrambling and this is what they came up with.  It's not a great solution, but it's not terrible.  

 

I hope the league revisits this issue in the offseason when people are ready to think this through rationally and unemotionally.  Going forward, the standard should be that teams who opt not to continue play should just take the forfeit and move on.  That respects their agency as adults and lets them live with the consequences of their own decisions, which is something that adults should welcome.  It is inconceivable to me that McDermott, Beane, the Pegulas, or anybody else would have had any serious objection to taking a forfeit on Monday night if that had been the option.  Nobody could possibly criticize the Bills for making that choice, so no hard feelings.  

 

I imagine that the first objection to this suggestion will be that it's unfair that the team who loses a player also loses the game.  But that's how it works now in literally every other context.  When we lost Von Miller, that wasn't fair, but the harm fell entirely on the Bills.  Nobody else, just us.  If you're not willing to let the harm from an injury lie with the team of the injured player, you put yourself in the position of having to figure out how to apportion that harm across 31 other teams, which is a fool's errand as we learned this week.    

[The Red King]

This "Cincy was going to win" is arrogant.  Buffalo is a bend, don't break D.  If they held Cincy to a field goal and Buffalo goes right down the field for a TD (BUF moved the ball real well, too) then it's a 10-10 game and BUF ultimately gets the 2nd half kickoff.  This outcome was far from settled.  So, stop with that nonsense.

 

That said, CIN got hosed with this.  Comparing this to using win %, the NFL standard, would have stuck them at 3rd, barring a win and a BUF loss, but they would have had the division title and hosted their first playoff game.  They gain nothing, and can lose a key advantage.  They have a right to be mad.  KC loses as well.  If they and BUF win, KC should be the 1 seed with no concessions.  Now they risk having to play a CG on neutral ground.  BUF ended up with an extra positive and no negatives.  The chance for a neutral site AFCCG is a huge upgrade, and BUF lost nothing compared to if the win % method was instead used.

 

So yeah, I can see why they're upset.  Again, compared to the rule already on record to use win %, CIN suffered greatly, KC suffered mildly and BUF was pure profit.

[Dr. Who]

5 minutes ago, BillsFanSD said:

I think you're definitely right that most of the league would have preferred for the game to continue, and up until a few days ago that was the expectation.  But I think we need to acknowledge that social expectations have changed, and a large and very vocal segment of the population is not okay with players continuing a football game after a player is seriously injured.  It doesn't really matter whether we as individual support that change or not -- we just need to recognize that this change has occurred and move forward as best we're able.

 

This one particular game was literally unprecedented.  Not because of what happened to Damar Hamlin, but because for the first time one team chose not to return to the field.  So the league was left scrambling and this is what they came up with.  It's not a great solution, but it's not terrible.  

 

I hope the league revisits this issue in the offseason when people are ready to think this through rationally and unemotionally.  Going forward, the standard should be that teams who opt not to continue play should just take the forfeit and move on.  That respects their agency as adults and lets them live with the consequences of their own decisions, which is something that adults should welcome.  It is inconceivable to me that McDermott, Beane, the Pegulas, or anybody else would have had any serious objection to taking a forfeit on Monday night if that had been the option.  Nobody could possibly criticize the Bills for making that choice, so no hard feelings.  

 

I imagine that the first objection to this suggestion will be that it's unfair that the team who loses a player also loses the game.  But that's how it works now in literally every other context.  When we lost Von Miller, that wasn't fair, but the harm fell entirely on the Bills.  Nobody else, just us.  If you're not willing to let the harm from an injury lie with the team of the injured player, you put yourself in the position of having to figure out how to apportion that harm across 31 other teams, which is a fool's errand as we learned this week.    

That's articulate, but I continue to think that dealing with a truly life-and-death situation is qualitatively different from a serious injury that may end a season, but not a life. I think it is callous to expect folks to disregard the mortality of a beloved brother and friend and play ball. This isn't war, even if that is a common metaphor. Prudential decisions take account for unprecedented or unusual circumstances,

[Motor26]

58 minutes ago, BillsSbSoon said:

I honestly think beane and mcd need to make the call and forfeit the game. This is a huge mess now and other teams are being punished when it was our guy that got hurt. The league is prolly punishing the bengals in a way because they didn’t force to keep playing on us when mcd called it off. If you don’t think they are heated about that behind closed doors I think it’s being foolish. They clearly wanted the game to continue IMO. 

For the millionth time, the NFL cancelled the game, not McDermott. I don’t know why it’s such a hard concept for some people to understand. 

[BillsBy50]

We are the 26th ranked scoring defense in the 1st quarter and 2nd overall scoring defense only behind Niners. Why do people keep saying we were gonna get smoked by Bengals? Let’s not forget Titans scored 7 on their first drive ….

[NeverOutNick]

I don’t know if this has been discussed so I apologize if it has. 
 

I hate that the Chiefs are basically gift wrapped the 1 seed and a bye if they beat the raiders but I do think the NFL did a very good job coming up with a gameplan for the championship game. BUT the one aspect they dropped the ball on is the most likely scenario at this point is that the Bills will be the 2 seed and the bengals the 3 seed. In this scenario we will meet in the divisional round and if we’re going to be fair across the board this game should also be played at a neutral site. The bengals are a standup organization handling everything with class and honestly are getting hosed a little more than even us in this situation. 
 

Go raiders this week 🥳 

Edited January 6, 2023 by NeverOutNick

[newcam2012]

1 hour ago, Draconator said:

I wouldn't exactly call Lamar Jackson a sub-par QB, or the Ravens an inferior team. Not top tier, but definitely not inferior.  

Sub par passer for sure. 

[Taro Nimbus]

Lets just hope the Raiders win and the Bills win, then all of this wont matter

[HappyDays]

A lot of the faith I developed in humanity over the past 72 hours is now dwindling as I see fans of all affected teams, Bills included, bickering on Twitter about how unfair the whole thing is. Playoff seeding and homefield advantage isn't that important. A young man almost died and a lot of fans have already moved on.

[newcam2012]

1 hour ago, BillsBy50 said:

We are the 26th ranked scoring defense in the 1st quarter and 2nd overall scoring defense only behind Niners. Why do people keep saying we were gonna get smoked by Bengals? Let’s not forget Titans scored 7 on their first drive ….

I agree but it cuts both ways. You have people on here saying there's no way the Bills were going to lose. 

 

Of course everything is unknown and speculative as to the final result. What's known is the Bills D was getting thrashed, down 7-3, the Bengals were driving for another score, the crowd was loud, and the Bills lost 2 starters in the secondary. That's not a glowing endorsement of optimism that the Bills were going to win. Factor all that in and I think it's more probable that the Bengals would have won. Wouldn't you agree? I'm pretty sure Bengals players and their fans liked their chances on Monday night after such a good start. 

 

The old argument that the Bills start out slow and come back is very true and valid. However, I feel like the Bengal team is a much better team with a much better QB. This come back was going to have to be special and no doubt more difficult. Sure it was possible because so much football was left and Allen can take over a game. 

Edited January 7, 2023 by newcam2012

[HappyDays]

1 hour ago, BillsSbSoon said:

This is a huge mess now and other teams are being punished when it was our guy that got hurt.

 

This is the problem right here. Damar Hamlin isn't just "our guy." He's an NFL player. The jersey he was wearing while suffering cardiac arrest on live television has no bearing on anything. And no one is being punished. Every team that had a chance to win the Super Bowl still has that chance. Homefield advantage and playoff seeding is not life or death.

[Dick_Cheney]

4 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

A lot of the faith I developed in humanity over the past 72 hours is now dwindling as I see fans of all affected teams, Bills included, bickering on Twitter about how unfair the whole thing is. Playoff seeding and homefield advantage isn't that important. A young man almost died and a lot of fans have already moved on.

You're not wrong. On one hand, it's a good thing that the worst thing to worry about now is the logistics of a sport that is played for fun.

 

On the other hand, had the outcome with Hamlin been more grim, I think the mood everywhere would be extremely different. Right now the vibe seems to be "oh turns out he's okay, but we (insert whatever team here) gets totally screwed!"

 

It's unfortunate. The fact of the matter is a man, who happens to be a Buffalo Bill, died right in front of our eyes while playing a game we all love. He was fortunate enough to be revived. Had he not, things would be very, very different right now.

 

Anyways. ***** the Chiefs and their deplorable fans. I applaud the Bengals org, but also find their fans already entitled and obnoxious. I know we have some weirdos, but damn do we seem to be the most level headed about ALL of this.

[KHAN]

10 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

A lot of the faith I developed in humanity over the past 72 hours is now dwindling as I see fans of all affected teams, Bills included, bickering on Twitter about how unfair the whole thing is. Playoff seeding and homefield advantage isn't that important. A young man almost died and a lot of fans have already moved on.

9/11/2001 has entered the chat.

[UKBillFan]

I read 25 out of the 32 teams voted in support of the solution, so seven presumably voted against (or abstained?) I wonder who they were? The Bengals is obviously one. The Bills? The Chiefs? The Ravens? The Giants, perhaps, due to close links to the Bills? Would still leave two teams who voted against the proposal.

[Turbo44]

2 minutes ago, UKBillFan said:

I read 25 out of the 32 teams voted in support of the solution, so seven presumably voted against (or abstained?) I wonder who they were? The Bengals is obviously one. The Bills? The Chiefs? The Ravens? The Giants, perhaps, due to close links to the Bills? Would still leave two teams who voted against the proposal.

No way in the world the Bills voted against the proposal