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I think the game should be resumed as a solo “Week 19” game and either condense the playoffs by dropping the week off between the conference championship and Super Bowl or push everything back a week.

 

I get that a young man’s life is hanging in the balance following an unprecedented injury during a game. I hope for his recovery.

 

But, I think simply omitting the game isn’t the right course of action considering the ramifications for a number of the league’s top teams. The only team that “wins” in this scenario is KC. Essentially the Bills nor the Bengals can get home field throughout if the Chiefs win next week. That doesn’t seem right. To be honest, most scenarios hurt the Bengals the most followed by BUF.

 

Realistically, there are no 100% fair options here. It’s a very difficult situation.

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7 minutes ago, esjbh2 said:

Given the circumstances I honestly don't think we deserve the win despite how well we were playing.  What a disappointment from that standpoint in what was an epic game...and I'm not undermining Hamlin here as that is #1.  It's the most points at the end of regulation or overtime if needed.  Look at it from the other side, would you be happy if the circumstances were reversed and the NFL gave us a Loss?

but we also do not deserve a loss or to be penalized for it either .  the outcome of this game decides the top 3 seeds, andthe location of at least 1 more home game.  and also apparently when the bengals/ravens game is played too. 

 

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6 minutes ago, BlackJesus said:

I just thought of a creative resolution ...

 

The Chiefs, Bills, and Bengals all get playoff byes and the game gets counted as a win for both. As for whether the Bills or Bengals will be the higher seed, that is decided by coin flip. 


Interesting idea. Numerically, giving three teams a bye wouldn’t work as the following week there would be 5 teams remaining. I don’t hate the idea of giving both teams the win although this still favours the Bills over the Bengals but at least KC doesn’t vault into the top spot through sheer “luck”

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3 minutes ago, BengalFanInTO said:

I think the game should be resumed as a solo “Week 19” game and either condense the playoffs by dropping the week off between the conference championship and Super Bowl or push everything back a week.

While admirable, the NFL is not going to interfere with their Cash Cow Super Bowl scheduling--including the extra week. 

 

 

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25 minutes ago, BengalFanInTO said:

push everything back a week.

 

If they were going to do that, better to push all of this week's games back a week and just let the Bengals and Bills play this weekend as the sole game.

 

Maybe give half the proceeds to cardiac research or something and let all the networks carry the game. 

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6 minutes ago, BlackJesus said:

 

If they were going to do that, better to push all of this week's games back a week and just let the Bengals and Bills play next weekend as the sole weekend game.

 

Maybe give half the proceeds to cardiac research or something and let all the networks carry the game. 


I saw a similar scenario somewhere else. Essentially the theory was to move all Week 18 games to “Week 19” and have the Bengals and Bills resume the game this coming Monday as the sole Week 18 game. As I said earlier, not sure that any solution will be completely fair or right at this point 

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35 minutes ago, BlackJesus said:

I just thought of a creative resolution ...

 

The Chiefs, Bills, and Bengals all get playoff byes and the game gets counted as a win for both. As for whether the Bills or Bengals will be the higher seed, that is decided by coin flip. 


…and, any game involving teams that COULD have been tied (or had positions switched) with a win by either Buffalo or Cincinnati in the non-finished game…would be played at a neutral site.  
 

 

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I reflect to past SBs, did they stop the game from a key player drug overdose or a player that broke their leg?  I hope the man gets through this and recovers fully but, penalizing the Bengals in any way should not happen. If that is the case, then just cancel the whole season and be done with it, right.  They won’t and this is my point.  Why should the Bengals be penalized in any way, shape or form?  

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5 minutes ago, TigerJ@w said:

I reflect to past SBs, did they stop the game from a key player drug overdose or a player that broke their leg?  I hope the man gets through this and recovers fully but, penalizing the Bengals in any way should not happen. If that is the case, then just cancel the whole season and be done with it, right.  They won’t and this is my point.  Why should the Bengals be penalized in any way, shape or form?  

Or, for that matter, BUF or any other team. 
 

KC notwithstanding 

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No good solutions here.  I feel for the Bills, but they need to get back to practicing and playing sooner or later.  It's a terrible thing that happened, but from what know it was nothing but an example of freakishly bad luck.  Sitting around won't help Hamlin a bit.  I'm sure there will be some guys that really struggle to get through it.  They may need to take a week off.  Maybe more.  No judgement.  The rest of the world needs to get back going all the while hoping and praying for Hamlin's recovery.  If anything, use the situation to think differently about your opportunities in life and enjoy them.  You never know when they won't be there. 

 

 

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2 hours ago, BlackJesus said:

Both teams had one possession. 

 

One scored a TD. One scored a fg. 

 

The team leading 7-3 gets the win. As winning essentially means: "who has the most points when the game stops?" 

This is my thought exactly

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2 hours ago, BlackJesus said:

I just thought of a creative resolution ...

 

The Chiefs, Bills, and Bengals all get playoff byes and the game gets counted as a win for both. As for whether the Bills or Bengals will be the higher seed, that is decided by coin flip. 

I'm quite sure the NFC would have something to say about the AFC getting 3 playoff byes

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My guess is it ends up being a forfeited game by the Bills.

 

I think they already made the decision but are waiting for news regarding his health before releasing that information.  I expect it to be announced tomorrow so that teams can prepare properly for the games this weekend.  It simply impacts too many teams to declare it a tie or a no contest that wipes it out of existence.  The Bills announcing that they will forfeit the game is the easiest of PR moves for everyone involved. 

 

Anything else becomes a monumental logistical nightmare.  Other playoff teams getting a bye but not the Bengals & Bills, Bills having to pack their shit up to come back here again, getting all of the employees and fans back for a newly scheduled game, etc.....  Just don't think the NFL has it in them.  Far simpler to go the safe and easy PR route of a Bills forfeit for the league.  That results in sad, but understanding Bills fans and the only truly angry fans will be Ravens fans - until they watch their team get beat starting on Sunday at 4:25pm.

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What a nightmare for this kid and his family.  As far as the game goes, there just literally seems to be no fair solution. They would need to push all games back a week and let the Bills and Bengals finish their game. That's almost certainly impossible due to the amount of logistics that would be involved. But even if it were, and they picked up where they left off with the score, clock, possession and field position identical to where they left off (the closest scenario to fair in my opinion).  The Bengals can't recapture the electricity they had marching on their second drive. Both teams would be different as they so recently and collectively witnessed a horrific injury in each other's company. What a bad scene. Never seen anything like it in decades of fandom.

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Forgot to mention, I think that a Bills forfeiture would guarantee a Bengals vs. Bills rematch in Cincinnati for next year (AFC-N #1 vs. AFC-E #1).  Which they will have as a prime-time mega game of the year with a ton of feel-good messaging for the lead-up to the game.  Just another PR win for the league and the two teams involved.

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29 minutes ago, BBR said:

Forgot to mention, I think that a Bills forfeiture would guarantee a Bengals vs. Bills rematch in Cincinnati for next year (AFC-N #1 vs. AFC-E #1).  Which they will have as a prime-time mega game of the year with a ton of feel-good messaging for the lead-up to the game.  Just another PR win for the league and the two teams involved.

Yup

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If later this week it becomes more clear that he's not going to make it or has sustained a major neuro injury, this game is done.  No chance either team is going to resume the game.


If he wakes up then I could see the NFL wanting to not *asterisk* the post-season and making some allowance for the game to happen next week and adjusting the post-season accordingly.  

 

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1 hour ago, BBR said:

My guess is it ends up being a forfeited game by the Bills.

 

I think they already made the decision but are waiting for news regarding his health before releasing that information.  I expect it to be announced tomorrow so that teams can prepare properly for the games this weekend.  It simply impacts too many teams to declare it a tie or a no contest that wipes it out of existence.  The Bills announcing that they will forfeit the game is the easiest of PR moves for everyone involved. 

 

Anything else becomes a monumental logistical nightmare.  Other playoff teams getting a bye but not the Bengals & Bills, Bills having to pack their shit up to come back here again, getting all of the employees and fans back for a newly scheduled game, etc.....  Just don't think the NFL has it in them.  Far simpler to go the safe and easy PR route of a Bills forfeit for the league.  That results in sad, but understanding Bills fans and the only truly angry fans will be Ravens fans - until they watch their team get beat starting on Sunday at 4:25pm.

Don't know why but I could see the stand up Bengals also forfeiting and really throwing things into a further mess.

 

Also hope the Rats game is 1:00 because I made 4:45 dinner reservations for Ruth's Chris  based on Le Tigre's spidey senses.

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22 minutes ago, Numbers said:

Just heard on sports show in passing that a possible solution was something considered back in the pandemic days.  Seeding would be "determined by winning percentage."

 

Not sure where this puts us but would be fair as fair could be.

 

Pretty sure that's the same as the "no contest" option.

 

I think it wipes out the chances of the Ravens passing the Bengals for the AFC North title, and locks the Bengals into the #3 seed.  So it slightly screws the Bengals (same as assuming they did not win the Bills game) and massively screws the Ravens (same as assuming they win the last game against the Bengals & a Bengals loss to Bills).

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I think a Bills forfeiture or the game not being counted and using winning percentage makes the most sense.  Logistically, it would be much more difficult to change the weekly postseason schedule around to accommodate finishing the game at this point.  Not ideal for either team although this week effectively was a mini bye week so that’s about the only positive thing about it.  Baltimore loses out on chance to win division and KC lucks out to have drivers seat for #1 seed.  

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5 hours ago, sparky151 said:

I don't think the game can be finished. So I'd guess the league will treat it as a tie for playoff seeding purposes. That would give us the AFCN before we play the Rats. But leave us as the 3 seed unless Buffalo and KC both lose this weekend while we win. 

 

Doesn't the bills have a better conference record? Best we could be is 3. We would be locked in. 

 

EDIT: We would have same conference record if they lose and we win this weekend.. 

 

So it goes down to common games. The part I do not understand is that the Bills played Cleveland, Baltimore and Pittsburg. They won all three. BUT We played those teams 6 times instead of 3 and we won 3 and lost 3 (if we win this weekend). So would it be 3-3 vs 3-0 or do they only consider one of those games against common opponents? So we would take the wins of course and be 3-0 as well? And vice versa with us beating Miami, New England and the Jets when the Bills 

 

Also, Bills lost to Miami, the Jets and if they lose this weekend to New England. So they would be 3-3 in games where we went 3-0 against their common opponents. 

 

The only other common opponents were KC and TEN and both Bills and Bengals are 2-0. 

 

We would both have 3-3 records in our divisions as well if Bills lost to Pats this weekend and we beat Baltimore. 

 

So this comes down to strength of victory? That is the combined record of all teams that were beaten in that schedule.

 

I even think that would be a tie lol.. 

 

EDIT #2:

 

Bengals have a .493 strength of victory and Bills have .479, which would be the tiebreaker we would win. Especially if we win and Bills lost their last game.. 

 

We are not catching KC no matter what since they are 1.5 games ahead of us right now, and Ravens would not catch us since we are 1.5 games ahead of them. 

 

Sorry about weird highlighting and what not, I was copying stuff from other pages. 

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3 hours ago, TigerJ@w said:

I reflect to past SBs, did they stop the game from a key player drug overdose or a player that broke their leg?  I hope the man gets through this and recovers fully but, penalizing the Bengals in any way should not happen. If that is the case, then just cancel the whole season and be done with it, right.  They won’t and this is my point.  Why should the Bengals be penalized in any way, shape or form?  

 

This is kind of different. A guy died on the field. The players were already traumatized because they literally saw him die. He was brought back to life, but you cannot expect players to just turn it back on when their brother is in the ICU in critical condition. This happened to a team my High School played and they just called the game as a no contest. I wasn't playing that year (was after I graduated) but that's what they did at the high school level. The player ended up dying. 

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fwiw - musings from florio

Quote

 

A list of possible approaches follows. There may be other options. There may be better options. These are the ones that currently come to mind.

 

1. Cancel the Bills-Bengals game and proceed with Week 18.

This would avoid any adjustment to the remaining schedule. The Bills-Bengals game would be declared a no contest. The practical impact would be that the Bills and Bengals would have one fewer game. Seeding for the postseason would be determined based on winning percentage.

 

Under the scenario, the Chiefs would capture the No. 1 seed by beating the Raiders. The Bengals would win the AFC North, regardless of the outcome of Cincinnati’s Week 18 game against the Ravens.

 

2. Play Bills-Bengals this weekend, and delay Week 18 by a week.

This would ensure that every team plays 17 games. But it would compel the Bills and Bengals to play fairly soon, at a time when no one else is playing. It also would eliminate the bye week between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl.

 

Yes, the NFL did that when rearranging the schedule in 2011 following 9/11. In those days, the Pro Bowl happened after the Super Bowl. This approach would necessitate cancellation of the reimagined approach to Pro Bowl weekend. (That definitely shouldn’t be viewed as an impediment.)

 

This approach also would delay by a week the conclusion of the season for teams that have no chance to make the playoffs. The teams that are already eliminated surely don’t want their seasons to linger by another week.

 

3. Cancel Bills-Bengals and delay Week 18.

This becomes a potentially attractive option, if players throughout the league are struggling to get themselves in the proper frame of mind to play this weekend.

It would require AFC playoff seeding to be determined by winning percentages, and it would eliminate the bye week between the conference championship and the Super Bowl. But it would give all players extra time before being expected to suit up again and play.

Again, it also would delay by a week the commencement of the offseason for the 18 teams that miss the playoffs.

 

4. Play Bills-Bengals during a reconfigured postseason.

 

This is an idea that could be getting some traction, as the league tries to come up with the best bad option.

Under this approach, Week 18 would proceed as scheduled. The following weekend, the NFC wild-card games would be played, along with Bills-Bengals. The next weekend, the AFC wild-card games would be played.

Then, the rest of the playoffs would unfold, but without the bye week between conference championships and the Super Bowl.

This would ensure that all teams play 17 games. It would give all AFC playoff teams (except the Bills and Bengals) a week off. It would give the NFC wild-card winners a week off. And the NFC No. 1 seed would go three weeks between games.

Again, there’s no perfect solution. The simplest would be to not play Bills-Bengals at all and proceed with Week 18. Whether the NFL deems that one to be the best remains to be seen.

 

 

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