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

[RandomBengalFan]

Bengals fan here.

First of all just praying for Danar Hamlin and hoping he will be OK.  Praying he won't have any brain damage and can live a normal life, and live his dreams however he sees fit.

Most solutions here involve the Bills maintaining their #2 seed.  Forcing the Bengals to accept a draw?  Or canceling, or winning percentage?  The game was 7-3 Cincinnati, and very likely to become 14-3. 

Bengals offense looked to be on fire. And unstoppable.  Sure momentum swings happen, events happen, turnovers, etc, no way to know what truly would have happened, but this was looking like a Cincinnati win.

 

Which would have leap frogged the Bills and clinched the afc north.

Either have to finish the game where it was, or Bill's forfeit.  The game was 7-3. Not a tie and it didn't look close.

If the situation were reversed, you wouldn't want your team punished for something out of its control.

 

No way they could have played that.  Would of been dangerous to the players, especially the Bills who were very distraught. They did the right thing by stopping it. But to say the Bills are still 2 seed just not fair to the Bengals.  How was your confidence level prior to that injury?

 

Godspeed Damar Hamlin, praying for you, and wishing you a full recovery. 

[chongli]

Someone on another forum said just cancel the season. This is a good idea. MLB did it before with the player's stike.

[Warriorspikes51]

1 minute ago, chongli said:

Someone on another forum said just cancel the season. This is a good idea. MLB did it before with the player's stike.

Not to diminish what Hamlin is going through.....but that's not fair to Millions of people 

[seattlebillsfan]

I still gravitate toward the simple solution of deciding the Bills-Bengals game by coin toss. Eliminates any need for rescheduling or format shifts, and doesn’t automatically hand KC the 1 seed due to a tragic event (though they would have the inside track if Bengals win the toss, just as they would have if the Bengals had won last night). I would think the teams could agree to this on Tuesday, and let the league know this is how they would like to handle it. Imperfect to be sure but it has the virtue of providing quick clarity, starting with the players and coaches, who still have the Herculean task of getting ready to play on Sunday while (in the case of the Bills, particularly) praying for a comrade in critical condition. 

[boyst]

10 minutes ago, PatsFanNH said:

Not to the NFL. It’s all about the money!  And it matters to all those teams as well.. 

Oh I know. And you likely realize I'm ribbing you. 

 

The nflpla and players wont let this issue go easily by. I don't see the players letting the game happen this week. 

[Billsfan1972]

Who cares, as long as they don't make them play the game.  No way should Buffalo & Cincy play (or try and make up the game).

 

Playoffs already are going to be a mess for the Bills regardless.

[Royale with Cheese]

4 minutes ago, Airseven said:

I’m not referring to Vegas odds. I’m referring to the reality of what was occurring on the field.

 

I do understand this “neutral” outcome is the preference here because it prevents the Bills from getting beat.

Geezus shut up.

[teef]

1 minute ago, Royale with Cheese said:

Geezus shut up.

you knew there were going to have a handful of posters who were going to take this angle.  pretty predictable.

[chongli]

3 minutes ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

Not to diminish what Hamlin is going through.....but that's not fair to Millions of people 

 

Someone's life vs. the feelings of millions of people. Hmmmm...

[ToGoGo]

Just now, chongli said:

 

Someone's life vs. the feelings of millions of people. Hmmmm...

 

Hamlin is still alive. What are you even saying? 

[Lothar]

Here's one solution:

 

1. Cancel this game.

2. For fairness to all teams, if all of BUF, KC, CIN win next week, the solution might be to give KC the top seed but if KC and BUF as 1,2 meet for the championship game, they play at a neutral site like Indy with fans of both teams given an opportunity to buy half the tickets. Similarly, if BUF and CIN meet as 2 vs 3, they play at a neutral site. Should any team lose next week, we go strictly to winning percentage.

 

 

[Warriorspikes51]

1 minute ago, chongli said:

 

Someone's life vs. the feelings of millions of people. Hmmmm...

That's NOT what I said.  

[BarleyNY]

The NFL isn’t going to cancel a game. My best guess is that it resumes on Wednesday.

 

As for other options, IMO Cincinnati should not be penalized for doing the right thing in that situation. It was very early, but it is worth noting that it was a game they were winning. 

[Nineforty]

play the game tomorrow. 

[LabattBlue]

10 minutes ago, chongli said:

Someone on another forum said just cancel the season. This is a good idea. MLB did it before with the player's stike.

Not a good idea, and is never going to happen. 

[SoCal Deek]

1 minute ago, Nineforty said:

play the game tomorrow. 

That’s going to be up to the players (mostly Buffalo). I’m betting they choose to forfeit. 

[DrPJax]

4 minutes ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

Forfeit should be a non-starter.  This team has worked too hard to be essentially punished for a circumstance beyond anyone's control

If the Titans weren't forced to forfeit a game or multiple games a few years ago....and instead a handful of teams were negatively impacted

How can the league possibly justify a forfeit here

Very good points. I’m just not sure how you do what’s right for these young men emotionally. I didn’t sleep all night and I have 40 years in medicine and unfortunately as part of the career ,I have been there to see people pass. Was with my father who passed from non Hogkins lymphoma way too young at 72. It is always traumatizing. You never “get used to it”, that’s the truth. I hope they don’t have to face him passing , but they are facing his loss at least for this season.  I’m just not sure how they go right back to playing without distraction. NFL has smart people, they surely can figure this out while remembering these are young men being affected. 

[SCBills]

15 minutes ago, Airseven said:

I’m not referring to Vegas odds. I’m referring to the reality of what was occurring on the field.

 

I do understand this “neutral” outcome is the preference here because it prevents the Bills from getting beat.

My goodness, will you stop…

 

“Neutral” is not the preference so we can avoid what you believe was going to be a “throttling”.  
 

1) It gives us zero shot at the one seed should KC win. 
 

2) If we were going to lose that game, I’d much rather play, lose it, and then force the Bengals to beat us twice in a month if we meet again in Cinci in a few weeks.  
 

All a neutral outcome gives us is a potential Cinci game at home.  I think most would rather take the chance at a 1 if Hamlin is ok and we have the opportunity to resume down 7-3 midway through the 1st quarter. 

This all said .. we’re not going to have what we hope is good news on Hamlin for a couple days, based on almost anyone familiar with what happened. 

The Bills may have to prepare for NE all week with their teammate, and our Buffalo Bills brother in a medically induced coma fighting for his life.   
 

Posters are commenting about potential decisions knowing this reality. 
 

Edited January 3, 2023 by SCBills

[GunnerBill]

3 minutes ago, BarleyNY said:

The NFL isn’t going to cancel a game. My best guess is that it resumes on Wednesday.

 

As for other options, IMO Cincinnati should not be penalized for doing the right thing in that situation. It was very early, but it is worth noting that it was a game they were winning. 

 

They are not playing the game with Damar in a coma. 

[Cheektowaga Chad]

12 minutes ago, eee1776 said:

Cancel the kc  Raider game. Bills play New England Cinncy plays Ravens everyone ends with same Games played except Wild card teams?

"Canceling" or simply not counting the chiefs raiders game is an easy way to even the playing field for bills chiefs but doesn't do much for Bengals ravens who the division is still potentially up for grabs