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

[BillsFanSD]

1 minute ago, Giuseppe Tognarelli said:

You say it's ridiculous to hand the Chiefs the #1 seed and yet you advocate for just that by suggesting they'll use win percentage to determine seeding.

Yeah, "win percentage" isn't a very good solution here.  That just hands the #1 seed to a team that lost to both of last night's teams.  That's dumb.  Deciding the game by a coin flip would be more fair.

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

I'm of the mindset of just taking these next two weeks off if that means taking two L's I'm fine with that. But I would leave it up to the players and the coaches to decide when they want play and coach again. My guess would be that being NFL players and coaches, they will all want to get on the field this Sunday at home. But If not, I am okay with that. 

[UKBillFan]

31 minutes ago, SCBills said:

Bills were an Allen/Beasley timing hiccup away from this being 7-7.   We moved the ball at will on our first drive.  
 

As frustrating as it is, we’re all very familiar with our defenses slow starts.  
 

To act like anyone knows how this game was going to go, even if the Bengals go up 14-3 on their current drive, is being ridiculous and completely disrespectful to the grit and heart this team has shown this year.  
 

I say this as someone who was ready to throw my tv watching our defense in those first 1.5 drives.   ….I also know we have a seasons worth of data to rely on as to the good & bad tendencies of this defense all year long. 

Weren’t the Bengals 22-0 up against the Pats last week, yet were a Stevenson fumble away from losing the game come the end of the fourth quarter? And look at Colts-Vikings. How anyone can say we were bound to lose down 7-3 in the first quarter beats me.

Edited January 3, 2023 by UKBillFan

[Giuseppe Tognarelli]

48 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

This is overwhelmingly the most likely outcome. I'd say better than 90% chance thie happens.

Then KC HAS to lose on Saturday. The CHIEFS had better not benefit from this. Insane

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

Take with a grain of salt but I have read on twitter that if the game is completed it will be within the next two days.  Looks like they’re attributing the info to Vic carucci

 

Sounds like the most they’re gonna do if the game actually happens is play the game this week and push back the bills/pats game a little next week 

Edited January 3, 2023 by Generic_Bills_Fan

[Warriorspikes51]

Just now, Giuseppe Tognarelli said:

Then KC HAS to lose on Saturday. The CHIEFS had better not benefit from this. Insane

 

KC has been gifted half a dozen wins this year by other teams/refs.  Look at the recent games against Denver x2 and Houston.  All of which they deserved to lose 

[BarleyNY]

12 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

We need to leave behind this mindset that someone is going to be penalized in this scenario. The players and coaches don't feel that way. I know on here the #1 seed is considered life or death but it isn't. I just don't understand how anyone could even care about the #1 seed anymore. If it were about forfeiting the Super Bowl I would understand more.

 

The NFL is going to go with the simplest solution which offers the least disruption to the season as a whole and gives the Bills and Bengals players enough time to process what they just experienced. The only solution that makes sense in that context is a cancelled game that counts as a tie or one less game on the record.

The problem is that there is no solution that does not penalize at least one team. A tie would actually penalize both the Bengals and the Bills. The Bills would lose the #1 seed and the Bengals would lose the chance of the #2 seed and their shot at the #1 seed. KC potentially gets penalized with no game as their chance at the #1 seed is gone. Reworking the schedule penalizes several teams……etc.

Edited January 3, 2023 by BarleyNY

[SectionC3]

6 minutes ago, DasNootz said:

I cant imagine they play this week.  I think the best answer so far is to move forward and play next week's games.  After the last game is done - flip a coin for the Bills/Bengals.... or flip two coins.  The first decides if it's a tie.  The second decides who wins.

 

The fairest thing to do is probably to call it a no contest, for the entire world outside of the Kansas City area to root like crazy for the Raiders on Saturday, to have the Bills play (as they are) on Sunday at 1, and to have the Bengals/Ravens go on Sunday at 4.  Bills get a shot at the #1 if the Chiefs lose, and Bengals get a shot at the #2 if the Bills lose.  Everybody loses a little in that situation, but that's the way it goes when presented with an issue like this one that transcends football and nearly all other trivialities in life.  

Edited January 3, 2023 by SectionC3

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

2 minutes ago, UKBillFan said:

Weren’t the Bengals 22-0 up against the Pats last week, yet were a Stevenson fumble away from losing the game Come the end of the fourth quarter? And look at Colts-Vikings. How anyone can say we were bound to lose down 7-3 in the first quarter beats me.

Yes…there’s no way to know who was gonna win this one.  It was still relatively early in the first quarter and it appeared it was going to be a shootout 

[Boatdrinks]

3 minutes ago, UKBillFan said:

Weren’t the Bengals 22-0 up against the Pats last week, yet were a Stevenson fumble away from losing the game Come the end of the fourth quarter? And look at Colts-Vikings. How anyone can say we were bound to lose down 7-3 in the first quarter beats me.

Troll job… 

[flmike]

7 hours ago, Just Jack said:

Well, seeing as how the Bills beat everyone else in that division (Steelers, Ravens, Browns), they should just award the Bills the win also, making it a clean sweep of the North. 

Except the Bills were facing Burrows with 2 DBs down from an already depleted squad. Josh would have had to score 8 points on every drive to win that game. 

[Billsfan1972]

No way the Bills should play this game.  Too much emotion (or will be none when they play) and much more important things to focus on.  

 

I hate anyone & the "Suck it up" attitude. 

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

1 minute ago, flmike said:

Except the Bills were facing Burrows with 2 DBs down from an already depleted squad. Josh would have had to score 8 points on every drive to win that game. 

The bills held the chiefs to 20 missing like all their dbs 

[Giuseppe Tognarelli]

12 minutes ago, CSBill said:

There is no way this game is completed. If this happened before Dec 1, something probably could have been worked out. But not at this point in the season. If all teams were affected, then yes, something would be done. But that is not the case. .... In the end, the only fair thing they can do for all NFL teams is go by winning % for the play-off seeding. Maybe I lack faith, but I do not see any other fair solution with all the ancillary issues: player safety and metal health, schedules, TV money, competitive fairness, etc.

That's not fair when not all teams have played an equal number of games and when it's totally obvious that KC, of all teams, is the one and only beneficiary.

[Warriorspikes51]

2 minutes ago, flmike said:

Except the Bills were facing Burrows with 2 DBs down from an already depleted squad. Josh would have had to score 8 points on every drive to win that game. 

Simply not true.  Our defense often starts poorly, makes adjustments and then teams can't score the rest of the game. 

[HappyDays]

5 minutes ago, BarleyNY said:

The problem is that there is no solution that does not penalize at least one team. A tie would actually penalize both the Bengals and the Bills. The Bills would lose the #1 seed and the Bengals would lose the chance of the #2 seed and their shot at the #1 seed. KC potentially gets penalized with no game as their chance at the #1 seed is gone. Reworking the schedule penalizes several teams……etc.

 

It doesn't matter.

[BillsFanSD]

1 minute ago, BarleyNY said:

The problem is that there is no solution that does not penalize at least one teams. A tie would actually penalize both the Bengals and the Bills. The Bills would lose the #1 seed and the Bengals would lose the #2 seed and a shot at #1. KC gets penalized with no game. Reworking the schedule penalizes teams……etc.

I'm starting to come around to the view that the fairest outcome is just to determine last night's outcome by coin flip.  Any other solution is going to feel (rightly or wrongly) as having been engineered to advantage certain teams.  "Coin flip" doesn't require reworking any schedules or squeezing in a makeup game, and it removes human decisionmakers from determining the outcome.  

[Chugga]

This is the Bills fan in me talking and not a scenario I would assume would ever be on the table but….

 

I say they cancel the game and award wins to both teams involved with a stipulation that the Bengals hold all tiebreakers.

 

That means week 18 everyone is still playing for their livelihood.

 

Bills need a win to secure 1st.

 

Chiefs need a win for a shot at first (and Bills loss)

 

Bengals need a win and two losses for first

 

Yeah I know wishful thinking but also plays into NFL’s hands of making the last week highly important.

[SoCal Deek]

3 minutes ago, Billsfan1972 said:

No way the Bills should play this game.  Too much emotion (or will be none when they play) and much more important things to focus on.  

 

I hate anyone & the "Suck it up" attitude. 

With all due respect….It’s not your, or anyone else’s, attitude to have. This is up to the Bills players and coaches. I’ll be respectful of whatever they choose to do. All we ‘do’ is watch them. They are the ones directly involved. 

[Warriorspikes51]

1 minute ago, BillsFanSD said:

I'm starting to come around to the view that the fairest outcome is just to determine last night's outcome by coin flip.  Any other solution is going to feel (rightly or wrongly) as having been engineered to advantage certain teams.  "Coin flip" doesn't require reworking any schedules or squeezing in a makeup game, and it removes human decisionmakers from determining the outcome.  

Yes.  Best of 3.