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

[thewookie1]

54 minutes ago, What a Tuel said:

 

The problem is that a Bengals loss against the Ravens puts them at 11-5 and the Ravens at 11-6 technically giving the Bengals the division unless the Bills vs Bengals game resolves. Ravens will have beaten the Bengals twice, so a Bengals loss to the Bills and a tied 11-6 record would give the Ravens the division.

If that plays out, Buffalo can forfeit the game. 
 

Buffalo 13-4

Chiefs 13-4

Bengals 12-5

[EmotionallyUnstable]

A chiefs loss this Sunday, paired with a Bills win would make this mess a whole lot easier. 

[Buffalo Barbarian]

Serious question, have players died on the field and the game continued ?

 

 

[mannc]

One way to look at is that, if the Bengals game is not replayed and the Chiefs thereby end up with the first seed, the Bills (and Bengals) still got an extra bye week since they did not have to play a full week 17 game.  That alleviates some of the potential unfairness...   

[billvernsays]

This is obviously unprecedented and the only thing that matters is the health of D Hamlin.

 

Just a thought that the next game result for the Bills and the Bengals might count for this week and next week. If the Bills win vs the Pats they finish 14-3 and the Bengals will be 13-4 if we lose we’ll drop to 12-5 and the Bengals will be 11-6. 

 

It would only count as one game for the Pats and the Ravens. 
 

Probably stupid but it’s a thought as the schedule itself is pretty random as to strength of schedule and the Chiefs wouldn’t be able to claim it’s not fair as we both beat them. 
 

[HalftimeAdjustment]

10 minutes ago, Buffalo Barbarian said:

Serious question, have players died on the field and the game continued ?

 

 

 

Yes... in 1971. 

 

https://time.com/6244346/chuck-hughes-died-nfl-game-damar-hamlin/

 

[Mikie2times]

I think it's possible this decision comes before Saturday as to not inconvenience fans or travel, but to me it becomes almost probable once we get to the end of Saturday that a decision could be made.  Saturday we will most likely know how the NFL is handling the situation (I think). Perhaps the NFL is planning to wait for the Chiefs game to finish before they announce what the strategy is (Chiefs win could trigger a lot of other things). If the Chiefs win, I see little anybody could say about giving them homefield. Which then makes our game meaningless and a forfeit of the game logical for all involved. I don't think the Bills play in this scenario and question if they would even play if the Chiefs lost. We just need the rest physically and emotionally. 

[Success]

The game will not be meaningless.  Our game has huge implications for 4 cities hoping to get the 7 seed.

 

[Seventeen]

20 minutes ago, EmotionallyUnstable said:

A chiefs loss this Sunday, paired with a Bills win would make this mess a whole lot easier. 

 

LFG Jarrett Stidham !!!

[Mikie2times]

1 minute ago, Success said:

The game will not be meaningless.  Our game has huge implications for 4 cities hoping to get the 7 seed.

 

If we forfeit the outcome is a loss which decides the fate of these teams in a consistent way  

[Success]

2 minutes ago, KzooMike said:

If we forfeit the outcome is a loss which decides the fate of these teams in a consistent way  

 

It would hand the Patriots the 7 seed.  I really don't think that would sit well w/ Miami, Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, et al.

 

I just doubt they go that way. They'll try to make things as uncontroversial as possible. I could see the Cincy game being a forfeit, but not Sunday's game.

 

[Mikie2times]

1 minute ago, Success said:

 

It would hand the Patriots the 7 seed.  I really don't think that would sit well w/ Miami, Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, et al.

 

I just doubt they go that way. They'll try to make things as uncontroversial as possible. I could see the Cincy game being a forfeit, but not Sunday's game.

 

We will forfeit Sunday most likely prior to the Chiefs game, certainly 100% if they win. The likelihood we play Sunday is very low IMO. 

[boilertiger]

9 minutes ago, HalftimeAdjustment said:

 

Yes... in 1971. 

 

https://time.com/6244346/chuck-hughes-died-nfl-game-damar-hamlin/

 

Also, not an on field death but in 2011, Jevon Belcher (Chiefs starting LB) murdered his girlfriend and mother of his 3 month old daughter.

 

Belcher then drove to Arrowhead stadium. Scott Pioli and Romeo Crennel in the parking lot tried to calm him down. Belcher asked Clark Hunt and Scott Pioli to take care of his daughter before shooting him self in the head. Chiefs had a game the next day.

 

 

[ArtVandalay]

Each team sends forth their best Madden player, they play with active rosters. Problem solved. 

[UKBillFan]

1 hour ago, Kiva said:

Stop with the forfeit talk.  It’s not going to happen. 

If the Bills beat the Pats whilst the Chiefs/Bengals both lose then the number one seed is sewn up. The Bengals game would not matter to us. I said we may as well forfeit as we’ll field the back up players at Paycor in this scenario to protect the first team players for the play offs.

10 minutes ago, Success said:

 

It would hand the Patriots the 7 seed.  I really don't think that would sit well w/ Miami, Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, et al.

 

I just doubt they go that way. They'll try to make things as uncontroversial as possible. I could see the Cincy game being a forfeit, but not Sunday's game.

 

If the Bengals lose to the Ravens then us forfeiting the Cincinnati game would mean Baltimore miss out on the chance of the third seed.

[Alphadawg7]

Here is what I think is most likely going to happen:  The game is going to be ruled no contest and they will rank seeding on win %.  With the announcement of not resuming the game this week, it takes most scenarios off the board and I only really see 2 possible ways they have left to handle this.  Which is make the game no contest and seed on win % (this hurts a lot of teams though) or postpone the start of the playoffs one week to finish the game next week. 

 

Option 1:  No contest and win % used for seeding:  One of the biggest issues here is the handling of the #1 seed designation.  The reality is, there is nothing that can be done to offset the lost opportunity to 2 of the 3 teams in contention for the #1 seed who don't end up with it if this game is not resumed.  Then you have the disadvantage of losing out on home field opportunities when these teams face off in playoffs.

 

NOTE:  The one area though that can be adjusted to neutralize some of the disadvantage is with home field advantage.  Given that Buff, KC, and Cincy were all in direct contention for the #1 seed, the simple solution is to play any game where 2 of those teams are facing each other at a neutral site.  The only time it will come into play is if 2 of these teams play each other because if this is declared "no contest" and not resumed, they will be the top 3 seeds and division winners regardless and will have home field advantage against any other opponent in the playoffs.  So, the only time it becomes an issue is if they face each other, so simply move those games to a neutral site to offset any unfairness in final seeding if this game is not resumed.

 

Option 2:  Personally, I think the best solution is to play week 18, postpone playoffs one week and instead resume Bills vs Bengals game that following week.  But, that is a much more complex solution for the NFL to execute, so I am highly skeptical they would approach it that way.  

 

Outside of those 2 options, I don't think the NFL really has any other viable choices.  If they could have resumed the game tomorrow (which is impossible now) you could maybe get it all to work by moving Bills vs NE and Cincy vs Balt to like Tuesday next week.  But that ship has sailed, they would have had to decide that this morning.  The players union isn't going to allow any team to play 3 games in like a 10 day period.  So, the game would have had to resume today or tomorrow to have any chance of spacing the games out far enough without affecting starting the playoffs the same weekend as planned.  

 

 

[Captain Caveman]

It's pretty telling how many people are sure that one solution or another "can't / won't happen" and how someone is gonna have to be wrong.  This whole thing is pretty unprecedented - with that said, seeing as though no matter what someone is going to be unhappy with the solution (meaning some team), my best guess is they go with the simplest solution, which is probably not counting last night's game, or counting it as a tie for both teams, or counting it as a forfeit for the Bills. Any of those would make sense to me (keeping in mind that there is no great solution.) 

[Kiva]

26 minutes ago, KzooMike said:

We will forfeit Sunday most likely prior to the Chiefs game, certainly 100% if they win. The likelihood we play Sunday is very low IMO. 

This is just a terrible take…

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

I have a feeling the NFL will wait and see what happens this week. I think if the bills, raiders, and ravens win this weekend, the bills-bengals game is meaningless for every purpose, and they can declare it a forfeit. 

[UKBillFan]

Just now, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

I have a feeling the NFL will wait and see what happens this week. I think if the bills, raiders, and ravens win this weekend, the bills-bengals game is meaningless for every purpose, and they can declare it a forfeit. 

Not quite. If the Bills, Ravens and Raiders win, then the AFC North and the number three seed is still up for grabs. If the Bengals beat the Bills they take it; if the Bills beat the Bengals then the Ravens do.