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

[HalftimeAdjustment]

23 minutes ago, Kiva said:

They game was “delayed” by the league. This indicates that the game will be finished at some point…

 

They can just change it to cancelled or forfeited at any point later. "Postponed" lets them dodge questions while hoping Damar's condition improves. 

 

If Damar regains consciousness and does not have brain damage, the league can then announce whatever they want to do and it will be accepted, because the good outcome would outweigh the inconvenience to football.

 

I don't even want to contemplate other alternatives to that.

[NoSaint]

1 hour ago, Kiva said:

Raiders are not beating KC. The cinci game will need to be finished. 

you should bet your house and retirement on it I guess

[Mango]

4 minutes ago, Patrick Fitzryan said:

The league ,though, owes it to the other teams to create as level a playing field as possible.

That isn’t true. The league doesn’t owe any teams anything. No team is shorted. 

Nothing has changed for those teams there are in the same spot they were in 36 hours ago. Every team is in the same exact spot in the standing they were before kick off of a game that wasn’t played.
 

Their standing last week was fair. Nobody is messing with their standings. 
 

I find this argument so weak.
 

Nearly everybody in Buffalo has offered up the L. Nobody cares. 

 

[Kiva]

Just now, NoSaint said:

you should bet your house and retirement on it I guess

I’m in Cali. Sports gambling is illegal. 

[Mango]

5 minutes ago, Andy1 said:

Bob Costas was on tv tonight and thought the most likely scenario was that the game is never played and playoff seating is done using winning %.

The only reason this is wonky is because KC played the Bengals and Bills losing to both. As unique as this situation is, this is even more rare because of the teams it affects right now. 
 

My first choice is to take the L and move on.

 

In any other scenario I don’t understand why KC gets the one seed after losing to both CIN and BUF. 

[NoSaint]

7 minutes ago, Mango said:

That isn’t true. The league doesn’t owe any teams anything. No team is shorted. 

Nothing has changed for those teams there are in the same spot they were in 36 hours ago. Every team is in the same exact spot in the standing they were before kick off of a game that wasn’t played.
 

Their standing last week was fair. Nobody is messing with their standings. 
 

I find this argument so weak.
 

Nearly everybody in Buffalo has offered up the L. Nobody cares. 

 

was typing the same thing and got an error. I’ll shorthand it to “call me back when Miami fixes their stadium or allows shade for visitors” if you want to talk to me about the nfl owing fairness to all teams. It’s a standard the league doesn’t believe in, outside of preserving ratings to preserve income. 
 

im cool if they make it up, and cool if you skip it. Nothing about that is unfair… and frankly even if it was it’s not even among the most egregious examples that needs to be fixed. 

[HalftimeAdjustment]

4 minutes ago, Andy1 said:

Bob Costas was on tv tonight and thought the most likely scenario was that the game is never played and playoff seating is done using winning %.

 

So, in that case the possible options would be (assuming the Bills do play in Wk 18):

KC W: 0.823 T: 0.794 L: 0.764

BUF W: 0.812 T:  0.781 L: 0.75

CIN W: 0.75 T: 0.718 L: 0.687 

 

In that case:

 1) Bengals vs Ravens is meaningless (Ravens cannot exceed 0.687 Win%)

 2) Bengals cannot win the #1 seed

 3) Bengals cannot get the #2 seed unless Buffalo loses and they win ... I think they take the tiebreaker on division W/L % but not sure.

 4) Chiefs are in the driver's seat for #1 and only lose it with a loss or tie plus a BUF win.

 

This is OK, it is more balanced between the Bills and Bengals than a forfeit of course, but it is defensible. 

[Buffalo03]

12 minutes ago, Mango said:

The only reason this is wonky is because KC played the Bengals and Bills losing to both. As unique as this situation is, this is even more rare because of the teams it affects right now. 
 

My first choice is to take the L and move on.

 

In any other scenario I don’t understand why KC gets the one seed after losing to both CIN and BUF. 

 

Benjamin Albright mentioned a random number generator. Considered no contest 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2023 by Buffalo03

[0017]

I don’t trust some random number generator! That’s weird, why not bring in Vegas and play a round of poker 😃

[transplantbillsfan]

25 minutes ago, Andy1 said:

Bob Costas was on tv tonight and thought the most likely scenario was that the game is never played and playoff seating is done using winning %.

 

If this is the case, I would really like McDermott and the team to forfeit the game on Sunday if KC wins.

 

I'm sure there are internal conversations about this already, but I don't even understand how Buffalo is expected to start practicing tomorrow. I could see players going in and spending the day together praying and talking and laying on couches getting their heads shrinked.

 

But does anyone honestly expect Buffalo to have a normal practice tomorrow?

 

Thinking strictly in terms of the season (because of course we're all still praying for Damar), the league should have figured this all our and notified teams today. Buffalo and Cincinnati are both already at a competitive disadvantage this weekend because they're half-heartedly thinking about their opponents while simultaneously not having a clue about anything else.

[Mango]

3 minutes ago, Buffalo03 said:

 

Benjamin Albright mentioned a random number generator. Considered no contest 

 

 

This makes some sense. Especially for the top 3. 
 

It sounds like the league is prepped to let the 7 seed figure itself out without the result from that game. I could be wrong, but it felt that way to me.

 

Here is my idea. We roll a 12 sided dice for KC for each conference game. Whatever number it rolls on is the corresponding game they played against a conference opponent. If it’s a win, they drop that game from their record. If it’s a loss they lose that. 

 

But if they roll the H2H match up with either CIN or BUF they get leap frogged by that team. Automatically. 

[Buffalo03]

2 minutes ago, Mango said:

This makes some sense. Especially for the top 3. 
 

It sounds like the league is prepped to let the 7 seed figure itself out without the result from that game. I could be wrong, but it felt that way to me.

 

Here is my idea. We roll a 12 sided dice for KC for each conference game. Whatever number it rolls on is the corresponding game they played against a conference opponent. If it’s a win, they drop that game from their record. If it’s a loss they lose that. 

 

But if they roll the H2H match up with either CIN or BUF they get leap frogged by that team. Automatically. 

I still say push the playoffs back a week and get rid of the bye week before the Super Bowl. It's the only logical solution. After week 18, Bills and Bengals pick up where they left off the following weekend and then playoffs start the week after. I feel like anything else is overthinking it or making it more complicated 

[Aussie Joe]

4 minutes ago, Mango said:

This makes some sense. Especially for the top 3. 
 

It sounds like the league is prepped to let the 7 seed figure itself out without the result from that game. I could be wrong, but it felt that way to me.

 

Here is my idea. We roll a 12 sided dice for KC for each conference game. Whatever number it rolls on is the corresponding game they played against a conference opponent. If it’s a win, they drop that game from their record. If it’s a loss they lose that. 

 

But if they roll the H2H match up with either CIN or BUF they get leap frogged by that team. Automatically. 

Haha… hope they check the weight on that dice closely…

I can see after the result the loser saying … “it was best of three wasn’t it?”

[Mango]

2 minutes ago, Buffalo03 said:

I still say push the playoffs back a week and get rid of the bye week before the Super Bowl. It's the only logical solution. After week 18, Bills and Bengals pick up where they left off the following weekend and then playoffs start the week after. I feel like anything else is overthinking it or making it more complicated 

This is by far my least favorite. Take the loss. Move on. Let the league and the team start to put the trauma behind them. 
 

Reshuffle the whole league, to have them be the only story line in the country. For two teams already in as high seeds. It will be nonstop talk about Hamlin. 
 

If the locker room wants this sure. But it doesn’t “feel” like they do. And my pulse on the city is that they don't want this either. It just provides so little value. 

1 minute ago, Aussie Joe said:

Haha… hope they check the weight on that dice closely…

I can see after the result the loser saying … “it was best of three wasn’t it?”

Also, KC has like an 80% chance of losing one of their wins. This definitely favors CIN and BUF. By a wide margin. 

[beebe]

12 minutes ago, Mango said:

This makes some sense. Especially for the top 3. 
 

It sounds like the league is prepped to let the 7 seed figure itself out without the result from that game. I could be wrong, but it felt that way to me.

 

Here is my idea. We roll a 12 sided dice for KC for each conference game. Whatever number it rolls on is the corresponding game they played against a conference opponent. If it’s a win, they drop that game from their record. If it’s a loss they lose that. 

 

But if they roll the H2H match up with either CIN or BUF they get leap frogged by that team. Automatically. 

 

So in other words, the Chiefs have ONE chance. They'd have to roll snake eyes. The second AFC team they played was Colts (2). The Bills (4) and Bengals (8) would be automatic leap frogs. So it would have to roll snake eyes for the Chiefs to secure the 1 seed.

 

The odds of rolling snake eyes is 1 out of 36.

 

With your suggested method, you've now turned the Chiefs' chances of a 1 seed (previously about 50-50 if Bills-Bengals was played to completion and Bills lost) to now a 2.7% chance. Brilliant idea!

[Mango]

1 minute ago, beebe said:

 

So in other words, the Chiefs have ONE chance. They'd have to roll snake eyes. The second AFC team they played was Colts (2). The Bills (4) and Bengals (8) would be automatic leap frogs. So it would have to roll snake eyes for the Chiefs to secure the 1 seed.

 

The odds of rolling snake eyes is 1 out of 36.

 

With your suggested method, you've now turned the Chiefs' chances of a 1 seed (previously about 50-50 if Bills-Bengals was played to completion and Bills lost) to now a 2.7% chance. Brilliant idea!

 

Just tell them if they don’t they’re nothing but a buncha yellow bellied cowards. 

[clearwater cadet]

Since we are only talking about the AFC, if the Bills, Bengals, and Chief win this weekend.  The Bills (9-2) and Chief (9-3) will have the most conference wins (9 each).  Bengals will (8-3) in conference.  The Bills did beat the Chiefs head to head.  So they are the number 1 seed.  Bengals would be # 2 they beat the chief head to head, Chiefs would be #3.  Simple, no need to play any additional games modify playoffs.

[Doc Brown]

In before the lock.

[Bookie Man]

Only one answer to this... Madden sim. 

[chongli]

For some (many?) years during the drought, if you counted only divsion records, like they do in college, the Bills would have been competitive with the Patriots. Either tied with them for the divsion title, or in second place.