MNF Week 17: Buffalo Bills @ Cincinnati Bengals

[twotonebluenation]

Thank you!

[TecmoSuperJoe]

Currently

KC 13-3

Buf 12-3 (need to win and KC to lose to improve to #1 seed)

Cin 11-4 (can only improve to #2 seed)

Ravens 10-6 (cannot win division)

[TecmoSuperJoe]

Someone said this, which I also thought about too. But I'm guessing if it was going to have happened, it would have happened on Wednesday (Bills/Bengals play the game on Wednesday). Even now, by my clock it's too late to get the team and go play a game. Unless it's late Thursday night. 

Quote

They should play Thursday and move this weeks games back to next Tuesday and then have bills and bengals play their playoff games following Monday

 

Edited January 5, 2023 by TecmoSuperJoe

[kingseanjohn]

 

[Malfatron]

3 hours ago, BillSabre said:

 Can we all agree that not having the Det/GB game at the same time as the Seattle game is asinine? What is the NFL thinking??? 

I agree. 

Definitely doesnt favor green bay potentially facing a very mad detroit team with nothing to lose

[Louis Friend]

15 minutes ago, Malfatron said:

I agree. 

Definitely doesnt favor green bay potentially facing a very mad detroit team with nothing to lose

Jokes on you when Seattle loses and Detroit beats Green Bay to make the playoffs 😛

[Malfatron]

1 minute ago, Louis Friend said:

Jokes on you when Seattle loses and Detroit beats Green Bay to make the playoffs 😛

Its all good.

Im just glad the vikings didnt end our season.

I would rather see detroit in the playoffs over seattle, so im rooting for the rams.

[Calamity_Cometh]

1 hour ago, Malfatron said:

I agree. 

Definitely doesnt favor green bay potentially facing a very mad detroit team with nothing to lose

Detroit is angry at everyone and is playing with house money.

[warfelg]

I posted this elsewhere:

The impacts of cancelling the game:

-KC is given the 1 seed, nothing to play for this week. 
-Buffalo is locked into the 2 seed. 
-Cincinnati is locked into the 3 seed. 
-Baltimore is locked into the 5 seed and cannot win the division (they needed Cincy to lose to Buff). 
-4 seed is the only seed not impacted. 

So now, Buffalo has nothing to play for. If they beat NE and Miami loses, they play NE in two straight weeks. If they lose to NE they play Miami next week regardless. 

So if Buffalo say, we’re not ready to play, let’s forfeit the game. It’s locks in the AFC playoffs. Pittsburgh is eliminated because records based on percentages got effected. 

Or we go with, Buffalo plays all the backups, knowing they are the 2 seed regardless and they rather play Miami than NE again. There’s an off chance that Buffalo wins and NE loses, keeping Pittsburgh’s playoff chances alive. 

Now I know the Steelers would publicly say the right things and that they should have won more games etc. because that’s the Rooney/Tomlin/Steelers way. But there’s guys who have incentives that would be lost due to missing the playoffs. Coaches would likely be unhappy. Heck ownership would likely be unhappy that they got eliminated due to at least one game with playoff implications being cancelled. 

This is why you are going to see a lot of proposals that include trying to play the game. Even if it means they have to play a “stand alone” week. You would want as much of this decided on the field as possible. 

All of that said, as annoyed as a fan I would be by this because of the Steelers being eliminated; if they decide that game is cancelled I would. It blame the Bills at all if they decided to forfeit because they need the time. Heck in this case I would encourage the Steelers to sit everyone and intentionally lose to the Browns. Could take us from the 15th pick to the 12th. And the Browns would like that because it means a lesser pick to the Texans via the Watson trade. 
 

Personally I think the NFL should do what they can to keep the potential of this game being finished. I would bet they are secretly hoping that everything falls right this weekend in that the Cincinnati/Buffalo game didn’t matter in the end. That way they can cancel it without more wide spread playoff impacts.
 

Because almost the last thing the NFL wants is two forfeits in its final weekend which renders two more games inconsequential. So now there would be nothing to play for in the entire AFC other than a loss here and there impacting picks. But nation wide there’s little interest in that, it’s more local impacted. 

[paul-mac]

2 minutes ago, warfelg said:

I posted this elsewhere:

The impacts of cancelling the game:

-KC is given the 1 seed, nothing to play for this week. 
-Buffalo is locked into the 2 seed. 
-Cincinnati is locked into the 3 seed. 
-Baltimore is locked into the 5 seed and cannot win the division (they needed Cincy to lose to Buff). 
-4 seed is the only seed not impacted. 

So now, Buffalo has nothing to play for. If they beat NE and Miami loses, they play NE in two straight weeks. If they lose to NE they play Miami next week regardless. 

So if Buffalo say, we’re not ready to play, let’s forfeit the game. It’s locks in the AFC playoffs. Pittsburgh is eliminated because records based on percentages got effected. 

Or we go with, Buffalo plays all the backups, knowing they are the 2 seed regardless and they rather play Miami than NE again. There’s an off chance that Buffalo wins and NE loses, keeping Pittsburgh’s playoff chances alive. 

Now I know the Steelers would publicly say the right things and that they should have won more games etc. because that’s the Rooney/Tomlin/Steelers way. But there’s guys who have incentives that would be lost due to missing the playoffs. Coaches would likely be unhappy. Heck ownership would likely be unhappy that they got eliminated due to at least one game with playoff implications being cancelled. 

This is why you are going to see a lot of proposals that include trying to play the game. Even if it means they have to play a “stand alone” week. You would want as much of this decided on the field as possible. 

All of that said, as annoyed as a fan I would be by this because of the Steelers being eliminated; if they decide that game is cancelled I would. It blame the Bills at all if they decided to forfeit because they need the time. Heck in this case I would encourage the Steelers to sit everyone and intentionally lose to the Browns. Could take us from the 15th pick to the 12th. And the Browns would like that because it means a lesser pick to the Texans via the Watson trade. 
 

Personally I think the NFL should do what they can to keep the potential of this game being finished. I would bet they are secretly hoping that everything falls right this weekend in that the Cincinnati/Buffalo game didn’t matter in the end. That way they can cancel it without more wide spread playoff impacts.
 

Because almost the last thing the NFL wants is two forfeits in its final weekend which renders two more games inconsequential. So now there would be nothing to play for in the entire AFC other than a loss here and there impacting picks. But nation wide there’s little interest in that, it’s more local impacted. 

 

Even if the game is declared a no contest, the Bills can still be the 1 seed if they beat the Patriots and the Chiefs lose to the Raiders. 13-3 beats 13-4. 
 

The Ravens won’t be locked into 5 either. They need to beat CIN and have LAC lose to DEN to be 5. If they lose OR the Chargers win, the Ravens would be the 6 seed. 

[warfelg]

7 minutes ago, paul-mac said:

 

Even if the game is declared a no contest, the Bills can still be the 1 seed if they beat the Patriots and the Chiefs lose to the Raiders. 13-3 beats 13-4. 
 

The Ravens won’t be locked into 5 either. They need to beat CIN and have LAC lose to DEN to be 5. If they lose OR the Chargers win, the Ravens would be the 6 seed. 

My bad. There’s always so much to try to remember. But that stuff is still impacted, like I said. Buffalo decides to forfeit this week or not try, that 1 seed stuff has no chance of happening. And if Cincy basically doesn’t try the other game gets impacted. Also I forgot the LaC were the 5 seed currently, but I think the odds of them losing to Denver this week are incredibly low. 

[THE DUKE]

9 minutes ago, warfelg said:

My bad. There’s always so much to try to remember. But that stuff is still impacted, like I said. Buffalo decides to forfeit this week or not try, that 1 seed stuff has no chance of happening. And if Cincy basically doesn’t try the other game gets impacted. Also I forgot the LaC were the 5 seed currently, but I think the odds of them losing to Denver this week are incredibly low. 

Also, I heard if the Bills lose and Bengals win, then the Bengals have the tiebreaker for the #2 seed.

[bigbadbuff]

 

[BillSabre]

Letting teams play week 18 BEFORE making the decision would be such an underhanded move by the NFL. 
 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2023 by BillSabre
Change

[THE DUKE]

33 minutes ago, BillSabre said:

Letting teams play week 18 BEFORE making the decision would be such an underhanded move by the NFL. 
 

 

 

It would be extremely stupid, which is why I won't be surprised if that is what they do.  They should finalize a decision before Thursday Night Football tonight.  Only going to be more headaches if they don't.