The Cincinnati Bengals weren’t happy with updated NFL playoff scenarios that were released late Thursday night.
While they had every reason to feel that way, the team finally lost their fight against the NFL on Friday.
After officially calling off the Bills’ Week 18 game against the Bengals, the NFL needed to figure out what Week 18 would look like for the Bengals, Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs. All three teams had a lot at stake heading into Monday’s game.
The Bengals are 11-4 and are currently a game and a half ahead of the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North standings. By default, when the NFL said the Bengals would only play 16 games this year, the Bengals became the AFC North champions no matter what happens in Sunday’s game.
The reason for this is that the overall record is the number one determining factor in division titles. If the Bengals win, they’ll be 12-4 and the Ravens 10-7. If the Ravens win, the Bengals would be 11-5 and the Ravens would be 11-6.
The NFL’s new script has a big part in what the playoffs could look like for the Bengals, and it’s not favorable to Cincinnati. As it stands, in the NFL rulebook, if a game is canceled, the winning percentage determines the playoff standings. However, league owners voted on the proposed new scenarios on Friday and the Bengals fell through.
Here is the NFL’s competitive policy for canceled games.
“If a game is called off, a team’s seeding in its division or conference (e.g. qualification as a Wild Card in the playoffs or position in the playoff standings) will be determined based on its Final score If necessary, playoff ties will be calculated based on the average per game for all teams.
If the Bengals beat the Ravens on Sunday, no change and Cincinnati will host the Wild Card Round game at Paycor Stadium regardless of the opponent. Here is the layer that is unfavorable to the Bengals.
The new NFL proposal says if the Bengals lose to the Ravens in Week 18 and if those two clubs are to play a Wild Card game against each other, which is very likely, the site of that game would be determined by lottery. This means the Bengals could be AFC North champions on paper and not benefit from hosting a playoff game like every other division winner.
That’s why the Bengals fought hard against the league’s proposal.
“As far as I’m concerned, we just want the rules to be followed,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said. “When a game is called off, you just look to the winning percentage to clarify everything so we don’t have to invent rules. There are several instances this season where a club is fined or people in our building get fined and we’re told ‘Follow the rules.’ It’s black and white. It’s in the rulebook. So now when we point out the rules and you’re told we’re going to change that , I don’t want to hear about fair and just when this is the case.
The NFL called a special meeting with the owners Friday morning after announcing the proposals. For the proposals to be accepted, the league needs 24 votes. Twenty-five owners voted in favour. The Bengals needed nine votes in favor of the proposal to fail and to be reworked and amended.
Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn serves on the league’s competition committee and Told sent a memo to the rest of the league urging them to vote on Cincinnati’s behalf.
Taylor was thrilled to see his property fight hard for his team.
“They have this team’s back,” he said. “It’s important that the team know that because someone has to fight for you. It clearly does not come from the league. It’s good to have our property and front office supporting players the way they have. It’s important to us.
The new playoff scenario is undoubtedly not fair to the Bengals, but all of that won’t matter if the Bengals win on Sunday.
However, nothing that happened this week was fair to anyone. If Cincinnati had beaten the Bills and Ravens, yes, they would have become number one in the AFC. 2 seeded with a seeded shot, but there’s no way of knowing if that would have played.
There was always a chance that Cincinnati had to hit the road for the divisional round. What no one ever believed could happen was that the Bengals, at 11-4, would one day lose home court advantage in the Wild Card round and that is now in question.
And as Taylor said, the Bengals can avoid all of that if they just win. That’s what they’re focusing on moving forward.
“It seems like there are positives for a lot of teams and only negatives for us,” Taylor said. We therefore have the possibility of playing for a coin flip which can only negatively impact us. We don’t have the ability to play for a coin flip which impacts us positively. Again, let’s just follow the rules and we accept it. We just have to focus on preparing for Baltimore and then do whatever we can to control what we can control at that time.
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