FEATURED AFC Bills-vs-Bengals Game Reschedule Speculation (no conspiracies)

[guag]

Not sure where you are getting that from.

@MikeReiss tells us he “wouldn't be shocked" if the Patriots don't play the Bills on Sunday...

If they don't play against the Pats and don't finish the Cincy game, then...

From the article:

The idea that they say we’ll just take a forfeit on the Bengals game, take a forfeit on the Patriots game and give ourselves the space.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

If they don't play against the Pats and don't finish the Cincy game, then...

From the article:

That does make sense. They (the Bills) may not be ready to play.

And if they do not get a clear "W" over the Bengals then they're no longer the #1 seed, so it wouldn't make much difference if they were the #2 or #3 seed then.

 

[Blackspider214]

Of course they weren't.

Anyone who thought the Bills and Bengals were going to resume that game anytime soon were delusional.

Exactly. But I saw people say that in 2020, they did this scenario. And yes, they did. And it was even dumb then but this is not even close to Covid. this a man's life at stake. The game was not being played this week at all. NFL would take a ton of bad PR if they played the game this week.

But there is still a lot left to untangle here. Fantasy football championship week and there is already a ton of chatter on how to resolve this since both of these teams have a high starpower. Do fans get any reimbursement for travel/lodging? And another layer of reimbursements, how about people who bought on 3rd party platforms that the NFL has no relation to? Do they get reimbursed.

I get people saying this is the last thing to think of but for many people, they saved up all year to go to this high profile game and many NFL fans travel all over. Asking these questions for financial reasons especially in this economy is not wrong at all. I wish people would stop this whole all or nothing approach. You can be concerned about this man's health as well as be curious as to what unfolds in all other aspects.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Fans of the Bills are in bedlam over at their forum trying to figure out how to move/change/rule on things so the Bills retain the #1 seed in the AFC...

A couple even suggesting BOTH teams get a "W". That ain't gonna happen.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Nah, ESPN just took the Bengals -bills game off the simulator, which means I can't see what a tie will mean for next week, because if the Bengals win next week and the bills lose, theyd both 12-4-1 in that situation, and I'm not sure who owns the tie breaker for the number 2 seed

Wouldn't it be conference record at that point?

 

[MichaelWinicki]

One Bills fan gets it...

"The game can't be replayed without disrupting the entire rest of the league. So there is no game. Teams will simply have to go with the records they have. So if KC wins on Sunday, they get the #1 seed. If KC loses and Bills win, Bills get to keep #1 seed. If KC and Bills lose and Cinci wins, Cinci gets #1 seed. And if all 3 of these teams lose on Sunday, then Bills also keep #1 seed. There simply is no other way. "

 

[Cowboys5217]

I know that the league has a rule for forfeits that the team who does forfeit officially loses the game 2-0. If this game is declared a no contest would that result in a 2-2 tie? I have no idea as I have never looked into the rules concerning declared tie games.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I know that the league has a rule for forfeits that the team who does forfeit officially loses the game 2-0. If this game is declared a no contest would that result in a 2-2 tie? I have no idea as I have never looked into the rules concerning declared tie games.

Who knows?

Unchartered territory.

 

[DUO_CORE]

Have the Bengals/Bills play next (this) weekend, all other teams are off, and the season ends at 16 games.

 

[Reid1boys]

They have to play this game for seeding. I think the game will be played on Wednesday and they will push back the Patriots-Bills and Ravens-Bengals to Monday night.

agree and if the Bills as a team decide the game is not worth playing and they decide to not play, then so be it(they forfeit), but you cant punish the Bengals, Chiefs and every other afc team as a result of whatever they decide is best for them.

 

[Fmart322]

Good news is the league has positioned themselves to really not get this wrong. Buffalo players have mostly gone back to Buffalo. From the 2020 season we learned that Wednesday was typically the deadline to make up games. I see almost zero chance of that happening.

It either becomes a tie/no contest, or they push back the playoffs a week. Honestly I think neither option is a bad one. Pushing the playoffs back a week feels right to me for a variety of reasons. 1) You are not rushing either of these teams back into action. 2) If we are really focused on player safety why not give these athletes a week off before playing 18, 19, 20+ games? It's better on the players, gives injured guys more time before rushing back too early, etc. I would be on board with having a week off before the playoffs start every year to be honest.

I've been saying that for years. There should definitely be a week off for all teams prior to the playoffs. It gives teams a chance to rest key players that will make the NFL's product a lot better.

If they do give all teams a bye week I'd like to see 8 teams in each conference make the playoffs. Don't give the top seed a by week, make them play the worst seed.

 

[jwitten82]

Have the Bengals/Bills play next (this) weekend, all other teams are off, and the season ends at 16 games.

Couple of teams playing win or in games, not fair to them

 

[jwitten82]

Honestly the more I think about it, they should've asked both teams if they wanted to play tomorrow. If both teams said no, then it ends in a tie, but whichever team doesn't want to should take the loss

 

[Rockport]

NFL has said that it will not reschedule this week. If this has already been posted please delete.

 

[JoeKing]

Easy solution. Delay the playoffs by one week and cut out that useless bye week before the Super Bowl. They did it in 2001 when 9/11 happened.

That's way too much logistics happening to just get one game in. The game will just end up not happening. That's the easier solution.

 

[DUO_CORE]

Well since life is not fair, how about the Bills just take the loss?

I'd be ok with that, like a shortened baseball/nascar contest.
The Bills probably wouldn't care at this point: After last night, football shouldn't matter to them for awhile. Now if their fallen team-mate makes miraculous progress, then they can rejoice and start to think about football again.

 

[EST_1986]

Curious as well. I had Burrow vs Bills D and Diggs with a 30 point lead. Was looking good but in limbo until they figure this out.

Im in the first week of a two week championship game and I have like 100 point lead since that game didnt happen last night

 

[Jake]

It's not resuming this week, and week 18 is going on as scheduled.

 

[CWR]

Yeah from a competitive balance standpoint, CIncinnati has a lot to lose here. They play Baltimore potentially for the division this week, and possibly a first round bye had they won against Buffalo. They could in theory swing from a #1 seed to a wild card team depending on how this plays out.

They could move the Bengals and Bills game next week to Monday or just leave it.

Play Wednesday and then play out the Sunday games. It's the same amount of rest as teams that play on Sunday and then get a Thursday game.

We played 3 games from Dec 18th-29th.

 

[Reality]

Any posts that are not completely focused on the game, rescheduling, etc. will be deleted and the user thread-banned.

You can post what you think will happen with the game or how it will impact the remaining games, but if you reference a source, it must be an official source, not some random blogger or social media influencer wannabe.

We allowed this thread ONLY so that members could discuss the game.

We did NOT create it for arguments, complaints, NFL conspiracies, etc.