The focus of Damar Hamlin’s recovery and a possible result on playoff Impacting scenarios, the most important thing right now is the health of Damar Hamlin and his efforts of making a full recovery.
The NFL community will continue to cheer and pray for your full recovery. From alumni, players, and coaches to fans of all 32 teams in the National Football League.
However, a result of the Buffalo at Cincinnati game would potentially be needed. Here are a few ideas on how we can still get a result and still have the Playoffs start on time.
The 4th seed in all scenarios listed below would be the winner of the Tennessee Titans and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
We need to look at three games specifically for Week 18, and it would look something like this. The teams impacted would be the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, and Baltimore Ravens.
I will give you a breakdown of game-by-game results and how seeding could be impacted. The first game affected is Chiefs vs. Raiders.
If the Chiefs win, they go 14-3, if they lose they go 13-4. The Bills have the Tiebreaker over the Chiefs based on the 24-20 win back in Week 6.
Let’s assume the Chiefs beat the Raiders to improve to 14-3.
I’ll briefly explain the results and how we can look at things. The second game impacted is the Bills and the Patriots, if the Bills win, they improve to 13-3, if they lose they go 12-4.
For this case let’s say the Bills beat the Patriots to go 13-3.
Currently, the Chiefs have the half-game lead based on the number of games played. The third game impacted would be the Ravens and the Bengals.
Currently, the Ravens are sitting at 10-6, and the Bengals are sitting at 11-4. The Ravens have already beat the Bengals once earlier this year, but the Bengals have played one less game than Baltimore.
For this example, let’s say that the Ravens beat the Bengals to improve to 11-6, but the Bengals have played one less game than the Ravens.
If we go off the results and records above, it will look like this.
Kansas City: 14-3
Buffalo: 13-3
Cincinnati: 11-5
Baltimore: 11-6
In this case, a result would be needed to determine the final standings.
We’ve seen cases before, especially when it comes to the NFL Draft, before the game, and over time, where the coin toss would come into effect. We can get a result based on a single coin toss or a best of three series of coin tosses. Don’t tell Buffalo Bills fans about the coin toss, as it may bring flashbacks between the Bills and the Chiefs.
If the Bills won, the coin toss or the series of coin tosses potential standings would look like this.
That’s based on the results above.
Buffalo 14-3 #1 seed
Kansas City 14-3 #2 seed
Baltimore 11-6 #3 seed
Tennessee/Jacksonville winner #4 seed
Cincinnati 11-6 #5 seed
If the Bengals win the coin toss or series of coin tosses, it would look like this.
Kansas City #1 Seed: 14-3
Buffalo #2 seed: 13-4
Cincinnati #3 seed: 12-5
Tennessee/Jacksonville winner: #4 seed
Baltimore #5 seed: 11-6
Everything that happens this weekend will determine what the next step needs to be. At the end of the day, the easiest step to solve this dilemma would be a coin toss to create a result of the Bills-Bengals game.