WEEK 17 Game Thread - Game of the Year Bengals - Bills

[Bengals1]

The game has officially been called off. No replay of this game this week for sure. https://youtu.be/Z7aVFZXnrXY

I've been hearing alot of sports people saying it'll probably come down to a coin toss.

As silly as it sounds they use a coin toss to decide draft positions....

[Joe Bananas]

The game has officially been called off. No replay of this game this week for sure. https://youtu.be/Z7aVFZXnrXY

I've been hearing alot of sports people saying it'll probably come down to a coin toss.

I mean…we were technically winning soooooo

Exactly my thought too.

[Bengals1]

7-3 is hardly an insurmountable lead guys...

[stripesincarolina]

Lets just toss it out there, Damar will likely never play again. He should live at this point given his level of care. But this will drag out for weeks if not months.

Tough decisions will need to be made. Likely by tomorrow. And the easiest solution of them all is for the Bills to forfeit. All they give up at this point is a playoff seed and potentially their home game. There is not enough time to play the Bengals game even if needed after this weekend.

I'm just as curious as anyone to see what the commish comes up with.

[stripesincarolina]

7-3 is hardly an insurmountable lead guys...

We could give up two safetys and still win B1. Thats huge!

[Bengals1]

I don't see any scenario where the Bills would agree to forfeit the game. Their fans would be incensed as well.

I also agree with those above who say it most likely will not ever be resumed. There simply isn't room in the leagues schedule for an additional game at the end of the season.

So where does that leave us...?

Coin flip.

[Joe Bananas]

I don't see any scenario where the Bills would agree to forfeit the game. Their fans would be incensed as well.

I also agree with those above who say it most likely will not ever be resumed. There simply isn't room in the leagues schedule for an additional game at the end of the season.

So where does that leave us...?

Coin flip.

Then they need to agree to play and soon. If they don't wanna play on a certain date and time then that's on them, not us.

[MeatHeadbengal]

I don't see any scenario where the Bills would agree to forfeit the game. Their fans would be incensed as well.

I also agree with those above who say it most likely will not ever be resumed. There simply isn't room in the leagues schedule for an additional game at the end of the season.

So where does that leave us...?

Coin flip.

Then they need to agree to play and soon. If they don't wanna play on a certain date and time then that's on them, not us.

They have already announced that this game will not be played this week. I think it's a mute point, the game is pretty much canceled.

[Bengals1]

Then they need to agree to play and soon. If they don't wanna play on a certain date and time then that's on them, not us.

The bottom line is if you're not going to replay the game, and it looks less and less likely they ever will, a winner has to be declared so the proper seeding can take place.

You need a definitive #1 seed, a definitive #2 seed etc...etc...

Who plays who and where. Who gets the bye and who doesn't are all determined by the seeding. And that requires a winner (or a tie) be declared if it's not going to be decided on the field.

The question then remains, how to determine a winner without actually playing the game...? What are the options...?

Declare the Bengals winners because they were leading at the time of the incident - extremely unlikely either the Bills or the league would agree to this.

The Bills forfeit due to the unusual circumstances- again, very unlikely they'd ever agree to do this.

Declare a tie - possible but again, doing this will undoubtedly alter the playoff seeding. Some uninvolved team is going to be negatively affected by this choice.

Flip a coin - somewhat primitive on its face but as we've discussed, the NFL does it to determine draft seedings. So there's precedent for this method. Most likely both teams would have to agree to this or less likely the league office could impose this choice on them. Unseemly but effective.

[Joe Bananas]

Declare the Bengals winners because they were leading at the time of the incident - extremely unlikely either the Bills or the league would agree to this.

The Bills forfeit due to the unusual circumstances- again, very unlikely they'd ever agree to do this

Again. These are my points. If the Bills don't wanna flip, don't wanna forfeit, don't wanna do a tie, don't wanna do this and don't wanna do that then the only solution is to play. Set a date and say this is it. If not, the win goes to the Bengals because you just forfeited the game. But honestly, the game will never be played. Crunch time now. 2 more game left, playoffs the weekend after. Etc. Billions of dollars to made by the NFL. Sooooo who makes thr decision? Goodell...