NFL announces Cincinnati Bengals vs Buffalo Bills won't resume, will consider multiple playoff scenarios
Monday night’s game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills will not resume in the wake of Damar Hamlin’s hospitalization following an on-field cardiac arrest, the NFL announced Thursday night. The league is also set to consider multiple different playoff scenarios Thursday — including a coin toss.
There are two key elements in play, as the NFL laid out in a memo sent out Thursday night. One includes the location of the AFC Championship game and the other depends on how Cincinnati fares in its Week 18 game. The Bengals are taking on the Baltimore Ravens, and a Ravens victory would make things interesting from a standings standpoint.
“As we considered the football schedule, our principles have been to limit disruption across the league and minimize competitive inequities,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “I recognize that there is no perfect solution. The proposal we are asking the ownership to consider, however, addresses the most significant potential equitable issues created by the difficult, but necessary, decision not to play the game under these extraordinary circumstances.”
According to the NFL, if the teams playing in the AFC Championship have played an unequal number of regular-season games — if one team played 16 and the other played 17 — then it will be played on a neutral site. If that winds up being the case, Atlanta and Indianapolis are potential locations for the game, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Another part of the equation is the result of Cincinnati’s Week 18 game against the Baltimore Ravens. Even if the Ravens defeat the Bengals, Cincinnati will have a higher winning percentage, meaning Baltimore wouldn’t host a playoff game.
Things get interesting if Baltimore beats Cincinnati and the two teams face off in the Wild Card round. If that happens, the NFL would determine the host of the game via coin toss because of the different number of games played. That said, if Cincinnati wins and isn’t set to play Baltimore in the playoffs, the host site is determined the normal way.
The Monday Night Football game between the Bengals and Bills was postponed after Hamlin collapsed on the field early in the first quarter. Buffalo confirmed he went into cardiac arrest and needed CPR before heading to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he’s taking big strides toward a recovery.
Hamlin has been communicating by writing and holding hands of family members at the hospital, officials announced Thursday. He still has a long way to go in his recovery, but it’s welcome news following the scary scene Monday night.