2022 NFL Season Thread

[Mathgod]

Question answered. Bengals clinch the North. https://www.si.com/nfl/bengals/news/...e-team-history

[browna]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Another organization that would be a much more well-renowned dumpster fire if it weren't for Commanders, Browns, and Texans.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1610639503059820544

The owner Ross wanted Brady and or Payton last offseason and would love to pull that trigger this offseason.

[Cheese]

The Bills are going to anhilate the Pats this weekend!

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by browna

The owner Ross wanted Brady and or Payton last offseason and would love to pull that trigger this offseason.

Oh please I hope they make that happen. Don't want Brady on the Raiders.

[transplant99]

Convoluted but ultimately the fairest way to do things.

1. The AFC Championship Game will be played at a neutral site if the participating teams played an unequal number of games and both could have been the number one seed and hosted the game had all AFC clubs played a full 17-game regular season. Those circumstances involve Buffalo or Cincinnati qualifying for the game as a road team and are listed below:

Scenario 1

Buffalo and Kansas City both win or both tie – a Buffalo vs Kansas City championship game would be at a neutral site.

Scenario 2

Buffalo and Kansas City both lose and Baltimore wins or ties – a Buffalo vs Kansas City championship game would be at a neutral site.

Scenario 3

Buffalo and Kansas City both lose and Cincinnati wins – a Buffalo or Cincinnati vs Kansas City championship game would be at a neutral site.

2. If Baltimore defeats Cincinnati in Week 18 it will have defeated Cincinnati, a divisional opponent, twice but will not be able to host a playoff game because Cincinnati will have a higher winning percentage for a 16-game schedule than Baltimore will for a 17-game schedule.

If Baltimore defeats Cincinnati and if those two clubs are schedule to play a Wild Card game against one another, the site for that game would be determined by a coin toss. If Cincinnati wins the Week 18 game or if Baltimore and Cincinnati are not scheduled to play one another in the Wild Card round, the game sites would be determined by the regular scheduling procedures.

“As we considered the football schedule, our principles have been to limit disruption across the league and minimize competitive inequities,” Goodell said. “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.”

[EldrickOnIce]

KC does ok in this scenario. Gifted the 1st round bye and (as it stands and favorites win) the Jags or Chargers in AFC semifinal.
Biggest loser is Cincy, with no shot at 1st going into weekend, and a playoff date in Buffalo end of Jan looming, when it's certainly likely they may have had home field.
So Baltimore and Cincy get screwed the most.
Maybe the best scenario possible, but still ####ty

[Tsawwassen]

Forget the coin toss for home field if the Ravens and Bengals play each other in the wild card. That should be played at a neutral site.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by Tsawwassen

Forget the coin toss for home field if the Ravens and Bengals play each other in the wild card. That should be played at a neutral site.

Yeah it's strange that one game merits a neutral site while the other gets a coin toss. Not sure what the distinction is. Maybe easier to sell tickets to a neutral site game if it's the AFC Championship?

[EldrickOnIce]

Yeah the more I look at this the less it has to do with minimizing 'competitive inequaties' and more to do with maximizing revenue - which is what the NFL does best.
Let's go Raiders. And here's to settling the Bills/Bengals question in 3 weeks.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

Yeah it's strange that one game merits a neutral site while the other gets a coin toss. Not sure what the distinction is. Maybe easier to sell tickets to a neutral site game if it's the AFC Championship?

Same applies to CIN/KC meeting not in AFC final.
If Bills/Bengals win and KC loses, Bengals travel to KC for AFC semi, but if both KC and BUF lose, and CIN/KC meet in AFC final, it will be neutral site?

The NFL loves themselves a lot of Mahomes. The rest, other than $$$, doesn't really matter.

[transplant99]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1611378185924497409

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

KC does ok in this scenario. Gifted the 1st round bye and (as it stands and favorites win) the Jags or Chargers in AFC semifinal.y

This continues to use the rather absurd assumption that the Bills were guaranteed to beat the Bengals. At the time the game was stopped every WP% model had the Bengals as 60% favorites, which would rise to 70% if they scored a TD on the drive they were on, which seemed like a good bet with how easy they were moving the ball. Long way to go in the game and all that, but the Bengals are arguably the best team in the AFC right now. The Bills were not playing an automatic W here, it would have been a tough win for them.

The Bills are the winners in all of this, without question. They get the second hardest game of their season voided to a neutral result, avoid going on the road in the division round to Cincinnati, and if they play the Chiefs at a "neutral site" in the AFC Championship, it will probably be in Detroit, with 80% Bills fans. At the time the MNF game was stopped the Chiefs were favorites to have homefield, now they don't. They don't lose as badly as the Bengals here, but they aren't some big time winner out of this.

[OutOfTheCube]

Haha yeah, any 'neutral site' will be as good as a Bills home game, the Mafia will make sure of that.

[MRCboicgy]

Detroit is out, as the stadium will be unavailable for repairs. With all three as cold-weather, outdoor teams, they may do open air anyway.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by Cheese

The Bills are going to anhilate the Pats this weekend!

That stadium will be charged up and the Bills will likely play with a lot of energy and emotion. Strange thing is that if Buffalo is locked into the 2 seed at game time they could still play New England next week if the Dolphins and Steelers also lose. Usually teams play pretty basic in those situations in terms of play calling. But the energy that the Bill's have could overwhelm a Patriots team that will 100% need their scheme to be in the game.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

Haha yeah, any 'neutral site' will be as good as a Bills home game, the Mafia will make sure of that.

People who sell high interest loans will be the big winners here. None of K.C., Buffalo, or Cincinnati are particularly affluent cities with ultra rich fan bases. Chances are people are borrowing short term at high interest to travel to a neutral site game in a place like Denver, or if they really want to make them pay....Vegas.

[Paulie Walnuts]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1611212660271374336

Idiot

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

That stadium will be charged up and the Bills will likely play with a lot of energy and emotion. Strange thing is that if Buffalo is locked into the 2 seed at game time they could still play New England next week if the Dolphins and Steelers also lose. Usually teams play pretty basic in those situations in terms of play calling. But the energy that the Bill's have could overwhelm a Patriots team that will 100% need their scheme to be in the game.

If the Bills were locked into the #2 seed they would be heavily incentivized to tank against New England. They'd be fine playing the Steelers too, but they can't control them as an opponent. The Dolphins at least have legitimate offensive threats in Tyreek and Waddle, the other two stink offensively. Losing to the Patriots to draw them again would be very wise, New England's offense is as bad as it gets.

[KelVarnsen]

The QB matchup we've been waiting for

https://twitter.com/user/status/1611408655617769479

[OutOfTheCube]

Originally Posted by KelVarnsen

The QB matchup we've been waiting for

https://twitter.com/user/status/1611408655617769479

Remember in like week 9 when all three of these teams thought they might take the division from Buffalo? Good times...