If Baltimore defeats Cincinnati on Sunday and the two teams end up scheduled to play a Wild Card game against one another, the site for that game would be determined by a coin toss. Rich McKay, Chairman of the NFL Competition Committee, said in a Zoom conference call with media Friday, the Ravens’ ability to win the division was removed by the cancellation of the Bills-Bengals game, so a coin flip makes it “a little more equitable.”
Also approved as part of the resolution was a neutral site for the AFC Championship if participating teams played an unequal number of games and both could have been the No. 1 seed and hosted the game had all AFC clubs played a full 17-game schedule.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor was adamant Friday the proposal benefited other teams and negatively impact his.
“Opportunities lost for us that we had a chance to control that now we don’t,” Taylor said of his reaction to the proposal before it was approved. “Fine. But it seems like there’s positives for a lot of teams, and just negatives for us. So we have the opportunity to play for a coin flip, that can only negatively impact us. ... Let’s just follow the rules. ... We just have to turn focus towards getting ready for Baltimore and then doing everything we can to control what we can control at this point.”
The decision to call the Bengals-Bills game a “no contest” didn’t impact which teams make the playoffs, but it did prevent Cincinnati from a chance to claim the No. 1 seed if Kansas City loses Sunday. The Chiefs clinch the No. 1 seed with a win on the road against the Raiders or a Bills loss against the Patriots. The Bills clinch the No. 1 seed with a win against the Patriots and a Chiefs loss at Las Vegas.
Cincinnati can still finish as the second seed if the Bengals beat Baltimore and Buffalo loses to New England. The Bengals have a slight strength of schedule advantage over Buffalo, which would be the determining tiebreaker. In all other scenarios, the Bengals finish as the No. 3 seed.
“We’ve been thinking that this whole time, we’ve been setting our own road this whole year, but now, unfortunately, it didn’t go on as we thought it was gonna play out,” wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase said. “But we just worried about the wins, not the outcome.”
Taylor said he was opposed to any rule change at this point, not just regarding the coin flip. There were rules in place that were supposed to pave a path for dealing with these kinds of situations, based solely on win percentage.
The rule changes won’t impact Cincinnati with a win Sunday, though. The Bengals avoid a coin flip all together in that case, and they would benefit in the only scenario that would put them in a neutral site for the AFC Championship.
“What’s in front of us is to win this weekend and reclaim an opportunity to have a home-field game, home-field Wild Card game, and so that’s the task that’s handed in front of the team,” Taylor said. “You know, as far as I’m concerned, we just want the rules to be followed. And when a game’s canceled, that you just turn to on winning percentage to clarify everything so we don’t have to make up the rules. There’s several instances this season when the club is fined or people in our building are fined, and we’re being told follow the rules. It’s black and white. It’s in the rulebook. So now when we point out the rules, and you’re told, ‘We’re going to change that.’ I don’t want to hear about fair and equitable, when that’s the case. So what this team will do is all we can control is going to play a game this weekend and doing our best to win. And then that’s what this team is going to channel that energy into that.”
Chase said he wasn’t even aware the Bengals had clinched the division already, and it didn’t feel real. Cornerback Mike Hilton said it gives added meaning to the game Sunday. The Bengals will get their AFC North champion hats after that.
“There wasn’t too much excitement behind it,” Hilton said. “It’s cool and all but we know this Sunday we’re gonna shut that door on the division and we can feel like we earned it. That’s our plan to go out there and just dominate Sunday and try to win our division for real.”
SUNDAY’S GAME
Ravens at Bengals, 1 p.m., Ch. 7, 12; 700, 1530, 102.7, 104.7
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