The Cincinnati Bengals are not happy with the NFL playoff rule change that was approved by the league owners on Friday. And there are good reasons why they are unhappy with the change.
Let’s start with this basic principle: the NFL already had a rule in place for how to handle games that are canceled. In the case of canceled games, the league would use winning percentage to determine playoff seeds. Based on winning percentage, the Bengals (11-4) would have already clinched the AFC North regardless of the outcome for their Week 18 game with the Ravens (10-6). They would have been happy with that outcome. But every aspect of the new approved rule has the possibility of hurting the Bengals more than any other team.
Here are the ways the Bengals are the team possibly hurt the most by the rule change.
THE BENGALS ARE THE ONLY TEAM SUBJECT TO A COIN FLIP, AND THAT HURTS THEM
1. The Bengals could have rested their players in Week 18 if they wanted and still had home field in the first round of the playoffs had the NFL not changed the rule. Now, if they lose to the Ravens and the Chargers win, a coin flip decides home field for the wild-card round between Cincinnati and Baltimore.
2. The Bengals will still be treated as the 2022 AFC North champions for purposes of scheduling in the 2023 season, meaning they will get the difficult schedule. But they don’t get the benefit of a guaranteed home playoff game. So they get the downside of winning the division but not the guaranteed upside.
THE NEUTRAL FIELD PROVISION IS INCOMPLETE AND HURTS CINCINNATI IN SEVERAL SCENARIOS
The neutral field provision does not apply fairly and equally to all situations. Either a neutral field should have been given to ALL situations where the Week 17 game not being played affected the standings, or they should have coin-flipped in all situations. But they are doing a coin flip for the Ravens situation, and a neutral field only for a few other cases, but not all of them, running counter to the NFL’s stated goal of being fair to the teams that lost the Week 17 game.
There are four scenarios where the neutral field provision should have been applied, but is not, where the Bengals are hurt. The Bills are only hurt in one scenario (if they lose in Week 18 and Bengals win, then the teams play the divisional round game in Cincinnati).
Scenarios that hurt the Bengals include:
3. Chiefs (1), Bills (2) and Bengals (3) all win in Week 18, the Bills and Bengals would meet in Buffalo in the divisional round. That’s unfair because the Bengals would have been the home team in that matchup had they won the Week 17 game between the teams.
4. Chiefs (1) win and the Bills (2) and Bengals (3) lose in Week 18, the Bengals would go to Buffalo in the divisional round. That’s unfair because the Bengals would have been the home team in that matchup had they won the Week 17 game between the teams.
5. Bills (1) win, Chiefs (2) lose, Bengals (3) win in Week 18, the Bengals would go to KC in the divisional round. That’s unfair because the Bengals would have been the home team in that matchup had they beaten the Bills in Week 17.
6. Bills (1) win, Chiefs (2) lose, Bengals (3) win in Week 18, not only would the Bengals go to KC for the divisional round, but they would also have to visit the Bills in the AFC championship game. That should be a neutral site game.
Either a coin flip should be applied to determine home field, or a neutral field should be applied for those situations. And if the Bills and Bengals meet in the playoffs with one game or fewer separating them in the standings, that should be a neutral field game.
And if you want to argue that the Bengals have a worse record than the Bills and Chiefs entering Week 17, remember this: Cincinnati has only played six home games so far this season since they lost the Week 17 home game. The Chiefs will have one more home game than the Bengals, which is a big advantage. The Bills have had seven home games but had one home game moved to Detroit due to snow conditions). Also remember that the Bengals could have played their way into the No. 1 seed with wins in Week 17 and Week 18. With the Week 17 game canceled, they have no way to earn the No. 1 seed, whereas both the Bills and Chiefs can earn it.
