HoosierCat

One clarification this morning, which I was wondering about but didn’t have the energy to try and work through the tiebreakers on: Bengals can indeed get the second seed with a win plus a Buffalo loss. https://www.nfl.com/news/proposed-afc-playoff-contingencies-what-you-need-to-know

Yeah, that’s Katie’s point too. There are already rules in place, now isn’t the time to change them. We’ll see how it plays out.

Memo from the chip off the ‘ol block dep’t: Katie is a no. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35388199/bills-bengals-game-not-resume-amid-damar-hamlin-continued-recovery

It also eliminated Buffalo’s chance to nail the second seed down. That can’t be ignored either. Both teams lost an opportunity here, and I simply can’t get too worked up about it.

If the Bills win they end with a better record than the Bengals, even if Cincy wins.

Again, because the Bills and Bengals can’t get any advantage over one another due to the missed game. All the coin flips are to deal with the potential inequity created by using winning percentages between teams that played an unequal number of games.

There’s no Bengals/Bills scenario because the cancelled game can’t give either one an advantage over the other.

Here’s the decision, pending full league approval: https://www.nfl.com/news/week-17-buffalo-cincinnati-game-will-not-be-resumed-neutral-afc-championship-gam

No Jackson at practice again, Huntley (shoulder/wrist) limited again. Could be Bfrown at QB Sunday. https://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/tyler-huntley-injury-shoulder-anthony-brown-could-start-week-18

I have zero doubt that it will. Now it’s just an injury, not someone hovering between life and death. Huge, huge weight off of everyone’s shoulders.

Here’s Jordan Reid’s first try: Interestingly has RT Darnell Wright going to the Broncos next. Three of the four picks following that are DBs (Witherspoon, Branch and Phillips). I can’t speak to the individuals but that seems like a pretty decent mix positionally.

Absolutely. The big question was always whether anyone was still home, and it appears there is. Ought to be a huge weight off both the Bengals and Bills as well.

It’s a good call. Buffalo was already scheduled for their normal early slot, now the Bengals get their usual 1 pm start time. Anything that promotes the normal routine is good.

Jackson a no show at Ravens practice today.. Huntley didn't throw during the period the press was allowed to watch practice. https://www.baltimorebeatdown.com/2023/1/4/23539260/ravens-practice-report-1-4-lamar-jackson-out-tyler-huntley-limited-marcus-peters-returns

We should start to get some clarity today. Big question is Lamar. Harbaugh said yesterday that he was just following Jackson and the doctors and offered no opinion on if/when he'd return. Jackson hasn't so much as practiced once in the last four weeks so it looks like Huntley Sunday, but again we should get more clarity on that today. No updates on the Bengals site yet.

Detail I hadn’t heard before. Per Damar’s uncle, he was resuscitated twice, once on the field and again at the hospital. If true that doesn’t sound good but I am not a doctor so… https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/01/04/damar-hamlin-condition/

My impression of what was going on, and I was just watching from home, was that it was largely chaotic outside of the medical intervention itself. I don’t think anything said/done on the field will have any bearing on the ultimate outcome. For the same reason I am not among those bitching about how long it took the league to suspend the game. I’m fine with them taking time to assess things and talk to everyone involved as well as the Union. They made the right call in the end and that’s what mattered.

Yeah this one will be a challenge. Especially for Higgins. What happened wasn’t his fault by any means but I have to think he’s working through some stuff today.

I think of it this way: there is no solution that doesn't involve some team or teams being advantaged or disadvantaged. Whether it's a seeding issue or additional bye weeks for some team(s) or the Bengals and Bills having to play again with no rest on either end of the week, there will be "football consequences," as unimportant as those are right now. So to the extent that those consequences can be limited to the two teams involved right now (the Bills and Bengals) that would probably be the least unfair outcome. And since both teams have already made the playoffs, seeding probably represents the least damage done. Again, not important right now. But that's my take.

Paying any attention to Bart Scott is always a bad idea.

Yeah, I think that's the hope at this point.

Good on Roger. This is the right call imho while we wait for word on Hamlin.

MB: https://www.bengals.com/news/mike-brown-statement-damar-hamlin-bengals-bills-week-17-2022-season

Bit of an update, continues to sound not so good... https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/bills-damar-hamlin-suffers-cardiac-arrest-on-field-vs-bengals-family-spokesperson-says-safety-is-fighting/

Yup. There's also tons of venues that have been rented that may or may not be available the following week, same for hotel rooms, car rentals, airline flights, etc.. Moving the date would be very difficult.