Jaguars’ Playoff Scenarios Not Impacted by Bengals-Bills Cancellation
There has been a rapid change in the AFC playoff race over the last 24 hours, a result of the cancellation of the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills game from Monday night.
The Week 17 Monday Night Football matchup was stopped after Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed in the first quarter and went into cardiac arrest. The contest was temporarily suspended following Hamlin’s medical emergency before getting postponed and officially canceled three days later.
But one team who remains unaffected by the cancellation is the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are set to be either the No. 4 seed with a win or tie against the Tennessee Titans on Saturday night, or a potential No. 7 seed with Week 18 losses by the Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers.
The NFL mapped out several different scenarios for how the AFC playing field may be changed over coming weeks, but the Jaguars and the No. 4 and No. 7 seeds were left unincluded.
"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," the NFL said.
- Buffalo and Kansas City both win or both tie – a Buffalo vs Kansas City championship game would be at a neutral site.
- Buffalo and Kansas City both lose and Baltimore wins or ties – a Buffalo vs Kansas City championship game would be at a neutral site.
- Buffalo and Kansas City both lose and Cincinnati wins – a Buffalo or Cincinnati vs Kansas City championship game would be at a neutral site.
- 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,” NFL commissioner Roger 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.”
If the Jaguars won in the Wild Card Round, they would either be hosted by one of the top three seeds or potentially host a game in the event the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds lose in the Wild Card.
“It’s a difficult week just knowing what has happened this week with Damar. We’re encouraged with some of the news lately with his health and that he’s getting better and he’s improving, so we’re encouraged there, and we’re excited about that, and we continue to pray and lift him up in our thoughts," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said on Thursday.
"I think for us, too, we have a job to do, and I think sometimes the best thing you can do is kind of play for guys like Damar and really gain some strength from that. Kind of help him in a way that he can’t right now because he’s battling for his life, obviously we’re playing a game, but he’s fighting for a different reason. I think around the league there’s going to be some joining of arms team to team, teams coming together, whatever it might be, this weekend to honor that and to support that.”
