Eh, if we can’t win to get into the playoffs controlling our own destiny we don’t have much business in them anyways.
AFC Playoff Chase
- Thread starter j-man
- Start date
Chiefs Raiders is pretty close to utterly meaningless by itself. It helps the Pats, but not having the Chiefs and Bills play at the same time is completely ridiculous.
It should have been Green Bay Detroit Saturday. Both teams need a win no matter what so they'll go all out, and both teams need Seattle to lose, so it doesn't matter if that game is at the same time as Seattle.
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It’s a weird situation because right now Seattle is in over GB and Det. But if Sea and GB win next week (which means that Det loses), suddenly GB vaults over Sea. Must be a three/way tie scenario vs. H2H tie scenario thingy.
Lions beat Packers in first division game
seahawks beat lions (48-45 doozy)
Seahawks and Packers didn’t play
But Lions and packers are 6-5 in conference and Seahawks are 5-6
so ifPackers win they’ll have better conference record than Seahawks
Do we actually want the Bengals to win tonight? If that happens, and then KC wins next Saturday, the Bills would be eliminated from the one seed, and in order to earn the 2 seed they'd need Cincy to lose at home next week to Baltimore, in addition to needed to beat the Pats. In that scenario I could see the Bills resting their starters.
Yeah, I could see the Bills preferring rest/ health to the possibility of playing home later in playoffs.
On the other side, if they have a bye wrapped up, there is also the possibility they don't want to sit guys two weeks in a row. Potential to be one of those half a game scenarios.
On the other side, if they have a bye wrapped up, there is also the possibility they don't want to sit guys two weeks in a row. Potential to be one of those half a game scenarios.
Being the 2 seed means facing one of the Dolphins/Pats/Steelers/Jaguars and not the Chargers or Baltimore with Lamar back. To me, that's worth playing your best players. At least that's what I'd want us to do in that situation.
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I think back to 2006 when Rodney Harrison got hurt in the finale. I can't remember if the Pats still had a possibility of a bye that year. Josh Allen is kind of a unique player in terms of how he plays the position. Giving his body a week off, and not exposing him to the possibility of injury, may trump potential opponent for me. Imagine if he got hurt and they ended up as the 3 seed anyway (which would be likely if they lose tonight)?
I get the point, I just hate resting players unless you have zero chance of changing your seeding (like the Bucs next week) or losing makes it so you'll actually face a more favorable opponent (like the Pats in 2005).
If they’re the 1 seed going into Sunday the most Allen will play is a half. If McDermott is this small minded, they have bigger things to worry about.
The Raiders in my opinion aren't beating Kansas City especially when the Chiefs are 13-3 against them since 2013 so Buffalo is going to have to go peddle to the meddle against New England especially if they beat Cincinnati tonight.
(Bills fan here) An analogous situation occurred in 2020. The Bills were locked into the 2 seed and played Miami, who, like NE this year, needed a win to make the playoffs.
The starters essentially played the first half before giving way to the backups, up 28-6 at the time (eventually winning 56-26).
I would expect McDermott to do something similar if the Bills have the #1 seed locked up after Saturday. They’ll play to first half to keep from having two weeks of rust going into the divisional round, but would be shocked if they played the whole game.
Dobbs is starting for the Titans.
View: https://twitter.com/rapsheet/status/1609974807071801346?s=46&t=2FFPIaKxqxFuZa20GgJAjw
View: https://twitter.com/rapsheet/status/1609974807071801346?s=46&t=2FFPIaKxqxFuZa20GgJAjw
Teddy or Skylar for Miami against the Jets.
View: https://twitter.com/adamschefter/status/1610028159013097472?s=61&t=8q9Kgl5k22Pzqj8NgDRzoQ
View: https://twitter.com/adamschefter/status/1610028159013097472?s=61&t=8q9Kgl5k22Pzqj8NgDRzoQ
I think it would be possible for 7 AFC east teams to finish the year at 8-9 with two of those teams reaching the playoffs, one a division winner. Unlikely but possible.
I apologize if this was posted elsewhere in this thread, but Bedard pointed out yesterday that "If the Chiefs and Bengals lose this weekend and the Bills win, the seedings would be locked in" with Bills, Chiefs, Bengals, 1-2-3 in that order.
If the fates would allow that to happen, there would be no need for the Bills/Bengals game to be finished, as its result wouldn't matter. The NFL could declare it a no-contest or a tie and move on with the playoffs exactly as originally planned.
If the fates would allow that to happen, there would be no need for the Bills/Bengals game to be finished, as its result wouldn't matter. The NFL could declare it a no-contest or a tie and move on with the playoffs exactly as originally planned.
No surprise here but Bedard is wrong.
If the Chiefs (13-4) and Bengals (11-5) lose and the Bills (13-3) win, then Buffalo is 1, KC is 2 because of the h2h Buffalo holds, but the 3rd seed would depend on Bengals/Bills. The Bengals would be 11-5, the Ravens 11-6 with the 2-0 h2h tiebreaker. They would need to play Bills/Bengals because if the Bills won that game the Ravens would win the AFC North and get the #3 seed.
Edit: There is no scenario I can come up with where Bills/Bengals is completely meaningless. The least impact it would have is determining the 2/3 seeds between them.
In the event that the game only affects the Bills/Bengals seeding, I wonder if the teams just agree to flip a coin. Theyll never be able to squeeze the game in without causing a ripple effect for scheduling and/or competitive imbalance issues.
The only scenario that renders the game meaningless in terms of seeding is a CIN-BAL tie coupled with either a KC loss and BUF win or a KC win and BUF loss/tie.
I think I mentioned it up thread but I think the league bends their arms to make the teams say they're agreeing to the flip. Maybe the league permits Cincy-Bills to happen in game 19 but I doubt they do if with full rest--perhaps it's on a thursday, the first playoff games on like tuesday and the second playoff game gets moved to a monday? But regardless of whether the NFL shrinks the rest or not, the Bills and Bengals would be handing the Pats and Ravens a bye week or a partial bye week while they're playing each other and that seems like a pretty bad deal
It's Skylar
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35392321/dolphins-start-rookie-qb-skylar-thompson-vs-jets
So the Pats "Plan B" for the playoffs is needing all three of:
-The corpse of Joe Flacco and the Jets beating the Dolphins in Miami in Skylar's second start
-Deshaun Watson building off last week's 3TD/0INT day and defeating the Steelers in Pittsburgh, led by rookie Pickett
-Trevor Lawrence keeps the Jags 4 game winning streak going by defeating recently signed Josh Dobbs in his second career start for the Titans
I'd like it a lot better without needing Flacco to perform...
My man, It’s Flacco with 2 backup OTs and a backup G(I don’t mean the guys playing that are backups all season, I mean 3rd stringers)
edit: this is what Saleh said, but I wouldn’t be shocked that if Flacco gets hurt they go with Streveler.
Deshaun has not looked nearly as bad as his numbers. He’s played in some horrific weather conditions each week since his first game and this week he’ll finally not have to deal with cold, wind and/or rain. I think they beat Pittsburgh. The other two are my biggest concerns as the Jets have looked awful except when Mike White is under center and the Titans have a huge late season rest advantage over the Jaguars and get several defenders back.
I’d love to see this team make the playoffs even as frustrating as they’ve been as I think the resiliency they’ve shown this year and just the general quality of the defense both deserve to be standing one more week, and it would be helpful in viewing anything from this season as a building block for next season. That said, between everything that’s happened with the Bills this week and that the alternative path involves having to hope Deshaun Watson plays well, I’m finding it much easier to go into the weekend with a chips will fall where they may view of it all. Just in or just out of the playoffs feels like where this team deserves to be.
I'd like to see this team make the playoffs as well for a few reasons:
1) I'm a Patriots fan.
2) Belichick's legacy (there's a growing "Belichick without Brady suckz" trend I find annoying)
3) Sending McCourty and Slater out the right way
That said, especially after the Hamlin situation, I find that (like you, it sounds) I do not especially care one way or the other. Life is short, it's just a game, and watching those Bills players crying was pretty traumatic.
As for the Pats, the "You are what your record says you are" logic applies well here -- they are an 8-8 team who has played like it this year, and they aren't good enough to beat the elite teams in the league. After 6 Super Bowls in two decades -- and 17 of 19 seasons with Brady in the playoffs -- I'm still riding pretty high and comfortable living in the past a while longer.
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Updates from today that I’m seeing online:
If the Pats win, they’re in.
If the Pats lose, the Dolphins or Steelers are in if they win (Dolphins have the tiebreaker there).
If all 3 lose, Pats are in.
Is there any suggestion Bills will rest some starters, at least in the 2nd half?
If the Pats win, they’re in.
If the Pats lose, the Dolphins or Steelers are in if they win (Dolphins have the tiebreaker there).
If all 3 lose, Pats are in.
Is there any suggestion Bills will rest some starters, at least in the 2nd half?
Does the game matter for the Bills in the standings? If Bills lose and Bengals win, who owns the tiebreaker?
Bills will want to win, but the ultimate goal is still the SB, of course, and I don’t know if they’re concerning themselves that much with how this game affects the standings. They have to beat some good teams to win the conference in any case. They have had some tough injuries even aside from Hamlin. If Diggs or Allen were to get hurt, that obviously has a huge impact. I think they’ll be smart and try to manage things through playcalling rather than sitting anyone altogether.
There's a decent difference between playing healthy Chargers and Ravens teams vs. NE/MIA/PIT in the first round (the Pats and Dolphins have been better than the Chargers but they're getting a lot more back) and then having to go on the road. I'd say the 2-seed is pretty important.
The only potential first round game that would scare me is Balt with a healthy Lamar. But keeping Allen healthy would still be primary. He looks invincible sometimes but it only takes one hit.
You do really want the 2 seed for sure. At this point I'm hoping Steelers get in (I guess though the last place schedule is tempting) but in any event the 7 seed is going to be a deeply flawed opponent.
The Chargers have Bosa and possibly Slater back who barely played all year, plus Williams and Allen missed a bunch of time. They also handle the road pretty well since they play harder road environments in their own stadium every week. I think they'll be a tough out.
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Wish we could've had Steelers-Bengals Round 3 this year and playoffs Round 3 but if they get in they're playing the Bills and, well, we've seen what that looks like. I think making the playoffs and keeping the streak alive is more important though than a couple draft slots and a last-place schedule (you'd be looking at CHI/DEN/NYJ - I think they've clinched last? vs. DET/GB, LV and MIA/NE)
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Right - Buffalo. Ooph that's going to be ugly. I guess giving Pickett playoff experience has some value add as well.
And good point about the last place schedule. Our "friends" the Bisciottis lost to the Giants and Jags so it's a crapshoot.
It's always good to get in, plus the Pickett factor you mentioned. I imagine you'll remember knocking out the Shitbirds and giving Ben one last hurrah a lot more than the end result.
It's tough to see the Broncos being good given how hamstrung they are, but they've still got a really good defense. The Bears will have a ton of money and draft capital (besides the Claypool pick, my word) and the Jets are a QB away if they can find it.