Week 18 NFL Playoff Scenarios: What it means for the Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals are a team to watch in the AFC playoff picture, and there’s plenty to play for in this Week 18 clash with the Baltimore Ravens.

With the Bengals’ and Buffalo Bills’ Week 17 matchup being canceled, there’s a lot that could go down in this final slate of the NFL regular season schedule. 

The Bengals ownership group has made it clear that they disapprove of the direction the NFL has decided to take in solving this matter regarding playoff seeding and home-field advantage. 

Of the team impacted by the outcome, or the lack of one, of the Week 17 incomplete game, the Bengals are the ones who appear to be getting the short end of the stick. 

The league decided not to hurt a squad if the two teams playing finished the same amount of games. Since Buffalo and Cincinnati had both played 16 games, the current guidelines wouldn’t apply to them. The Bengals’ issue is that if they both win or lose this weekend, they could have passed Buffalo in the standings had they completed their Week 17 game and won. 

If Baltimore beats Cincinnati in their Week 18 matchup and those clubs get scheduled to play a wild card round game against one another, the site for that game would be decided by a coin toss, even with the Bengals winning the division.