What's weird to me is that Zac Taylor is whining about it. He's the one who agreed to stop playing the game. You know at that moment you're potentially giving up the opportunity to get the 1 seed or 2 seed (2 is still possible, but much less likely now). The Baltimore thing actually makes some sense because the Bengals got the division wrapped up as a freebie, when they should've had to win another game to get it. But you're the one who let Buffalo off the hook, so why complain?
I don't really mind the decision too much, as a Bengals fan. It's just home field advantage, and it's very likely the coin flip scenario will not even come up. It's more confounding than irritating. Drawing the line where some 0.5-game differences are okay to make up mitigating rule exceptions, while other 0.5-game differences, and a 1.0-game difference, do not require any mitigating exceptions. Even though all of the scenarios are ones that would entirely hinge on the Buffalo-Bills game result.
ETA: And also the drawing of the line where "we can mess around with home field advantage, but not the first-round bye".
My understanding is he’s bitching purely about the coin toss and that they didn’t just follow the established rules and give us the 3 seed and the home playoff game. I think we crush the Ravens tomorrow but if we do lose and then lose the coin toss the Bengals will be division champions with the worse draft pick and harder 2023 schedule that comes with it but have to travel to Baltimore for the playoff game. That’s crap.
Well there's a decent chance that, in the Ravens-win-tomorrow scenario, had the Bengals-Bills game been played, the Bengals
would be the 5 seed. Then they'd almost assuredly be on the road the whole way through. I'm happy with the middle ground of a coin toss and still getting the 3-seed (maybe 2) for possible (or guaranteed, if the 2) home field in the divisional round.
Granted. I get it. Making up rules is stupid when there is already a rule to cover the situation. But I don't feel shafted by the Ravens thing. I feel like we got really lucky to win the division (IF we lose tomorrow). So the coin flip deal is just meh. It's missing out on the bye or a better chance at the 2 seed that I find a bigger deal. Which would just be "tough luck" and it would be whatever. But then they go playing around with stuff, yet don't fix that.