The Cincinnati Bengals face a must-win game in Week 18 against the Baltimore Ravens now that NFL owners voted to approve the proposed AFC playoff seeding ruleset for this year’s playoffs.
While the Bengals are AFC North champions for the second season in a row due to the NFL declaring the Bills vs. Bengals Week 17 matchup a no-contest, a wrinkle in the proposed plans means the Bengals could lose home-field advantage in the wild-card round.
Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn pushed back hard on the proposal relating to the possibility Cincinnati could lose home-field advantage despite being a No. 3 seed and divisional champions.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor ripped into the NFL for going against the established rulebook on this topic.
The full breakdown:
The Ravens-Bengals coin flip for game site applies to only one scenario:
– Baltimore wins Sunday, completing a season sweep of the AFC North champions
– Baltimore is the 6 seed (not the 5)
– Baltimore and Cincinnati meet in a wild-card game (not any other round)
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 6, 2023
In essence, if the Bengals lose to the Ravens on Sunday and seeding determines they meet again in the wild card round, a coin toss would decide which AFC North team actually hosts the game.
The owners have voted to approve these changes for this year’s playoffs pic.twitter.com/Mpd0uDT0ey
— Mike Jones (@ByMikeJones) January 6, 2023
