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This answer may appear extra palatable if the sport meant little. However the recreation was really fairly essential for each groups, who’re safely within the playoffs however preventing for the No. 1 seed, which comes with a worthwhile playoff bye. Their finishes even have implications for different groups, notably Kansas Metropolis (13-3).
The Payments (12-3) can acquire that No. 1 seed in the event that they win their closing recreation of the 12 months on Sunday in opposition to the New England Patriots (12-3). The Bengals (11-4) can even get the slot with two wins, however they would wish a Kansas Metropolis loss on the Las Vegas Raiders (6-10) on Saturday.
Award the sport to the Bengals.
Cincinnati led the sport, 7-3, when it was halted and theoretically may have been awarded the victory primarily based on that.
This was a very unappetizing state of affairs for a number of causes. Barely an eighth of the sport was performed, making the Bengals’ lead appear trivial. And given the harrowing night time confronted by the Payments particularly, awarding them a loss appears unduly merciless.
Push the playoffs again.
The N.F.L. had an ace within the gap: There’s a week off within the playoff schedule.
The league may have pushed all of the playoff video games again one week, leaving the weekend of Jan. 14-15, now set for the wild-card spherical, for the resumption of Payments-Bengals. The playoffs would have then began Jan. 21, the bye week would have been full of the convention championship video games, and the Tremendous Bowl can be performed as scheduled on Feb. 12.
If that appears to depart a somewhat naked weekend, with simply part of one recreation, the league may have began the N.F.C. playoffs on time and pushed again solely the A.F.C. video games. The N.F.C. groups may then have been given a bye after both the wild-card or division rounds. Each convention championship video games would have been performed in what was the bye week, and the Tremendous Bowl would nonetheless have been performed on schedule.
There was precedent. After the 1982 soccer strike value the league 57 days in the course of the season, the N.F.L. added an additional week of normal season video games and pushed the playoffs again per week, eliminating the week off earlier than the Tremendous Bowl.
In 2001, after per week of video games was canceled due to the Sept. 11 assaults, the league pushed the Tremendous Bowl itself again per week. Whereas that could possibly be a state of affairs this 12 months, the complexity of rescheduling such a mammoth occasion makes that an unattractive possibility.
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