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On Friday, the owners of the NFL will resolve various issues related to the unofficially official cancellation of the Bills-Bengals game.
A crease refers to the AFC North championship. The Ravens beat the Bengals earlier this year. If the Ravens complete the sweep on Sunday, the Bengals would still win the division based on a higher overall win percentage.
But there is a crease aimed at addressing the reality that the Ravens would have swept the Bengals and that — if Cincinnati had lost to the Bills — the Ravens would have won the division.
The proposal reads as follows: “If Baltimore beats Cincinnati in Week 18, it will have beaten Cincinnati, a division opponent, twice but cannot host a playoff game because Cincinnati will have a higher win percentage on a 16-game schedule than Baltimore will for a 17-game schedule. If Baltimore defeats Cincinnati and if those two clubs play a wild card game against each other, the venue for that game will be determined by a coin toss. If Cincinnati wins the Week 18 game, or if Baltimore and Cincinnati are not scheduled to play in the wild card round, the venues will be determined through regular scheduling procedures.
Basically, in a wild card game against the Bengals, the Ravens can secure home field by: (1) winning on Sunday; and (2) winning the coin toss. This would be true, although the winning percentage would otherwise make the Bengals division champions.