Ravens could still host home playoff game despite losing AFC North to Bengals
The Baltimore Ravens officially lost the AFC North to the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night when the NFL announced that the Week 17 game between Cincinnati and the Buffalo Bills was declared a no-contest due to the scary situation involving Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin. However, due to new rules set in place for playoff seeding and tiebreakers for this season, Baltimore still has a path to host a home playoff game.
If the Ravens beat the Bengals in Week 18 and the Los Angeles Chargers defeat the Denver Broncos, Baltimore and Cincinnati would face off in the first round of the playoffs. However, since the Ravens would have two wins over the Bengals, a coin flip would be determined to decide the location of the game.
As part of the cancellation, league also announces that if Ravens beat Bengals Sunday and the two teams wind up matching up in wild card round as the third and sixth seeds, the host team for that game will be decided by a coin toss.
— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) January 6, 2023
A neutral AFC Championship Game site now is possible, per the NFL: pic.twitter.com/5gmd0drq7q
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 6, 2023
