The Cincinnati Bengals will not be resuming their game from Monday night against the Buffalo Bills during Week 18 of the NFL schedule.
Instead, the league announced on Wednesday that Cincinnati will play its regularly-scheduled game against the division-rival Baltimore Ravens at 1:00 PM ET on CBS.
There’s a lot of moving parts to this. Cincinnati’s Week 17 game against the Bills was suspended in the first quarter after Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field and had to receive CPR. He remains at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in critical condition with things seemingly improving in that regard.
From an on-field standpoint, the NFL previously announced that the Bills-Bengals game would not be played in Week 18. But it did leave open the possibility of moving things around based on Hamlin’s status and the mental health of those associated with that scary incident Monday night.
In speaking to the media on Wednesday, NFL Executive Vice President Troy Vincent could not say one way or another whether the Bills-Bengals game will ever be played — setting up some interesting playoff scenarios with the regular season coming to a conclusion.
Related: Cincinnati Bengals standing in Sportsnaut’s NFL Week 18 power rankings
Ahead of Week 18, the Cincinnati Bengals’ playoff scenarios were pretty straightforward. A win over Buffalo in Week 18 or a victory against the Ravens next weekend would clinch the AFC North. If the aforementioned game against Buffalo is not played, Cincinnati will win the division.
As it stands right now, there’s no telling whether the Bills and Bengals game will be played. What we do know is that Cincinnati has to do whatever it can to turn the page and compete with a bitter rival not knowing whether the game itself will have playoff implications. It’s not a great scenario for the team.