to both the Bills and Ravens. With the Bills-Bengals game removed, the Bengals have guaranteed winning the AFC North, so that's quite good for them. Yes, if both Bills and Bengals win this weekend, and then face each other in the playoffs, then the Bills will have the better record, so will be at home.
I wasn't sure what you mean by "the league is assuming the Bengals lose", but perhaps it's this:
The only thing I don't understand is the coin toss for playing at home if the Ravens beat the Bengals this weekend, and then Bengals and Ravens face each other in the playoffs. I'd have thought the rules that have made the Bengals the #3 seed in that case, and Ravens, #6, ought to also give the Bengals the home game.
So are you saying "if the Ravens beat the Bengals this weekend, they NFL say "well, the Bills might have beaten the Bengals too, which would have had the Ravens winning the division, so we'll use a coin toss to mimic that"? That does seem a little unfair, since a game can end in a win, loss, or tie, so to say the Bengals had a 50% chance of losing the game is not quite right - and then you add an early lead and home advantage on top, and it would have been an under-50% chance of losing.
But against that, if the Chiefs finish 13-4 in the regular season, and Bengals 12-4, and then those 2 make the AFC championship game, you get a neutral venue, which is slightly generous to the Bengals, so probably cancels out the coin toss.
= new reply since forum marked as read