If The Season Ended Today: Bengals Clinging Onto Final Wild Card Spot

At this point last week the Cincinnati Bengals were listed as the top-seed in the American Football Conference if the season were to have ended. Considering that if the season ended eight weeks premature, the county is probably facing a catastrophe and the National Football League ceases operations. Worrying about where the Bengals are in the playoff picture might be below the thought process of say, survival. Then again if you're surrounded by a horde of aggressive aliens bent on dominating planet Earth, you could always reflect that the Cincinnati Bengals, not the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers or Baltimore Ravens were the AFC representatives for the regular season that ended at the same time humanity came to a crushing halt. Hopefully people don't draw parallels there.

Yet if aliens began their invasion this week and not last week, aside from the point of having horrible timing, where would the Bengals be seeded in this year's playoffs when humanity became enslaved?

Through ten weeks (and nine games) this season, the Cincinnati Bengals are currently seeded sixth in the AFC. Cincinnati's week 11 opponent, the Baltimore Ravens, claim the first wild card position (the fifth seed) due to Baltimore achieving the first applicable tie-breaker (division record). Of course this weekend will change that; head to head record is the first tie-breaker and whoever wins that game, takes the fifth seed.

Cincinnati will have to worry about the New York Jets (5-4) but less about the Buffalo Bills (5-4) and Tennessee Titans (5-4) having already beaten both teams.