The Ravens’ regular-season finale against the Cincinnati Bengals remains scheduled for Sunday, though the timing and stakes of the game are uncertain in the wake of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest.
The Ravens’ Week 18 kickoff time in Cincinnati was expected to be finalized by Tuesday, with a 1 p.m. start time if the Bengals had beaten the Bills on “Monday Night Football” and a 4:25 p.m. start time if Buffalo had won. But the NFL announced Tuesday that Monday’s game, which was stopped in the first quarter after Hamlin tackled a Bengals player and collapsed, would not be resumed this week.
The league said in a statement Tuesday that it has made “no decision regarding the possible resumption of the game at a later date,” and that no other games on the schedule had been changed.
Hamlin, 24, is currently in critical condition at a Cincinnati hospital, the Bills said Tuesday. CPR was administered for several minutes after he collapsed, and he received oxygen as an ambulance took him off the field, according to ESPN’s telecast of the game.
The Ravens have already clinched a playoff berth, but their seeding in the AFC’s seven-team field has not been determined. With a Bills loss Monday, the Ravens would’ve needed only to beat the Bengals to win the AFC North and earn a No. 3 seed and home-field advantage in the wild-card round.
With a Bengals victory, the Ravens would have entered Week 18 without a path to the division title. But a win in Cincinnati would’ve kept alive their hopes of earning the No. 5 seed and a road playoff game against the AFC South champions, either the Tennessee Titans or Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Ravens are currently in line for the No. 6 seed, which would position them for a road game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Bills or Bengals.
