The NFL clearly has a vision and their playoff scenarios after Week 17's game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills was canceled brought that vision to light. The NFL wants is to be the Bills against the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game with the Bills winning to advance to the Super Bowl.
The Bengals can easily destroy this plan, however. They'll need help from the Jacksonville Jaguars, who play the Chiefs on Saturday, but there is a universe that exists where the Bengals are not only in the AFC Championship Game but hosting it.
How can the Bengals foil the NFL's plans?
First, the Jaguars have to beat the Chiefs on Saturday. If that doesn't happen, the Bengals can't host the AFC title game.
If the Jags pull off the upset victory, however, then it's still possible for Cincinnati to host the game that determines who represents the AFC in the Super Bowl. All they've have to do in order to make that happen is to defeat the Bills on Sunday.
If the Chiefs do end up losing, the Bills and Bengals game will be for home field advantage in the AFC title game and that'll motivate each side even more.
The NFL clearly wants it to be the Chiefs vs the Bills in the AFC title game, proven by their playoff scenarios where there was no shot for the Bengals to win the No. 1 seed. The Bengals have been a team that feeds off people doubting them and wanting another scenario to happen other than them succeeding and you'd better believe that they're going to take advantage of that this weekend.
Even if the Jaguars lose, the Bengals can still spoil the NFL's plan by beating the Bills and not letting the "darlings of the NFL" make it to the Super Bowl. Just gotta win on Sunday!