Zac Taylor on new NFL playoff procedures: 'Positives for a lot of teams and just negatives for us'

CINCINNATI — It's Cincinnati against the world once again.

Owners of the 32 NFL teams on Friday approved new playoff procedures following the official canceling of the Cincinnati Bengals-Buffalo Bills game that was postponed Monday night after Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest on the field.

The good news: The Bengals are AFC North champions and guaranteed at least the Number 3 seed in the playoffs. The bad news: We might not get a home game in the playoffs.

Bengals fans have been overwhelmingly upset about the new procedures, which included no chance at the Number 1 overall seed (which they did have if the Bengals-Bills game was played) and a possible coin flip to determine if the Bengals get a home game in the first round of the playoffs. The coin flip would only happen if Cincinnati loses to the Ravens in Week 18, and it's not sitting well with head coach Zac Taylor.

"Opportunities lost for us that we had a chance to control that now we don't," Taylor told reporters Friday. "But it seems like there are positives for a lot of teams and just negatives for us."

Bengals Executive Vice President Katie Blackburn reportedly sent a memo to the league, upset with the new procedures and asking for the original rules of win percentage to determine seeding to remain intact.

“The proper process for making rule change is in the off-season,” Blackburn wrote in a memo obtained by ESPN’s Seth Wickersham. “It is not appropriate to put teams in a position to vote for something that may introduce bias, favor one team over another or impact their own situation when the vote takes place immediately before the playoffs.”

Taylor called that memo "awesome" and said "they've got this team's back."

"(The procedures are) clearly not coming from the league. It's nice to have ownership and front office support the players like they have," Taylor said.

Bengals running back Joe Mixon posted the rulebook to Twitter, saying "So we not following the rules no more"

The reality is, if the Bengals beat the Ravens on Sunday, they get a home game in round 1.

Bengals captain and offensive lineman Ted Karras was fired up about that in the locker room on Friday.

There have been numerous other tweets and comments from fans that are too obscene to post on this story, which should tell you all you need to know about the mood. But here's one we thought was funny:

Ultimately, Taylor regained poise in his comments of frustration about the outcome.

"We just have to turn our focus to getting ready for Baltimore and then doing everything we can to control what we can control," Taylor said.