If you missed Monday
night's Chiefs-Rams game, stop reading this and rectify that problem
immediately. Do what you have to do. Call in sick to work. Sit in the back of
class and watch it without even pretending to pay attention to what's going on
up front. Buy a copy from your sketchy friend. This will still be here when you
come back, and you're going to feel a lot happier having spent three hours in
It's going to take the rest of the season to break down what
happened. It was the first game in league history in which both teams topped 50
points, and it was somehow decided in the end by punter Johnny Hekker,
and Travis Kelce struggling
to sustain a block on Samson Ebukam,
who might have been the game's MVP. Both offenses came up with spectacular
plays and left opportunities on the field. Both coaches were hitting on
virtually every play calling cylinder imaginable and still struggled with clock
management late in the fourth quarter. It was a game that was somehow
everything to everyone besides Todd Gurley fantasy owners.
Was it the greatest regular-season game of all time?
I'm not sure there's a concrete, quantitative way to answer
that question. I can't imagine anyone watching the Rams' 54-51 win and thinking
it wasn't fun, but I'm sure there are people out there who might prefer a
defensive struggle in subzero temperatures. If your football pinnacle is
the Seahawks-Vikings
game from the 2015 playoffs, live your truth. It's not for me.
In an attempt to answer this question, I've gone back
through the history of regular-season contests since the merger to try to find
other games that might compare to Monday night's instant classic. I'm sure a
game might have slipped through the cracks, but I was looking for a few key
criteria:
In a game that was supposed to be all about offense, the
Rams and Chiefs combined for three defensive touchdowns on Monday Night
Football, led by outside linebacker Samson Ebukam's fumble recovery and
interception, both returned for TDs, for L.A.
Patrick Mahomes threw for a career-high 478 yards and a
Monday Night Football record six touchdowns, but he lost two fumbles and threw
three INTs.
- The game had to be high-scoring. Sorry, Seahawks-Vikings guy. I set my limits at a minimum of 35 points for each team. Anything less doesn't compare.
- Both teams had to eventually make the playoffs. I don't want to jinx either team, but I feel pretty confident that the Chiefs and Rams are both going to advance to the postseason come January. I'll give extra credit to matchups in which we knew both teams were already great, either because they had an excellent record at the time of the game and/or had been to the playoffs the prior season.
- There had to be at least one fourth-quarter lead change. I don't think you can be as excited about a game where one team gets up by multiple touchdowns and another team makes a late run before coming up narrowly short.
- The final margin of victory has to be seven points or fewer. Ideally, the losing team needs to have a drive late in the fourth quarter with a chance of winning the game, or the game has to end in overtime.
- No ties. I refuse.
- The game can't involve replacement players or take place with backups in Week 17. This rule specifically keeps out the bonkers Lions-Packers game from 2011, when Matt Flynn threw for 480 yards and six touchdowns in his final start with the Packers before hitting free agency.
I found 17 games that fit the criteria I laid out above,
although I admittedly stretched a couple of them to get there. I'll give you my
top 10. If you have different criteria for your favorite regular-season games
of all time, that's fine. These are mine, and while they lean heavily toward
the 21st century because of the scoring minimum, I'm comfortable suggesting
that the quality of play in the NFL is better than it was in decades past.
Finally, keep in mind that this is the greatest games and
not the greatest endings. Otherwise, the winner would have to be the Saints-Jaguars
game from 2003 where the Saints successfully pulled off a laterals play for a
touchdown, only for John Carney to eliminate
them from the playoffs by missing the ensuing extra point.
Again I ask the question? Was this the best ever regular
season game played? You be the judge.
The Chiefs figure on this list several times, and I'm sorry
to report that it doesn't often go well for them. This was back in Andy Reid's
debut season with the team, with Kansas City starting 9-0 before losing to the
Broncos and then in this midseason matchup to the Chargers.
The Chiefs led 28-24 heading into the fourth quarter, but
the lead changed hands three times in the final eight minutes and twice in the
final 82 seconds of the game. A 60-yard Ladarius Green touchdown put the
Chargers up 34-31, but Kansas City profited from excellent field position and
scored on a Dwayne Bowe touchdown with 1:22 to go up 38-34. Philip Rivers threw
three passes to Antonio Gates and
two to Danny Woodhead, but after an Eric Berry sack,
Rivers found Seyi Ajirotutu for a 26-yard score with 31 seconds to go for the
game winner.
The only reason this isn't higher on the list is that the
Chargers looked to be out of the playoff race. This win only took them to 5-6,
but after a loss the following week to the Bengals, Rivers & Co. fired off
four straight wins to sneak into the postseason, including a second victory
over the Chiefs in Week 17 to get in. They haven't beaten Reid in nine tries
since.
Again, this is a game that looks more impactful in
hindsight, given that the Giants would eventually get their revenge on the
Packers in the postseason en route to a Super Bowl XLVI win. On the other hand,
this game carries extra weight because the Packers were still undefeated
heading into the game at 11-0. No team in the league had come this close to
beating Green Bay, and the defending Super Bowl champs would make it to 13-0
before falling to the Chiefs.
This one technically didn't have a fourth-quarter lead
change, although it certainly involved some late-game heroics. The Packers led
28-24 as the final stanza began, but after a Lawrence Tynes field goal, a
Donald Driver touchdown gave the Packers an eight-point lead with 3:34 to go.
The Giants took over and launched a nine-play, 69-yard drive before Eli Manning punched
the ball in to Hakeem Nicks for a two-yard score with 1:02 left. Danny Ware's
subsequent two-point conversion tied the score at 35, but Rodgers broke blue
hearts by going 4-of-4 for 68 yards in 37 seconds before Mason Crosby hit
a 30-yarder to keep the streak alive. Both Manning and Rodgers topped 340 yards
and three touchdowns. Rodgers won regular-season MVP. Manning picked up his
second Super Bowl MVP award.
Another famous loss the Giants would avenge later in the
Super Bowl, I'm comfortable putting this Week 17 game on the list because of
the context. The Patriots had locked up the first seed in the AFC, but at 15-0,
they were playing for an undefeated season in a game that ended up being
simulcast on three networks. The Giants already had clinched the NFC East, but
Tom Coughlin famously played his starters to try to prevent the Patriots from
setting the mark.
The narrative is legendary, but what's lost to the story of
what came afterward is an excellent game in itself. This was a much different
game from Super Bowl XLII, where the Giants harassed Tom Brady in
a low-scoring affair. Here, Steve Spagnuolo's defense sacked Brady only once,
and Manning went shot-for-shot with Brady while throwing four touchdown passes.
Brady racked up 356 yards and two scores.
The Giants led 28-16 in the third quarter and were clinging
to a 28-23 lead entering the fourth, but Brady hit Randy Moss for a 65-yard
touchdown to take a 31-28 lead, and after Manning threw his lone interception
on the day, the Patriots took advantage of the short field to go up 38-28 with
a Laurence Maroney score. The Giants scored on Plaxico Burress' second TD catch
of the game with 1:08 to go to make it 38-35, but the Pats recovered the
ensuing onside kick to seal their undefeated regular season. What happened
next?
I'm sneaking this one onto the list because it was really a
two-point game, but Brandon
Graham picked up a fumble on a laterals play with zeros on the
clock and returned it for a touchdown. This game is more famous for Carson Wentz
tearing his ACL and seemingly eliminating Philadelphia's
Super Bowl chances, but you know how that turned out.
Wentz missed the entirety of the fourth quarter, but he
still finished with 291 yards and four touchdowns in a blistering
shootout. Todd Gurley scored twice, and the Rams picked up a
blocked punt for a score to keep things close. A Gurley touchdown with 13:58 to
go gave the Rams a 35-31 lead, but Nick Foles
led the Eagles back for a field goal, then Chris Long strip-sacked
Goff to give the Eagles a short field. The next drive somehow went 10 yards and
took up four minutes and 23 seconds, with the Eagles moving backward and
hitting a field goal, taking points off the board when Aaron Donald was
called for leverage, and then settling for the same field goal later on. Philly
then forced a three-and-out and burned just enough clock to put the game out of
reach.
If you want to accuse me of recency bias, that's fine. This
game fits my criteria. Both these teams are likely to make the postseason.
They're perennial playoff teams with a history in their own right, including a
classic that narrowly missed out in Week 1 of the 2017 campaign. Its fourth
quarter had two lead changes and a 75-yard Tyreek Hill touchdown
that tied the score at 40-40, only for Rob
Gronkowski to bring in a 39-yard catch that set up the Patriots
for a game winner from Stephen
Gostkowski. If anything, it probably deserves to be higher.
I generally shied away from Week 1 games because we don't
have a great sense of how teams are going to look over the course of a full
season in the opener. (As a reminder, remember that the Bucs beat the
Saints 48-40 in Week 1 of this very season.) In this case,
though, we had a compelling matchup between a Broncos team that was one
disappointing season removed from back-to-back Super Bowl victories, and a Rams
team that had taken up the slack in their absence and anointed themselves as
the Greatest Show on Turf.
As shows go, the TWA Dome saw a wild one after raising a
Super Bowl banner. We saw some of the issues that would plague the Rams in
2000; while St. Louis had three 100-yard receivers on the day, Kurt Warner
threw three interceptions -- the Rams would rack up 35 giveaways by the end of
the season. One of those picks went to Terrell Buckley with 6:35 to go, giving
a Broncos team that trailed 35-20 with 19 minutes to go a 36-35 lead. A 30-yard
Marshall Faulk run set up a 1-yard vulture from Robert Holcombe, though, and
the Rams' defense sacked Brian Griese twice to force the Broncos into a
desperate incompletion on fourth-and-33 and end things.
Fifteen weeks later, the Rams played another classic tilt as
they jockeyed for playoff positioning with Tampa Bay. Both these teams were in
the wild-card hunt and were coming off playoff runs the previous season, but
the matchup seemed like a fight between Mike Martz's offense and Tony Dungy's
defense, with the Bucs ranking fifth in defensive DVOA.
Instead, we saw the Bucs lean on their oft-frustrating
offense for a huge game. Warrick Dunn racked up 198 yards from scrimmage and
scored three touchdowns, including a 52-yard run that put the Bucs up 31-21 at
the end of the third quarter. Warner threw three interceptions again, but he
was money in the fourth quarter. He brought the Rams back within three points
by leading a seven-play, 73-yard drive, and after Shaun King threw an
interception in the Rams' end zone, Warner hit Torry Holt for a 72-yard
touchdown to go up 35-31.
The Rams held on a fourth down and needed a first down to
seal the game, but Martz got curiously conservative and ran three times with
Marshall Faulk for a three-and-out. King took the Bucs 80 yards in 79 seconds,
including a fourth-and-4 scramble to extend the game, before Dunn punched in a
game-winning score. Warner, who had been 6-of-6 for 143 yards in the fourth quarter,
tossed an interception to John Lynch with 34 seconds to go to end the game.
This was a mammoth matchup between two perennially
competitive teams that were playing at a high level. Tom Landry's Cowboys were
7-0. The Raiders, who had three games in 1983 that either qualified for this
list or came close, came in at 5-2. Tom Flores' team had just changed
quarterbacks, swapping out Jim Plunkett for Marc Wilson after the latter signed
a five-year contract extension.
Reports from the time basically paint this game as chaotic fun. The Raiders turned
the ball over six times and won, thanks in part to a fake field goal just
before halftime that resulted in a pass interference penalty in the end zone.
The score was 31-24 at the half, and while the scoring died down after halftime,
it included some late drama. Los Angeles led 34-24 at the beginning of the
fourth quarter, but the Cowboys scored two touchdowns on a pass from Danny
White and their fifth fumble recovery of the evening.
A field goal brought the Raiders back to 38-37 with 9:40 to
go, only for White to toss a ball up into double coverage for an interception.
Wilson took over on his own 25-yard line inside of four minutes and drove the
Raiders to the 8-yard line before a fourth field goal from Chris Bahr gave the
Raiders a two-point win.
Outside of this one taking place early in the 1989 season,
it had just about everything you could hope for from a classic. This was a
matchup of two future Hall of Famers at quarterback, with Jim Kelly and Warren
Moon in their respective primes. The two teams had a history, as the Bills had
beaten the Oilers during the 1988 playoffs. Their most famous playoff game
would come three years after this, when Frank Reich launched The Comeback in a 41-38 victory during the 1992
postseason.
Back in 1989, though, we saw two explosive offenses trade
body blows in the Astrodome. Both Moon and Kelly topped 330 passing yards. To
put things in context, this was just one of six games during the entire 1989
season in which both quarterbacks topped 300 passing yards in the same contest.
Kelly chipped in five touchdown passes, and while Moon actually threw more
interceptions (two) than touchdown passes (one), he was responsible for one of
Houston's three rushing scores. The Bills returned a blocked field goal for one
touchdown, while the Oilers responded by taking a blocked punt to the house.
The late-game swings push this game toward the top of the
list. The Bills led 34-24 in the fourth quarter after Kelly hit Andre Reed for
a 78-yard touchdown, but their lead didn't last. The Oilers scored two
touchdowns to go up 38-34, but the Bills responded with a 26-yard Thurman
Thomas score to make it 41-38.
From there, chaos reigned. The Oilers started their drive
with a pass to Haywood Jeffires, who had the ball dislodged by Nate Odomes and
returned into the end zone by Darryl Talley for what looked to be a
game-sealing score, but the referees ruled that Jeffires' forward progress had
been stopped. Houston continued its drive on a sideline catch in which Curtis
Duncan was initially ruled out of bounds before the officials conferred and
overruled the side judge who made the initial call. With no replay to review
the call, the Oilers stalled out after a false start and Tony Zendejas kicked a
52-yard field goal (in an era where those were hardly chip shots) to push the
game into overtime.
Things did not get any less dramatic in overtime. The Oilers
drove into field goal range for Zendejas in the extra period. His 43-yard
attempt was blocked, but Houston was bailed out by an offsides call on the Bills.
Zendejas then pushed his 38-yard attempt wide left, marking the fifth kick he
had missed in nine tries over a two-week span. He didn't lose his job and
picked up steady work until 1995. We're too hard on kickers these days. The
Bills took over and Kelly hit two passes for 33 yards before Reed took a short
throw 28 yards to the house to win an epic up-and-down encounter.
I think you can credibly make a case that this was the best
regular-season game ever. The scoring, obviously, was at another level. L.A.
and Kansas City were 9-1 heading into the game, which in itself is a rare
matchup of dominant teams. Both had the majority of their stars healthy and
active, although the Chiefs might very well look back at their two losses so
far this season and wonder if they would have won with a healthy Eric Berry,
given how Rob
Gronkowski picked apart now-waived backup defensive back Josh Shaw in Week 6, and the Rams went after Daniel
Sorensen for their final two scores Monday night.
What makes this game stand out is the sheer scope of the
late-game drama. This is the only game on the list that had four lead changes
in the fourth quarter, and that included the Chiefs coming back from a 10-point
deficit at the beginning of the period. In most cases, when a fourth quarter
had multiple lead changes, it usually included one team scoring at the very end
of the game without leaving its newly trailing opponent a meaningful shot at
winning the game. The Chiefs went down 54-51 with 1:49 left and actually
had two realistic shots of setting up for a game-winning
touchdown or a game-tying field goal, only for Patrick
Mahomes to be intercepted twice.
The numbers are almost comical. Mahomes threw for 478 yards
and six touchdowns, becoming the second quarterback in league history to post
two six-touchdown games in a single season. Jared Goff was
good for 413 yards and four scores of his own. Between 1990 and 2009, there was
exactly one regular-season game in which both quarterbacks
topped 400 passing yards, a Dolphins-Patriots game that is an honorable mention
here.
The two teams combined for 14 touchdowns, which is one more
than the Bills have scored in 10 games this season and as many as the 1991
Colts scored over an entire 16-game season. The defenses were overmatched and
still managed to impact the game by combining for three touchdowns. The game
had the highest posted point total (63.5) in league history and it went
over that total by 41.5 points.
Saying it lived up to the Game of the Year hype is obvious.
Looking a step further, it seems eminently reasonable to suggest that we just
witnessed the greatest -- or at least the most exciting -- regular-season game
in NFL history.
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