Why Chiefs-Ravens is the best game of the NFL season

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LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 19: Patrick Mahomes #15 of the Kansas City Chiefs walks off the field after being defeated by the Los Angeles Rams 54-51 in a game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on November 19, 2018, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /

3. This isn’t Sunday during the day — it’s Monday Night Football

Immense enjoyment can be derived from “ordinary” football games on a Sunday afternoon, especially after much of the summer was spent theorizing there would be no football at all. Yet, games that are spotlighted on Monday nights inexplicably have a different aura.

The Chiefs and Ravens will enter that aura tonight. Primetime allows for the bright lights to be nice and shiny, maximum viewership, and two teams to have a day of the week entirely to themselves.

Kansas City is no stranger to recent Monday Night Football folklore. In 2018, the Chiefs and Rams met on a Monday night for a pre-Thanksgiving showdown. The contest quickly morphed into a total shootout as offenses reigned supreme. The two teams jousted to a total of 105 points (!!!) and 1,001 combined yards from scrimmage. The late Buddy Ryan would have cringed.

The Rams were the victor that evening and would reach the Super Bowl three months later. At the time, the Chiefs-Rams affair was the most-watched Monday Night Football game in four years.

The Chiefs and Ravens likely won’t tabulate 100+ points tonight because that’s damn close to unprecedented. However, there is a reasonable chance that this game tops the TV-rating accolades notched by Chiefs-Rams two seasons ago.

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