NFL schedule 2018: Chiefs vs. Rams draws national attention as top game
By Matt Conner
The Kansas City Chiefs play the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football in November and it’s already being touted as one of the most anticipated games of the year.
Monday Night Football is always an event for football fans, unless it truly features a couple bottom-feeding teams due to an extremely poor draw of franchises who are unexpectedly bad that season. For the most part, however, MNF is typically a nice match-up of division rivals or tough teams jostling for playoff positioning and division title hopes.
This year, one of the single most anticipated games on the schedule comes on Monday night in November when the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Rams clash in Mexico City for another one of the NFL’s international jaunts.
Peter King of Monday Morning Quarterback and Sports Illustrated called the match-up
"The Mexico City games are my favorite games played outside the country each year because of the crowd and the altitude, so whoever was playing down south this year was making this list no matter what. It’s a bonus that it happens to be the Chiefs and Rams, and I can’t imagine how amped Marcus Peters must be to face his old team in that environment … This is one of the best AFC vs. NFC matchups of the year."
King brings up Peters for good reason. The former Chiefs cornerback is the NFL’s leader in takeaways (forced turnovers) over the last three seasons and it’s not even close. His career trajectory says “Canton” at this point, and teams are always hungry for even good pass defenders. The idea that a truly great one was available on the market took everyone by surprise this offseason.
Yet perhaps even more surprising that the Chiefs decided to move on from Peters (for undisclosed reasons) is that no other team was ready to take him on other than the Rams. They paid pennies on the dollar and now have a motivated player with a chip on his shoulder who was already an elite corner. His ability to show his old team up on national television in an important primetime game will be a major subplot to watch.
The Chiefs face the Rams in Mexico City on November 19.