On Monday night the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Los Angeles Rams in a huge NFL showdown and one team may just walk away as a clear Super Bowl contender.
It’s game day for the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Rams and the stakes couldn’t be higher in terms of how these teams are perceived going forward for the rest of the season.
Monday’s match-up of the 9-1 Chiefs going on the road to face the 9-1 Rams may just be the premier regular season game of the season so far. Coaches and players always stress the mindset of “it’s just another game” or “every game counts the same”. In fact, former Chief and current Ram Marcus Peters said just that this week. While I think we can all understand coaches and players preaching that mantra, some weeks we fans just aren’t buying it.
This is one of those weeks.
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The Chiefs and Rams are both almost unanimously ranked in the top three of NFL power rankings (along with the New Orleans Saints) but that’s not where the similarities end. Both teams have elite offenses and are the two highest scoring teams in the NFL. They both feature young star quarterbacks that are setting the league on fire in Patrick Mahomes and Jared Goff.
Both teams are also trying to establish themselves as true Super Bowl contenders instead of simply “also ran” playoff teams. Both teams had great seasons in 2017 where they won their division but couldn’t capitalize on it as they lost home playoff games on the same day of wild-card weekend. Both teams have come out guns a blazing in 2018 and are trying to put the disappointment of last season behind them.
Both of these teams have also had their one loss happen in arguably their biggest game of the season so far. The Chiefs have several quality wins on their schedule this season but their biggest test was their prime time showdown with the perennial AFC powerhouse New England Patriots, which they lost. The Rams also have several nice wins this season but in their head to head contest with the New Orleans Saints with control of the NFC on the line they also came up short.
That means that the loser of this game will have the challenge of trying to convince themselves and the NFL world that they are Super Bowl contenders despite the fact that they will have lost their two biggest games of the season. That’s a hard sell for a team with no recent playoff success no matter how good your overall record is or how flashy your offensive weapons are. Like it or not, that is exactly how the loser of this game will be viewed, as a team with no playoff track record that despite a great offense and good overall win/loss record hasn’t been able to win their biggest games.
The winner, on the other hand, will have a huge statement win that will solidify their already impressive résumé. In fact, for both teams, this is arguably the biggest game left on their schedule so it could be their last chance to prove to both themselves and everyone else that they aren’t just a nice regular season story, but a team that should be feared in their respective conferences come playoff time.
While nobody can question either of these teams ability to move the ball and put up points on offense the same can’t be said for their defenses and that is where both teams will be looking to make a statement in this game. The Chiefs and Rams are both in the middle of the pack in terms of points per game allowed with K.C. allowing 24 and the Rams allowing 23.1. The Rams have a sizable lead in overall yards allowed per game but interestingly, the Rams and Chiefs are both allowing 6.0 yards per play on defense. That shows that the yardage difference has more to do with the time of possession than quality of defensive play.
One defensive stat where K.C. has the clear edge is in third-down percentage allowed where the Chiefs are currently in the top ten but the Rams rank 22nd (at the time I’m typing this). The Chiefs also have a slight edge in team sacks (31 to 26) and one of the biggest factors in this game may be which team can get more pressure on the opposing quarterback. Look for the defensive fronts of both teams look to overwhelm the opposing offensive line. If either Dee Ford or Aaron Donald can single-handedly wreak havoc on the opposing quarterback consistently on Monday, it could go a long way to determining the winner.
Ultimately, the winner of this game will be able to claim that their defense was able to do enough against one of the best offenses in all the NFL for their team to come out on top and the other will have to deal with the fact that their defense couldn’t do enough against an elite offense for the second time this season.
Both of these teams deserve all the praise that they’ve received so far this season. You don’t get to 9-1 by accident in the NFL. These are both good teams that are having good seasons. However, every season there are good teams that have good seasons that simply aren’t a real threat to win the Super Bowl. Both the Chiefs and the Rams fell under that category last season. Now they are trying to show that they have risen above that and it may take a win over the other for either of these teams to prove that.
The players and coaches will talk about how this is just another game. The fans of the losing team will try to tell themselves the same thing. But if we’re being honest, the losing team of this epic Monday night showdown will have doubts start to creep in.
“Is our defense not good enough to get things done in the biggest games?”
“Are all these regular season wins going to be for nothing?”
“Are we headed for another postseason let down?”
Let’s just hope that when the final seconds are counting down tonight it is the Rams fans that are starting to ask themselves those questions and not those of us in the Chiefs Kingdom.