2018 NFL – Los Angeles Rams win over Kansas City Chiefs is the best win of the regular season

It will take the rest of the season to break down what happened. It was the first game in the history of the league in which both teams exceeded 50 points. It's finally the scorer Johnny Hekker who decided in the end, and Travis Kelce struggled to maintain a stalemate on Samson Ebukam, who could have been the most valuable player of the match. Both offensives gave rise to spectacular games and left opportunities on the ground. Both coaches played on virtually every cylinder imaginable and were still struggling to manage their clock by the end of the fourth quarter. It was a game that was sort of everything for everyone besides the owners of Todd Gurley.

Was it the best game of the regular season of all time?

I am not sure that there is a concrete and quantitative way to answer this question. I can not imagine that someone looks at the Rams 54-51 win and think it's not fun, but I'm sure there are people who would prefer a defensive fight to temperatures below zero. If your football highlight is the 2015 Seahawks-Vikings game, live your truth. This is not for me.

In an attempt to answer this question, I have gone back into the history of regular season competitions since the merger to try to find other games that could be compared to the classic Monday Night. I'm sure that a game could have gone through the cracks, but I was looking for some key criteria:

Another famous defeat that the Giants will avenge later in the Super Bowl, I am comfortable putting this match of the 17th week on the list because of the context. The Patriots had locked the top of the AFC list, but at 15-0, they played an undefeated season in a match that was simultaneously on three networks. The Giants had already won the NFC East, but Tom Coughlin played his opponents to try and prevent the Patriots from scoring.

The story is legendary, but the story lost after the story is an excellent game in itself. It was a very different game from the Super Bowl XLII, where the Giants harassed Tom Brady in a low scoring case. Here, Steve Spagnuolo's defense kicked Brady only once, and Manning played with Brady for four touchdowns. Brady had 356 yards and two scores.

The Giants led 28-16 in the third quarter and had a 28-23 lead to go into the fourth, but Brady hit Randy Moss for a 65-yard touchdown to take a 31-28 lead, and after Manning launched his only interception on That day, the Patriots took advantage of the low of the field to climb 38-28 with a score of Laurence Maroney. The Giants scored in the second game of Plaxico Burress with a score of 1: 08 to 38-35, but the Pats recovered the kick that ensued to seal their unbeaten regular season. What happened next?

I'm inserting this one in the list because it was really a two-point match, but Brandon Graham managed a stumbling block in a game with zeros on the clock and the Returned for a touchdown. This game is best known as Carson Wentz rips his access control list and apparently eliminates the chances of the Philadelphia Super Bowl, but you know how that happened.

Wentz missed the entire fourth quarter, but he still finished with 291 yards and four touchdowns in a crushing shootout. Todd Gurley scored twice and the Rams took a blocked kick to score the points. A Gurley touchdown with 13:58 to go gave the Rams a 35-31 lead, but Nick Foles brought the Eagles back into the match and Chris Long turned Goff to a short run. The next training lasted 10 yards and took four minutes and 23 seconds. The Eagles went back and scored a shot on goal. They took points on the board when Aaron Donald was called to leverage, then finally opted for the same goal. . Philly then forced a three-shot timer and burned just enough clock to put the game out of reach.

I've usually avoided the first week's games because we do not really know how the teams will look at the start of the season. (As a reminder, remember that the Bucs beat the Saints 48-40 in the first week of this season.) In this case, however, we had a decisive game between a Broncos team and a disappointing season at # 39; shelter from the victory. back The victories at the Super Bowl, and a team of Rams who took over in their absence and had designated itself as the biggest show in the world.

As the adventure shows, the TWA Dome saw one after brandishing a Super Bowl banner. We have seen some of the problems that would affect the Rams in 2000; While St. Louis had three receivers for 100 yards on that day, Kurt Warner threw three interceptions: the Rams would accumulate 35 presents by the end of the season. One of those choices went to Terrell Buckley with a 6:35 gap, giving a Broncos team led from the back at 35-20 with 19 minutes to make a 36-35 lead. A 30-yard run in the Marshall Faulk set up a Robert Holcombe's vulture and the Rams' defense sacked Brian Griese twice to force the Broncos to a desperate completion of the fourth and 33rd finals.

Fifteen weeks later, the Rams played another classic contending for their playoff position with Tampa Bay. Both teams were in the wild card race and had just played in the playoffs the previous season, but the match looked like a fight between Mike Martz's offense and Tony Dungy's defense, the Bucs coming in fifth. rank of defensive defenses.

Instead, we saw the Bucs build on their often frustrating offensive for a huge game. Warrick Dunn had 198 yards in the scrum and had three touchdowns, including a 52-yard run that saw the Bucs go up 31-21 at the end of the third quarter. Warner again launched three interceptions, but it was money in the fourth quarter. He brought the Rams to less than three points by leading seven balls in a 73-yard run. After Shaun King launched an interception in the Rams' end zone, Warner hit Torry Holt for a 72-yard touchdown. .

The Rams managed a fourth run and needed a first run to seal the match, but Martz was curiously conservative and ran three times with Marshall Faulk for three goals. King accumulated 80 yards in 79 seconds, including a fourth and fourth scrum to extend the game, before Dunn scored a winning goal. Warner, who had 6 yards out for 143 yards in the fourth quarter, sent John Lynch an interception 34 seconds into the end.

It was a gigantic match between two always competitive teams who played at a high level. The Tom Landry Cowboys were 7-0. The Raiders, who played three games in 1983 and qualified for the roster or came closer, registered 5-2. Tom Flores' team had just changed quarterback, trading Jim Plunkett against Marc Wilson after the latter signed a five-year contract extension.

A field goal brought the Raiders to 38-37 with 9:40 left, only for White to throw a double cover for an interception. Wilson took his own 25-yard line in the space of four minutes and led the Raiders to an 8-yard line. A fourth goal by Chris Bahr allowed the Raiders to earn two points.

Apart from this one which took place at the beginning of the 1989 season, there was just about everything one could hope for from a classic one. It was a confrontation between two future members of the Hall of Fame, with Jim Kelly and Warren Moon, in their respective prime numbers. Both teams had a story, as the Bills defeated the Oilers in the 1988 playoffs. Their most famous playoff game would be three years later when Frank Reich kicked off The Comeback with a 41-38 playoff victory of 1992.

In 1989, however, we witnessed two explosive offenses in the Astrodome. Moon and Kelly both passed the 330 yard mark. To put it in context, it was just one of six games in the 1989 season, in which the two quarterbacks were over 300 yards in passing. Kelly scored five touchdown passes, and although Moon did in fact throw more steals (two) than touchdown passes (one), he was responsible for one of three hurried race scores of Houston. The Bills returned a blocked goal for a touchdown, while the Oilers reacted by bringing in a blocked punt at home.

The changes at the end of the game push this game to the top of the list. The Bills were leading 34-24 in the fourth quarter after Kelly struck Andre Reed for a 78-yard touchdown, but their lead did not last. The Oilers scored two touchdowns for a 38-34 record, but the Bills responded with a 26-yard score for Thurman Thomas, who was 41-38.

From there, chaos reigned. The Oilers started their training with a pass to Haywood Jeffires, who dislodged the ball by Nate Odomes and returned to the end zone by Darryl Talley for what appeared to be a perfect score, but the referees ruled that the progression of Jeffires had been better. been arrested. Houston continued on a touchpad in which Curtis Duncan was initially declared offside before the officials agreed and overturned the judge who made the initial call. In the absence of a resumption of the conference call, the Oilers stalled after a false start and Tony Zendejas opened the scoring for a 52-yard field goal (at a time when there was little goal) to push the game in overtime.

Things are no less dramatic in overtime. The Oilers went into the penalty area for Zendejas in overtime. His 43-yard attempt was blocked, but Houston was saved by an offside call on the Bills. Zendejas then repelled his 38-yard attempt on the left, scoring the fifth missed miss in nine attempts in two weeks. He did not lose his job and found a stable job until 1995. We are too hard for kickers these days. The Bills took over and Kelly hit two passes for 33 yards before Reed threw a short throw 28 yards from home to win an epic up and down.

I think you can say credibly that it was the best game of the regular season ever. The notation, of course, was at another level. L.A and Kansas City were 9-1 before the start of the game, which is in itself a rare match of the dominant teams. Both had the majority of their stars healthy and active, though the Chiefs could very well come back on their two losses this season and wonder if they would have defeated Eric Berry in good health, given the way of which Rob Gronkowski is distinguished. Defensive back Josh Shaw in Week 6 and the Rams sued Daniel Sorensen for their last two goals on Monday night.

What distinguishes this game is the extent of the drama of the end of the match. It was the only game on the list that saw four head changes in the fourth quarter, including the Chiefs' return after a 10-point deficit early in the period. In most cases, when a fourth quarter had several head changes, this usually included a team that scored at the very end of the match without letting their new opponent a meaningful shot to win the match. The Chiefs went down 54-51 with 1:49 left and had actually two Realistic shots of preparation for a winning touchdown or tying goal, but Patrick Mahomes is intercepted twice.

The numbers are almost comical. Mahomes has amassed 478 yards and six touchdowns, becoming the second quarter of the league's history to register two six touchdown games in one season. Jared Goff was good for 413 yards and four scores to him. Between 1990 and 2009, there was exactly a a regular-season game in which the two quarterbacks have passed 400 yards, a Dolphins-Patriots game that is an honorable mention here.

The two teams combined for 14 touchdowns, one more than the Bills have scored in 10 games this season and as many as the 1991 Colts scored in an entire 16-game season. The defenses were outclassed and still managed to impact the game by combining for three touchdowns. The match recorded the highest points total (63.5) in the history of the league and surpassed this total of 41.5 points.

To say that it was up to the hype of the game of the year is obvious. Looking a little further, it seems perfectly reasonable to suggest that we have just attended the biggest match – or at least the most exciting – of the regular season in the history of the NFL.