Best Matchups Ever: Chiefs/Rams Joins That List And An Even More Exclusive One

by Chase Stuart on November 19, 2018

Reid looks up at the scoreboard and sees more points

Tonight is one of the games of the year: the 9-1 Chiefs against the 9-1 Rams. This is perhaps the best regular season game, by record, since another primetime game featuring Andy Reid’s Chiefs back in 2013, when the 9-0 Chiefs traveled to Denver to face the 8-1 Broncos.

Back then, I wrote about the best regular season matchups ever. And I’ve also written about the worst regular season matchups ever. And to be clear, there’s no right or wrong way to identify the best or worst matchup ever, even if you just base things on record.

You can’t use just winning percentage, because it’s hard to compare teams who have played a different number of games (is a matchup of two 3-0 teams better than a matchup of two 9-1 teams? I don’t think so, but winning percentage says otherwise). One solution is to add 11 games of .500 football to each team; in other words, add 5.5 wins and 5.5 losses to each team. For the Chiefs and Rams, that would make both teams 14.5-6.5, which translates to an adjusted winning percentage for both Kansas City and Los Angeles of 0.690. A game between two 3-0 teams would have an average adjusted winning percentage of only 0.607, which is one reason why I like this formula.

So where does Rams/Chiefs rank? With all due respect to the classic 49ers/Browns games from 1948, I’m limiting today’s post to games since 1950. And tonight’s matchup is the 20th best game during that period. The table below shows the best matchups in the NFL since 1950. Each game is listed from the perspective of the winner, and displays each team’s each team’s adjusted winning percentage and the average of the two adjusted records. Finally, I’ve included a linkable boxscore to each game.

Rk	Team	Opp	Year	Wk	Tm Rec	Opp Rec	TmAdjW%	OppAdjW%	AvgAW%	Boxscore	PF	PA
1	MIN	RAM	1969	12	10-1	11-0	0.705	0.750	0.727	Boxscore	20	13
2	SEA	IND	2005	16	12-2	13-1	0.700	0.740	0.720	Boxscore	28	13
3	DAL	DEN	1977	14	11-2	12-1	0.688	0.729	0.708	Boxscore	14	6
3	RAM	BAL	1967	14	10-1-2	11-0-2	0.688	0.729	0.708	Boxscore	34	10
3	RAM	PIT	1975	14	11-2	12-1	0.688	0.729	0.708	Boxscore	10	3
6	DAL	GNB	2007	13	10-1	10-1	0.705	0.705	0.705	Boxscore	37	27
6	SFO	NYG	1990	13	10-1	10-1	0.705	0.705	0.705	Boxscore	7	3
8	NWE	IND	2007	9	8-0	7-0	0.711	0.694	0.702	Boxscore	24	20
9	DEN	KAN	2013	11	8-1	9-0	0.675	0.725	0.700	Boxscore	27	17
9	TEN	JAX	1999	16	11-3	13-1	0.660	0.740	0.700	Boxscore	41	14
9	RAM	DAL	1969	10	9-0	8-1	0.725	0.675	0.700	Boxscore	24	23
9	WAS	DAL	1983	15	12-2	12-2	0.700	0.700	0.700	Boxscore	31	10
13	OAK	KAN	1969	14	11-1-1	11-2	0.708	0.688	0.698	Boxscore	10	6
14	BAL	RAM	1968	14	12-1	10-2-1	0.729	0.667	0.698	Boxscore	28	24
15	IND	JAX	2005	14	12-0	9-3	0.761	0.630	0.696	Boxscore	26	18
15	NWE	PIT	2007	14	12-0	9-3	0.761	0.630	0.696	Boxscore	34	13
15	PIT	CIN	1975	13	11-1	10-2	0.717	0.674	0.696	Boxscore	35	14
15	SEA	DEN	1984	13	10-2	11-1	0.674	0.717	0.696	Boxscore	27	24
19	NWE	NYG	2007	17	15-0	10-5	0.788	0.596	0.692	Boxscore	38	35
20	LAR	KAN	2018	11	9-1	9-1	0.690	0.690	0.690	Boxscore
20	DEN	BAL	1977	11	9-1	9-1	0.690	0.690	0.690	Boxscore	27	13
20	DEN	NWE	2015	12	8-2	10-0	0.643	0.738	0.690	Boxscore	30	24
20	DET	GNB	1962	11	8-2	10-0	0.643	0.738	0.690	Boxscore	26	14
24	BUF	NYG	1990	15	11-2	11-2	0.688	0.688	0.688	Boxscore	17	13
24	GNB	DEN	1996	15	10-3	12-1	0.646	0.729	0.688	Boxscore	41	6
24	NYG	WAS	1986	14	11-2	11-2	0.688	0.688	0.688	Boxscore	24	14

Some other notes:

Is this the best Monday Night Football game ever? The 1990 Giants and 49ers were both 10-1 before their classic matchup); that’s the only game in MNF history with a better average adjusted winning percentage between the two teams. Only a few other games come close: Saints/Seahawks in 2013, Broncos/49ers in 1997, and Bears/Dolphins in 1985 stand out among the rest.

This is also just the 5th game since 1950 between two teams that have won 90% of their games or more and have both played at least 10 games, joining the Packers/Cowboys in 2007, the Giants/49ers in 1990, the Colts and Broncos in 1977, and the Rams/Vikings game from 1969.

Along with the Saints, this game features two of the best three offenses in the NFL, and two pretty uneven defenses. In other words, this game should be not just a classic, but a fun one for all viewers. In fact, it’s arguably more of an extreme game from a shootout perspective than from a powerhouse perspective: the game tonight has an Over/Under of 62.5 points, the second-largest in history behind a 63-point O/U between the Rams and 49ers.

Tagged as: Chiefs, Rams, Vegas

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