Honestly, looking back at the 2018 NFL football schedule feels like opening a time capsule from a completely different era of professional football. It was the year the league finally decided to stop apologizing for being an offensive juggernaut. We saw the old guard of quarterbacks like Drew Brees and Tom Brady desperately trying to hold off a terrifying new wave of athletes who didn't care about established "rules" of pocket passing.
The 2018 season officially kicked off on a rainy Thursday night, September 6, with the Atlanta Falcons visiting the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles. It wasn't a pretty game. It was sloppy. But it set the tone for a year where the schedule was packed with high-stakes drama and a ridiculous amount of points. If you remember that season, you remember that it felt like every single window of games—whether it was the 1:00 PM EST slot or Monday Night Football—had at least one "must-watch" track meet.
The Monday Night game that broke the scoreboard
You can't talk about the 2018 NFL football schedule without talking about Week 11. Specifically, November 19. The Los Angeles Rams versus the Kansas City Chiefs. Originally, this game was supposed to be played in Mexico City, but the field conditions at Estadio Azteca were basically a cabbage patch. The NFL had to scramble, moving the game back to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on short notice.
What followed was arguably the greatest regular-season game in the history of the sport.
The Rams won 54-51. Read those numbers again. That is over 100 points in a single NFL game. It was the first time in league history that two teams both scored 50 points in the same contest. Jared Goff and Patrick Mahomes were just trading haymakers. It wasn't just a game; it was a cultural shift. It proved that the NFL’s scheduling of high-octane matchups in primetime was exactly what the audience craved. People weren't tuning in for 13-10 defensive struggles anymore. They wanted fireworks.
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Structure of the 2018 season and the London experiment
The league's obsession with international growth was all over the 2018 NFL football schedule. We had three games at Wembley Stadium in London.
First, the Raiders got absolutely dismantled by the Seahawks in Week 6. Then the Titans and Chargers played a nail-biter in Week 7, where Mike Vrabel famously went for two to win the game and missed. Finally, the Eagles beat the Jaguars in Week 8. These London games are always weird for fans because of the 9:30 AM EST start time, but in 2018, they started to feel less like a gimmick and more like a permanent fixture of the football calendar.
The bye weeks started in Week 4 and ran through Week 12. This is always a nightmare for fantasy football players, but in 2018, it felt particularly punishing because so many high-scoring offenses were concentrated in the same groups. If you had Rams or Chiefs players, those late-season byes were a massive hurdle to clear.
Mahomes and the changing of the guard
When the schedule was released in April 2018, nobody really knew what Patrick Mahomes was. We knew he had a "cannon arm," but he was still just a kid taking over for Alex Smith. By Week 2, after he carved up the Steelers for six touchdowns, the entire league was on notice.
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The way the 2018 NFL football schedule was laid out really tested the kid early. He had to go to Foxborough in Week 6 to face Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. That Sunday Night Football game was a masterpiece. The Patriots won 43-40, but it felt like a passing of the torch. Mahomes proved he could go into the most hostile environment in sports and put up 40 points on a legendary defense.
Thanksgiving and the holiday tradition
The Thanksgiving Day tripleheader is a sacred part of the NFL schedule, and 2018 didn't disappoint.
- The Bears beat the Lions in a game that was mostly about Chicago's defense.
- The Cowboys took down the Redskins (now Commanders) in a classic NFC East scrap.
- The Saints blew the doors off the Falcons in the night cap.
New Orleans that year was terrifying. Drew Brees was playing some of the most efficient football of his career. Watching them on Thanksgiving, it felt like they were destined for the Super Bowl. Of course, we know how that ended later in the playoffs with the "No-Call" against the Rams, but during the regular season, the Saints were the kings of the 2018 schedule.
How the schedule impacted the playoffs
The 2018 NFL football schedule concluded on December 30. Unlike today's 17-game schedule, 2018 was the classic 16-game format. The battle for the final Wild Card spots came down to the wire. The Philadelphia Eagles needed a win and a Vikings loss to sneak in, and miraculously, Nick Foles worked his magic again to get them into the dance.
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The Indianapolis Colts also had a "win and you're in" game against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday Night Football to end the season. Andrew Luck—in what would unexpectedly be his final full season—led the Colts to a victory. It's wild to think about now, but the 2018 schedule was the last time we saw Andrew Luck at the peak of his powers.
Actionable takeaways for historians and fans
If you are looking back at the 2018 NFL football schedule to understand the modern game, there are a few things you should focus on:
- Study the RPO evolution: 2018 was the year the Run-Pass Option became the standard. Watch the Rams and Eagles games from this season to see how it broke traditional defensive schemes.
- Evaluate the "Prime Time" effect: This season proved that moving high-profile games to Sunday and Monday night resulted in massive ratings, leading to the "flexible scheduling" rules we see today.
- Quarterback Transition: Use 2018 as the benchmark for the "Great Transition." It’s the year the 2004 QB class (Roethlisberger, Rivers, Eli Manning) started to see their dominance challenged by the 2017 and 2018 draft classes.
The 2018 season wasn't just another year of football. It was the moment the league fully embraced speed, space, and scoring as its primary identity. Whether you were following the schedule for fantasy points or just the love of the game, it provided a blueprint for the "Air Raid" style of NFL we see on our screens every Sunday now.
Next Steps for Deep Analysis:
Check the official NFL archives for the full week-by-week scoring totals of 2018 to see how it compares to the "dead ball" era of the early 2000s. You can also review the 2018 Pro Football Reference pages to see how strength of schedule impacted the final AFC North standings, which were decided by a mere half-game that year.