- WHERE: GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium (Kansas City)
- WHEN: 8:15 p.m. ET
- HOW TO WATCH: ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, NFL+
Week 8’s Monday night finale features two teams moving in opposite directions at the midway point of the season.
After starting off 0-2, the Chiefs have won four of their past five games and appear to be firing on all cylinders.
The Commanders, meanwhile, have lost two of their last three outings, are beset by injuries and now enter perhaps the most difficult three-game stretch on their schedule.
They’ll look to get back on track against a dangerous Kansas City team in a showdown between two conference championship representatives from a season ago.
Three must-know storylines
1) It’s up to Mariota again
Jayden Daniels will miss his third game of the 2025 campaign, this time due to a hamstring injury. That puts Marcus Mariota, one of the league’s more trusty backups, in the driver’s seat once again. Washington’s offense hasn’t experienced a dip under his guidance — the team is averaging 11.6 more points in his two starts this season compared to Daniels’ (34.0 to 22.4) — but consistently delivering wins as a QB2 is nonetheless a tall task. Mariota, who has thrown for 426 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions in relief of Daniels in 2025, will luckily benefit from both Terry McLaurin and Deebo Samuel returning to action. While he is nowhere near as dangerous as Daniels when taking off, he should still keep Kansas City’s defense on its toes. He’s run for 94 yards and a score on just 10 carries this season. With games against the fearsome Seahawks and Lions on deck after Monday night’s affair, it’s imperative for the Commanders that Mariota delivers an A-plus performance, something he’ll have to accomplish against the NFL’s third-ranked scoring defense. If not, panic might start setting in in D.C.
2) Is Kansas City back?
It feels silly to ask if the Chiefs might be returning to their glory days. This is a team that has not missed an AFC Championship Game in seven tries with Patrick Mahomes as a starter, has gone to three straight Super Bowls and has captured half of the Lombardi Trophies awarded over the past six years. Somewhat remarkably, though, Kansas City has continued that run in recent years while seemingly treading water on offense, constantly getting bogged down and needing to eke out wins. After a familiar, ho-hum start to 2025, the Chiefs — now back to full strength on offense — have turned it on. Since Week 4, when Xavier Worthy returned from a shoulder injury, the offense has ranked third in the NFL in points per game (31.5) and first in points per drive (3.3), yards per game (411.8) and first downs per game (26.5), per NFL Research. Mahomes has returned to an MVP level during that stretch, as well, sporting a 71.3 completion percentage with 282.8 passing yards per game, a 117.2 passer rating and an 11-to-1 TD-to-INT ratio. Rashee Rice played only 39% of the offensive snaps last week in his first game action since Week 4 of 2024, and he still delivered seven catches for 42 yards and two touchdowns. The running game could certainly use some work to provide better balance, but it appears the Chiefs offense is again top tier. That’s a big problem for a leaky Commanders defense (and the rest of the NFL).
3) Commanders’ running game vs. Chiefs’ run defense
Washington has an avenue to making life easy on Marcus Mariota: Its rushing offense entered Week 8 tops in the NFL with 5.4 yards per carry. Some of that is, of course, predicated on Jayden Daniels’ proclivity to gash opponents using timely scrambles, but there’s still a system in place to take advantage of Kansas City’s 15th-ranked unit against the run. Jacory Croskey-Merritt must shake off his funk to make it happen, however. After besting all ball carriers with 6.6 yards per carry in Weeks 1-5, he’s since plummeted to 3.1 yards per carry the past two games. He’s been getting the feature back treatment of late, with 14.6 attempts per games the past three weeks, so the task of taking apart K.C.’s D will likely again fall to him, with Chris Rodriguez Jr. and Jeremy McNichols pitching in from time to time. If the Commanders are able to find ground versus the Chiefs, it will hopefully somewhat mitigate the pass rush led by George Karlaftis, the owner of 30 pressures in 2025, and Chris Jones, who has propelled the Chiefs to a 41.5 pressure percentage when on the field.
