5 things to know: Cincinnati's Monday Night Football game Week 3 against Los Angeles Rams

The Cincinnati Bengals' first scheduled primetime game of the 2023 NFL season comes in Week 3, with a Monday Night Football game Sept. 25 at Paycor Stadium against the Los Angeles Rams on ESPN at 8:15 p.m. Eastern.

It's a rematch of their Super Bowl 56 showdown won by the Rams. While the Bengals were a playoff team against last season, the Rams were not.

The Bengals' schedule was revealed Thursday night.

Five interesting facts related to the Bengals-Rams MNF meeting:

It's the first regular-season meeting between the Bengals and Rams since 2019.

The two teams met last preseason in a Super Bowl 56 rematch, and a joint practice between them turned ugly, with Aaron Donald swinging Bengals' helmets at Cincinnati players. The Rams went 5-12 during a disappointing regular season.

The last regular-season meeting between the teams was a 24-10 Rams win in London in Oct. 2019. Zac Taylor and Sean McVay were the head coaches, but Andy Dalton and Jared Goff were the starting quarterbacks.

The Rams are the first of four NFC West opponents on the Bengals' schedule.

The Bengals are scheduled to play every team in the Rams' division next season, over the course of six weeks of the season. Two weeks after the face L.A., they visit Arizona. The Bengals host Seattle a week later, and they travel to San Francisco after their bye week. So they face all four NFC West teams between Sept. 25 and Oct. 29.

The Niners and Seahawks were playoff teams last season. The Rams and Cardinals were not.

Seattle's game at Paycor Stadium comes after the Seahawks' bye week.

It's one of two scheduled MNF games for the Bengals. It's the only one for the Rams.

Cincinnati is scheduled to face the Jaguars in Jacksonville on Monday Night Football on Dec. 4. The Rams' only other scheduled primetime game of the season comes in Week 16 against the New Orleans Saints on Thursday Night Football.

It will be the first Monday Night Football game in Cincinnati since Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest in January.

Hamlin's Bills are scheduled to return to Cincinnati for a Sunday Night Football game Nov. 5 on NBC. Last month, Hamlin was fully cleared to resume football activities.

It'll be Sean McVay's first regular-season game in Cincinnati as a head coach.

Last week, McVay, a former Miami University receiver, was in nearby Oxford to be inducted into MU's Cradle of Coaches. He became the 10th coach immortalized with a bronze statue at Yager Stadium.

"We are friends, we're close," McVay told NFL Network Thursday night of Taylor, his assistant with the Rams in 2017 and 2018. "But we're coming in there to compete. And that's what's great about this game is you get an opportunity to be able to go against some of your closest friends, but everybody's trying to accomplish the same thing."

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