American football fans in the UK can look forward to four NFL games being held in London this autumn. The matches will see Oakland Raiders, Chicago Bears, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers, Los Angeles Rams, Cincinnati Bengals, Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans in action at Wembley Stadium and the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
It will mark the thirteenth time that the NFL has hosted matches in England. All of the season tickets for the matches sold out quickly after going on sale, although there are still a few tickets left for single games. The four matches will take place across five weekends in October and November.
The first match takes place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday 6 October. This will see Oakland Raiders taking on Chicago Bears. The Raiders are one of NFL’s most-famous franchises, but they have suffering from a fairly tumultuous preseason. Much of this has been focused on the bizarre antics of their new wide receiver Antonio Brown.
Brown is well known as being one of the NFL’s top wide receivers, and it was hoped that his signing to Oakland Raiders would change their fortunes. But with training sessions missed, frozen feet issues from cryotherapy, and antics like turning up in a hot air balloon, Brown was booted out of the Raiders team and will now be playing for New England Patriots.
The Raiders started their campaign well with 24-16 win at Denver Broncos. However, this was followed up by 10-28 defeat by Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. If the Raiders want to win this match, then they will have to work hard to break down the Chicago Bears defence that is one of the best in the NFL.
The Bears suffered a 3-10 defeat away to Green Bay Packers on the opening game of the season, but followed this up with a 16-14 win at home to Denver Broncos. The game between Raiders and the Bears in London is going to be close, but you can make sure that you get the best odds by checking out www.openodds.com for their NFL odds comparison.
The following weekend will see Tampa Bay Buccaneers taking on Carolina Panthers at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday 13 October. This will give English NFL fans a great chance to see the Panthers’ flamboyant quarterback Cam Newton in action against one of the league’s most underrated teams.
This NFC East match-up has already been played last week, and it saw the Buccaneers picking up a surprise 20-14 home victory against the Panthers. This followed on from another defeat for the Panthers, although they made the LA Rams work hard for their 27-30 victory.
Following this, Los Angeles Rams will play against Cincinnati Bengals at Wembley Stadium on Sunday 27 October. LA Rams will be keen to avenge last season’s Super Bowl defeat, and Sean McVay’s team have made a commanding start to their NFL campaign. This has seen the Rams beating tough teams like the Carolina Panthers, and they recently managed to get a great result by beating New Orleans Saints 27-9 away from home.
While few people would predict the Cincinnati Bengals making the playoffs from the very tough AFC North, they could give the Rams a few problems. The first game of the Bengals campaign saw them narrowly beaten by Seattle Seahawks 21-20, before they came unstuck by losing 41-17 to San Francisco 49ers.
The final NFL game will feature Jacksonville Jaguars taking on Houston Texans at Wembley Stadium on Sunday 3 November. This AFC South clash will see the Jaguars having to work hard to get anything from this game. The Jaguars have lost their opening two matches against the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans.
The Texans could be set for a big year. Bill O’Brien’s team came close to beating New Orleans Saints on the opening match of the season, and they managed to narrowly win against the Jaguars 13-12 away from home last week.
It will be interesting to see how the Texans’ quarterback Deshaun Watson shapes up in this match, as the 24-year old is one of the rising stars of the NFL scene. But with the lack of home advantage, it could be a close game as the Jaguars are the dark horses of the AFC South. All of which means that there could be a fascinating month’s American football in the UK this autumn.