Wembley Games
Noah Stewart – Star Spangled Banner
Oct 20th
American tenor Noah Stewart will be performing the Star Spangled Banner this Sunday at the NFL International Series game. He’s not a name that I’m familiar with, and of course I’m well versed in the world of Opera…
The US anthem always sounds great. It’s one of those songs that hits you deep and you find yourself applauding it, despite the fact it’s largely about the terrible English. I can’t find a clip of him performing it, but am sure it’ll be great again.
With Katherine Jenkins performing the British National Anthem, it’s going to be a belter of a pre-game.
NFL 2011 International Series Information
Oct 19th
You can’t beat nfluk.com for al the official information, and even some unoffical stuff that can be found out in the forums, but here’s a list of our findings and experience from previous years.
Drink Prices
This is the prices from last year’s game, I would have expected them to have gone up slightly since then. You can take drinks back to your seats, even alcoholic ones. The rule that stops this normally is a FIFA madate and not a stadium rule or local law.
Please enjoy your drinks responsibly. 
Travel
Craig produced this guide last year and as far as I can tell it’s all still pretty accurate. The Chiltern line is running fine this time though, and I know I’ll be taking advantage of that to travel down from Banbury directly to the stadium. Our party comes from all over (Kent, Northamptonshire, Middlesex, Hampshire and Buckinghamshire) so we know a fair bit about travelling to Wembley. More >
NFL IS 2011 – Katherine Jenkins – God Save The Queen
Oct 18th
In a remarkably thankful show of restraint, the British National Anthem will be sung this year by Katherine Jenkins. She sung it in 2009 when the Bucs played… no, that’s not right, when the Bucs lost against the Patriots.
After a completely disaster in 2010, it’s great – if somewhat conservative – that a more traditional performer is being used this year. Here’s her previous showing: Katherine Jenkins – National Anthem
Bucs Are In Town
Oct 18th
The Buccanneers landed last night and headed off on the short journey to their hotel in Bagshot, Surrey.
Buc Power (that’s a website and not an AWESOMELY named person, as far as I’m aware…) was there and got some great pictures, such as the above. Check out their site.
http://www.bucpower.com/wembley11-airport.html
Image credit: bucpower.com, used with full credit and thanks.
NFL International Series: 0 games to go!
Oct 18th
With the teams done (for now) Stateside and the teams are in the UK, heading out on PR trips and settling into their comfortable Spa Hotels in Surrey and the like, we can take a look at the current standings.
Both teams put in good strong performances in week 6 to get important divisional wins. The Bucs are top of the NFC South thanks to victories over the Saints and Falcons. The Bears are 3 games off the lead and 2 off second in the North. With both teams in strong divisions, it means that every game really does count and the Bears and Bucs could be looking at tie-break criteria come end of the season. There’s a lot to play for at Wembley.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Record: 4-2, 1st NFC South
Scored: 113
Allowed: 145
Previous Games
Lost v Detroit Lions 20-27
Won @ Minnesota Vikings 24-20
Won v Atlanta Falcons 16-13
Won v Indianapolis Colts 24-17
Lost @ San Francisco 48-3
Won v New Orleans Saints 26-20
Chicago Bears
Record: 3-3, 3rd NFC North
Scored: 146
Allowed: 132
Previous Games
Won v Atlanta Falcons 30-12
Lost @ New Orleans Saints 13-30
Lost v Green Bay Packers 17-27
Won v Carolina Panthers 34-29
Lost @ Detroit Lions 24-13
Won v Minnesota Vikings 39-10
Record against common opponents: Lions, Falcons, Saints, Vikings
(Team, Record, PF, PA)
Bucs 3-1-0, 86, 80
Bears 2-2-0, 95, 76
Prediction
This is the hardest game to predict of all those that we’ve seen so far, and the odds are tight. The Bucs are winning and other than one blow-out, all their games have been decided by a single score. The Bears are less consistent, with only one of their games being by less than 7 points.
For the neutrals, that is great news. As the nominal home team, I’ll be cheering for the Bucs but my head says that the Bears will have too much experience and will play a smarter game to take a narrow win.
Andrew says: 27 – 21 Bears
Graham says: 21 – 17 Buccaneers
Craig says: 14 – 10 Bucs
Official Mac Prediction: Narrow Bucs win, but at this point let’s just enjoy the game!
Goo Goo G’joob
Oct 13th
The NFL have announced that the Goo Goo Dolls will be playing before next weekend’s International Series game. I want to spend some time talking about their records, greatest hits and make some guesses about what songs they will play but in all honesty I’ve got no idea. The name is pretty funny though, isn’t it?
In terms of how well I know them, I have heard of them, which places them above Calvin Harris, but never knowingly heard anything by them, which places them with The Feeling and below My Chemical Romance.
But let’s face it, there are two important reasons not to care:
- the Wembley sound system will make them sound terrible
- more than half the crowd will hate whoever is chosen
So a big “meh” from me. They can play and add the bit of colour and extravaganza to the day but I’ve managed to control my excitement.
NFL International Series 2011: 1 Game To Go!
Oct 11th
With just one game to go before the NFL IS teams pack up and head East to London, let’s take a look at how they’re doing by the numbers.
Chicago Bears
Record: 2-3, 3rd NFC North
Scored: 107
Allowed: 122
Previous Games
Won v Atlanta Falcons 30-12
Lost @ New Orleans Saints 13-30
Lost v Green Bay Packers 17-27
Won v Carolina Panthers 34-29
Lost @ Detroit Lions 24-13
Upcoming Games
v Minnesota Vikings
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Record: 3-2, 2nd NFC South
Scored: 87
Allowed: 125
Previous Games
Lost v Detroit Lions 20-27
Won @ Minnesota Vikings 24-20
Won v Atlanta Falcons 16-13
Won v Indianapolis Colts 24-17
Lost @ San Francisco 48-3
Upcoming Games
v New Orleans Saints
The Bucs gave up loads to the 49ers in a game that they looked just terrible in. The Bears, for the most part, kept it close against the Lions.
Record v common opponents
There are now two common opponents, the Falcons (who both teams beat) and the Lions (who they both lost to). After week 6, there will be 4 games against shared opponents and we await with interest this week’s games.
(Team, Record, PF, PA)
Bears 1-1-0, 43, 36
Bucs 1-1-0, 36, 40
So far neither team has beaten a team with a winning record.
This week the Bears take on the Vikings, a team who have just recorded their first win but who remain dangerous at times. After watching Kevin Smith rack the yards up against the Bears, I’m sure Adrian Peterson is rubbing his hands in anticipation.
The Bucs go up against the Saints who are always dangerous and who are looking like a good bet for the NFC South.
The London game looks like it should be a close one (though for the wrong reasons!) but it’s a game we’re still looking forward to. At this stage I say: Bears to win by 4-7 points.
NFL International Series 2011: 2 Games To Go!
Oct 5th
With just two games to go before this year’s NFL International Series, let’s take a purely statistical look at the two teams who’ll be playing at Wembley Stadium later this month.
Chicago Bears
Record: 2-2, 3rd NFC North
Scored: 94
Allowed: 98
Previous Games
Won v Atlanta Falcons 30-12
Lost @ New Orleans Saints 13-30
Lost v Green Bay Packers 17-27
Won v Carolina Panthers 34-29
Upcoming Games
@ Detroit Lions
v Minnesota Vikings
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Record: 3-1, 1st NFC South
Scored: 84
Allowed: 77
Previous Games
Lost v Detroit Lions 20-27
Won @ Minnesota Vikings 24-20
Won v Atlanta Falcons 16-13
Won v Indianapolis Colts 24-17
Upcoming Games
@ San Francisco 49ers
v New Orleans Saints
The Bears have both scored and allowed more, but have had a tougher schedule so far. The Bucs have been in closer, lower-scoring games: All 4 games being decided by 7 points or less.
Record v common opponents
At the moment, there is just 1 common opponent (the Atlanta Falcons) who both teams beat.
(Team, Record, PF, PA)
Bears 1-0-0, 30, 12
Bucs 1-0-0, 16, 13
After week 5 there will be 2 games as the Bears take on the Lions in what should be a tough divisional matchup. After week 6, as the teams are preparing to travel to the UK, there will be 4 games (Vikings and Saints) giving us by far the clearest indicator of all the NFL IS games so far or what to expect.
But with a quarter of the season gone, one thing that we can say for sure is that neither team has recorded a win against a team with a winning record. In fact, all three losses are against winning teams which isn’t a great sign for the quality of these teams but the season is still young.
Prediction
As I mentioned above, the picture will get clearer as we get closer to the big kick off in West London. So far this season I’ve given the edge to the Bears but we cannot ignore the Buccaneers who have been competetive against all their opposition so far.
But right now, I’m still favouring the Bears by a narrow (3-7 point) margin.
Freeman, Williams and McCoy feature on IS Tickets
Sep 24th
I arrived home just at the postman was leaving, but he was good enough to get back out of his van and make me sign for something… NFL International Series Tickets!
Josh Freeman, Mike Williams and Gerald McCoy are the main players on the tickets, who seem like a good choice.
NFL International Series 2011 Ticket
Needless to say, we’re all more excited than we were earlier today!
Wembley Watch 2011 – 4 Weeks To Go
Sep 22nd
Well, four weeks and a few days. (If anyone else has been checking, www.nfluk.com’s countdown is now accurate). Week 2 is done and both teams were in tough games, one team came through and the other did not.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
In Minnesota against a Vikings team that had looked very poor in week 1, the Bucs again gave up the first half to their opposition before springing into life. Slow starts can kill a team and although they were good enough to come back and take the game with only 30 seconds to play a better team would have finished the game before that was possible.
But when they play, the Bucs are looking good especially on offense. Watching LeGarrette Blount going against the Bears run-stuffers is one of the key things I’m looking forward to.