NFL in London

National Football League in London

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News of Nov

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Week 9 in the NFL felt like a year, with all of the news, injuries and bat crap craziness.

Let’s take a look at some of the storylines swirling around the league as we head into week 10, with our News of Nov.

Make sure you join us every Sunday at either the Sports Bar & Grill Old Street or Clapham, where we will be showing all of the games plus Redzone.

Josh Allen

Josh Allen was the star of Week 9, after not only sacking Bills QB Josh Allen, but also intercepting him and scooping up an Allen fumble.

The Bills too a major beatdown from Urban Meyer and the Jags on Sunday, in what seemed to be an equal shock to both teams.

The normally pedestrian Jacksonville defence looked to be the top of their game, as they held Buffalo to a frustrating Sunday of football.

Urban Meyer keeps his job safe for another week, despite a potential injury to Trevor Lawrence, while the Buffalo Bills need to have a talk amongst themselves to figure out what went wrong.

It was a good day for Josh Allen regardless.

Raided

What a bad week for the Las Vegas Raiders.
Not only did Henry Ruggs III make a truly boneheaded move that resulted in death, but rookie Damon Arnette was also cut from the team for bad behaviour.

Arnette reportedly threatened to kill numerous people, as well as harm.

Whatever is going on in Las Vegas, it needs to change as the bad boy reputation of the team continues to drag them down.

Baker BJ

OBJ and his dad got their way, as Odell rode off to free agency after a disintegration of their relationship.

Baker Mayfield and the Browns responded in week 9 by absolutely trashing the Bengals in an ugly affair.

Cleveland has a great O line and a solid D, it’s the uo and down play of Baker Mayfield that makes this team hard to trust in the long run, especially the way that the Titans are playing.

Bear Mauled

In a true game travesty on MNF, the Chicago Bears were royally screwed by bad, bad refs.

In fact the refs were so bad, many Bears fans are tossing out claims of corruption and fix, after some truly biased calls by the refs.

A taunting call that had no taunting, and a ref leaning in to make contact with a Bears player, only so that he could throw a flag on the player for running into him.

Bears fans are livid, and the refs better watch their backs.

Rodger Me

Aaron Rodgers continues to have the spotlight shine on him, after it was revealed that he is not vaxxed and thinks he is smarter than everyone else.

Rodgers recent antics in the past few weeks must be a relief to the Packers, who will be losing the all star QB next season.  Why court that kind of drama when it’s going to overshadow the team every week?

Packers fans were hopeful that the new heir apparent Jordan Love would step up last week to offer some sort of heroics, only to look like a giant turd against a very weak Chiefs squad.

Green Bay fans can look to Boston to see what their future holds.

Just another average team, with an average QB.

Dem Boyz

Michael Irvin has been choking on his own spittle for the past few days, as his Dallas Cowboys laid a giant turd against a mediocre Denver Broncos on Sunday.

Teddy looked far superior to Dak, and the running game of the Broncos could not be stopped as they stole a W from the Cowboys.

Fans in Texas will wonder if this was just a blip, or if the Cowboys just aren’t that good.

Sports Bar Week 10

Make sure you join us for Sunday Funday at the Sports Bar and Grill Clapham and Old Street, as we host the biggest NFL parties in London.

Book a table so that you can watch the games on your own TV!

 

Nov News-1

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November is here in the NFL, which means injuries, struggles and of course the big Thanksgiving games at the end of the month.

If you’re an NFL fan in the UK, November brings not only the end of the London games, but also the start of fireworks season.
Anyone with a dog knows what ghoulish hell Fireworks Night can be as a dog owner.

Of course the NFL keeps chugging along with incredible story lines, which we will touch on here in our Nov News 1.

Rugg Pulling

Henry Ruggs has had his NFL career and life of freedom curtailed this week, after killing someone while drunk driving.

Ruggs had left a Las Vegas TopGolf in the wee hours of the morning to hop in his flashy Corvette while intoxicated only to crash into another vehicle, killing one of the occupants.

This is just sad all around not only for the families who lost, but also for the promising career of a young man.

The Las Vegas Raiders were quick to release Ruggs, who will most likely never play in the NFL ever again now that he is facing two felony charges for the accident.

It doesn’t get any easier for this Vegas team.

https://www.espn.co.uk/nfl/story/_/id/32538903/las-vegas-raiders-release-wr-henry-ruggs-iii-fatal-crash

Miller Time

The LA Rams just got a whole heck of a lot better after signing veteran Von Miller to their D.

Miller is a short-sighted beast on D, whose ageing presence will add much to the LA dynamic and pass rush ability.

Rumour has it that Miller wanted out of the Broncos because may of his team members had refused to contribute towards an annual Halloween party.

Miller has allegedly decided to host the party to help motivate the team after a series of losses, then became angry once his teammates refused to contribute financially.

What a petty way to lose an integral part of the team!

At least Von Miller will be able to party his way into the playoffs, something the Broncos won’t see for years.

Jets Down

Mike White the hero of the Jets?

It seems that way after the nobody White was able to lead his J-E-T-S to a crazy upset victory over the Bengals on Sunday.

Zach Wilson is failing to impress, as the Jets continue to suck on the tailpipe of the NFL for another season.

How about this bettor who thought Mike White would lead the league in Week 8?

Nice bet!

OBJ Sr

Odell Beckham Jr’s daddy is mad at Baker, and drama ensues.

Baker and the Browns have been more like Turd Ferguson’s this year than anything else, as Mayfield struggles every week to check the ball down field.

Beckham Sr finally had enough this week, throwing blades that Baker was ruining his sons career.

Beckham’s career has been ‘ok’, although you still get the feeling he is living off of that one amazing catch a decade ago.

OBJ probably has another good couple years to go, just not with the Browns.

Aaron Wick

Ego puffing Aaron Rodgers continues to let everyone know it’s ‘his year’, and to ‘look at me’, despite not having held a trophy in over a decade.

Rodgers revealed this week that the reason he had been growing his hair long for the past 7 months, was for his Halloween costume!

The guy can’t commit to his team or a fiancee, but he he has the dedication to prepare his fancy dress outfit way ahead of other priorities.

Class act all the way! 

DeSean Nothing

Veteran wide receiver DeSean Jackson had enough with the winning ways of the LA Rams, and wanted out.

With all the passes going the way of Kupp and Woods, Jackson decided he would test his market strength by demanding a trade away from the Super Bowl contender Rams.

It didn’t work out so well for DeSean, as no team has come to his rescue, and it looks like he will sit out the rest of the season.

If you’re going to call someone’s bluff, make sure you have a good hand.

Week 9 London

Join us this week for some of the great games at our partner venues across the city.

Sports Bar and Grill Old Street is open until 12:30am, while the Sports Bar and Grill Clapham is open until 11pm.

See you Sunday!

 

Picks Six-Divisionals

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Hello there and welcome to another edition of The Picks Six, back again for (super) Divisional Weekend. Sadly, only four games this weekend and, horrifyingly, only 3 more after sunday night. That said, it does mean we’re coming to the business end of the season, and the remaining 8 teams all know they’re just 3 wins away from the ultimate goal of lifting the Lombardi trophy in SuperBowl LV. This weekend’s matchups are absolutely mouthwatering, with one-on-one spectacles like Jalen Ramsey vs Davante Adams, ultimate draft comparison with Lamar and Josh Allen, two of the greatest QBs ever going up against each other… oh and Tom Brady vs Drew Brees. You will all respect Baker vs Mahomes. You will. Let’s talk briefly about each game, and my pick for each of them.

Rams @ Packers 

The headline grabbing matchup between star cornerback and star receiver aside, this still feels like the ultimate game of offense vs defense. Despite the Packers’ alleged struggles against the run, they haven’t allowed a 100 yard rusher in almost two months at this point, and have tightened things up significantly on the back end, whilst their fearless leader continues to shred opposing defences en route to his MVP award. Rodgers has truly been peerless, and enjoyed his bye week whilst Aaron Donald was slightly injuring his ribs against Russell Wilson. You can probably guess where I’m leaning with this one: I just can’t see the Rams being able to score enough to beat this Packers team. If they get another defensive score – like the Pick 6 last week – they’d have a shot, but Rodgers has Adams, Tonyan, Jones, and the deep-threat of Valdez-Scantling and for me those weapons are too many to defend. Cam Akers has given the Rams some nice late season production in the latter stages of the season, and Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp are a great pair of receivers, but is Jared Goff 100%? Surely he can’t be. If Blake Bortles had been there more this season, he might be given a shot, but it feels unlikely they’ll throw him in unless Goff’s thumb is really struggling. 

Therefore, I ask the question: can you beat Aaron Rodgers without a QB? Maybe. I saw this week that Aaron Rodgers is 0-2 in the playoffs against the number one ranked pass defense… which this season is the LA Rams. Jalen Ramsey’s stats are insane, but will need every bit of his smarts to stay with Davante Adams. I think the Packers will find special ways to get Adams the ball – he’s too good to not be involved, despite Ramsey’s attention. I don’t think this will be a back and forth shootout and if I wasn’t morally opposed to betting the under, I would suggest doing that. However, as it stands, with the line at -6.5, I like Green Bay to win and move on to the NFC Title game.

Ravens @ Titans 

Ooooooh this game. Saturday night football is electric. Lamar finally got the playoff monkey off his back with the revenge victory against Tennessee, and the Ravens will ride into Buffalo high on confidence and with a mean streak in tow. However, this isn’t the same old Bills team. This is Josh Allen’s Bills team. His partnership with Stefon Diggs is truly Box Office, and that Bills D is showing up late in the season like it should. Buffalo’s run game took a bit of a hit with the injury to Zack Moss, but really Buffalo’s most dangerous runner is… their main passer. Allen is so dangerous in the RedZone, and can create hell for defensive coordinators. That said, the Bills have struggled against the run, and the Ravens seem to want to run over everyone that’s put in front of them, and have done so successfully for about 6 weeks now. I love the one-two punch of JK Dobbins and Jackson in the backfield with their speed and shiftiness, and the threat of Mark Andrews and Hollywood Brown down the field. Baltimore are flying right now, but Sean McDermott has something special cooking in Buffalo.

I do feel that Buffalo wins this game, and I like a lot of points to be scored here. Bills Mafia will show up and be loud and I think will help propel Josh Allen to his second playoff win in two weeks. I think this will be a great game, with these two young star QBs showing why they are two of the new faces of the league. MVP Lamar will have his moments here, but I think the quality of Diggs down the field, with the underneath ability of Cole Beasley and (potential breakout star) Gabriel Davis, will give the Bills what they need to win this shootout.

Browns @ Chiefs 

The Baker vs Mahomes story has been told a thousand times, but that doesn’t make it any less enchanting. Mahomes visited Texas Tech and stayed with Baker, before becoming the Tech QB when Mayfield had transferred to Oklahoma. Then came the absolutely INSANE 66-59 game in October 2016. The game still holds almost every NCAA record for offensive statistics. The number one pick for Cleveland, vs the man Andy Reid and the Chiefs were so enamoured with they traded up to take him, and eventually pushed Alex Smith aside to complete his ascension. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs have been an absolute powerhouse for multiple years now, and are the reigning SuperBowl champions for a reason. And, guess what? They’re better than they were last year. However, it’s been two decades since the Cleveland Browns were even approaching being as good as they are right now. Will there be a more confident team this weekend than the Browns? They just beat up their big brother and broke the curse at Heinz Field that’s lasted over 17 years. Not to mention, this is their first playoff appearance in about that long. On the face of it, this is David vs Goliath, and Vegas seems to agree – with the Browns 10 point underdogs. I see two options in this game. Either the Browns control the clock with the two-headed monster in the run game, and keep it close, or the Chiefs offense does what it does and scores 45 points against an under matched Cleveland secondary. Kansas City is so explosive, you can’t rule it out. 

That said, with the momentum from last week, I believe in Baker and the Browns. Do I believe they’ll win the game? … not entirely. But I absolutely believe the game will be close. Baker is playing REALLY well and will continue to put his team in a position to have a chance in this game. Kevin Stefanski’s return to the sidelines will only help the Browns case. The points line is 57!!! Insanely high, so I’ll leave that, but this could well end up being a shootout. That said, Browns +10.0 looks good to me. Furthermore, don’t be surprised if there IS an upset in KC… you’ve been warned.

Buccaneers @ Saints 

Brees vs Brady is a lovely way to end the weekend. Undoubtedly, Brady has been the more successful Quarterback, and yet Brees seems to be the one holding all the individual NFL league records. I saw a stat that says Tom Brady has the same number of playoff wins against the NFC as Drew Brees does… and Brady previous to this year only got to play the NFC in the SuperBowl… Yikes for Drew. Brees’ regular season success has been matched by the levels of playoff heartbreak he and New Orleans have had to endure the past decade. The Minneapolis miracle, the non-call of the PI against the Rams… I feel for the Saints. I really do. And just when they feel like they’ve got everything to make the Super Bowl again… Tom Brady joins the division. Ouch. Credit to the Saints, they’ve beaten these Buccaneers twice this year already, but the old saying goes “it’s hard to beat a team 3 times…” So maybe the Buccaneers can get their revenge? The Bucs are in a much different place now to when the Saints handled them easily around ⅔ of the season mark. Bruce Arians seems to have figured out how to make the most out of the pieces he’s got. I mean, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Antonio Brown, Scotty Miller, PLUS Gronk and Brate the Tight Ends… The Buccaneers have many different ways they can beat you, especially if they get the “old” Leonard Fournette like they appeared to last week against Washington.

This game is such a toss up for me right now. I’ve been a proponent of the Saints, and a disregard-er of the Bucs for most of this year, but I might have to jump (to the pirate) ship right now. Brady looks good, and the sheer number of weapons the Bucs have is terrifying. The way the Saints win this game is lean on Alvin Kamara, take the ball out of Drew Brees’ hands, and hope their D-Line can wreck the Tampa Bay game plan. That said, I think this is high-scoring and the Buccaneers keep it close. This will be a great Sunday night cap. I would only be surprised if this game was a blowout one way or the other. And whoever wins… gets Aaron Rodgers next week. Oooooooh tasty.

The Parlay

Combining the picks from above, £10 on the following four leg parlay pays about £450 depending on your bookmaker.

Green Bay -6.5

Over 49.0 points & Buffalo -2.5 

Cleveland +10.0

Over 52.0 points & Tampa Bay +3.0

Enjoy the games everybody! As always I’m @CallumJDSquires on Twitter & Instagram. Come say hey. Let’s get these Championships won next weekend and look forward to the Super Bowl. Stay safe and stay sane. 

Callum Squires is a diehard Dolphins fan, writer, and friend of NFL in London. 

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https://www.facebook.com/groups/NFLinLondon

 

Divisional Preview

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The wet and wacky NFL Wildcard weekend is now behind us, as we head into the final stretch with our Divisional Preview podcast.
Very few people correctly predicted the winners last weekend thanks to the plucky play of the Rams, and the vroom vroom of the Browns ‘Corvette.’
Wade & Ryan both chose the Steelers to topple the Browns (as did many) thus screwing their perfect playoff pools.

In this podcast the guys reflect on the all of the scores from the Wild-Wildcard Weekend that was for the first week of January 2021 in the NFL. The go through all of the scores, as well as lament some of the bonehead plays that got us there.
Wade spends a bit of time bitching about his Bears, and how close they kept it, although never within the reach of noodle-arm Trubisky.

Among some of the other news the boys discuss in this podcast includes:

Deshaun Watson

DW wants out of Houston, and who can blame him. Despite being the leader of the franchise, at times the organisation treats him like a ginger step-kid who abused the family dog. There is an utter lack of respect for a club that was going to do everything in their power to support him. Now that Deshaun wants to leave the Texans, loads of other teams are lining up to sign up to his services. Is it too late for the Texans to keep him happy, or will he be on his way?

Nagy & Pace

The Bears have brought back their GM and HC for another bash at the NFC North. It was felt that although the Bears did slip into 6 straight losses, the way that these guys recovered was enough to show that they have the skills to manage the team in the future. Tell that to thousands of angry residents of Chicago.

Dead Doug

Doug Pederson is dead. Not literally, just to Philly fans. Turns out his little exercise at trying out his backups during the last game of the season might not have been so wise after all. Doug is out, and you wonder who the heck wants the Philly coaching job? You have to eat Carson’s bloated contract and live up to the hype of a Super Bowl win within a decades reach.

Divisional Games

LA Rams vs Packers
Packers -7  +45.5

It’s Aaron vs Aaron as the boys can talk about how much they were teased as children with an ambiguous name. Kidding aside, this will be a good ole snow fight, as the Packers look to feast on LA after a relaxing bye week off.
How did LA get here? No…really. The Rams beat a hyped up Seahawks team with no QB. Sure, Goff was there, but he wasn’t that effective, although he was more so than Russell Wilson. LA was able to use their superior defence and big brain of Sean McVay to keep them in the game. Doing this against the Packers is another matter.
There are a few teams that have the players to be able to knock the Packers out of the playoffs. Watching the Bucs lay a beating on GB earlier this season showed exactly what needs to be done to keep Rodgers on the sideline. Keeping pressure on him, and shutting down Adams will be key.
Wade & Ryan both like this as an exciting start to the weekend, but sadly this one is going to be pretty predictable. With no real QB, the Rams will continue to struggle on first downs. If the Rams start to really fall behind, Goff will be chucking balls into heavy coverage that leads to picks.
Ryan- Packers 30 Rams 24
Wade- Packers 26 Rams 18

If you want the rest of our scores and predictions, have a laugh and a listen to the podcast. We want to thank all of you for listening, and keeping the podcast a moving up the charts.
Good luck to everyone this weekend, and we look forward when we can all get together soon.

FanDraft your Draft

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Holy crap! The NFL is finally here in an eerie new way. Sure there’s a global pandemic wrecking havoc on our way of life, but football is back, so screw you Covid.

As the pumpkin spice springs back to life on the shelves, so do the Fantasy Football magazines, beckoning us to buy them to flip through those crispy pages on extended toilet breaks. Maybe magazines are old school, but there’s nothing like the nostalgia of dipping through the stats as you’re dropping the kids off at the pool.

Having run numerous drafts, the worst thing is the paperwork. And the alcohol. If you’re going to be a commish, make sure you don’t get too wasted or you’ll have a bugger of a next day trying to remember who had who and in what order.

Good thing there’s FanDraft, a wicked piece of NFL Drafting software that makes your draft simple and fun. With the pandemic blowing out the fun of a Draft Day outing, you can use FanDraft to virtually pump up your party, teaming it with streaming software for a fun few hours of bonding.

Here are some of the key features that makes FanDraft so wicked easy cool.

Draft Boards

Remember the days of the big old draft boards on cardboard that had sticky names on them? There was always one guy who had to build them, order the name tags, or worse-having to write them out manually. With FanDraft the board is a big screen of all the names, ordered in whichever way you like. The commish can switch between the DraftBoard, as well as top players by category and a précis of whatever guys you have drafted thus far. If you make a mistake or a glitch, the commish can simply fix it and the draft is paused until it’s ready to go. The players are also ordered by colour for position, so you can easily see what positions you still have to fill on your roster.

Draft Reports

In the olde days, the draft was written in a notebook, and some schmuck had to enter all the data into a document that would then be shared to the group. Some of you still do that? Damn! With FanDraft as soon as your draft is done you can export the results into an series of documents for the league and each player. This data is just a  copy & paste into whichever app you’re using. The process for a whole league can take less than 5 minutes and you’re ready to go.

Remote Drafting

Like any remote engagement, it all depends on the connection of the devices to really get one going. FanDraft has used an online method previously with increasing success each year. With the new platform for drafting, this is a fun way for everyone to play along in real time. Again your connection speed is going to be the key wherever you are, so run a few dry runs to see how it goes. Careful, some guys get pissed when they see what ‘could have been.’

Music & Pictures

It’s nice to have some tunes when you’re drafting, and FanDraft allows each player to choose 3 songs for their walk-ons. It’s a fun little addition, especially if you like to burn one of your fellow players. There has to be a loser every year, and why not rub it in with some cheesy songs to remind them of their loss? You can also add images, which are pretty handy when you want to see who’s on the clock.

Clock Management

There’s always one person who takes so bloody long, even in the early rounds. Make them pay by changing the selection clock to a shorter length. If you can get the draft down to 60 seconds per choice, you can get a good round down to under an hour. Some people might like the pause of a long and chatty draft, & other people have shit to do.

Conclusion

FanDraft is totally worth it. If you want to run an easy and efficient draft, this program will help you help you in so many ways. We love it so much, we want to give you 15% off the pro version with our promo code ‘FANDRAFTUK‘.
Just go here, sign up and start drafting. You can do as many drafts as you like, so have some fun.

https://fandraft.com/

Here’s a video that will help you run through how it works.