LONDON — A crowd of 60,463 witnessed the first ever NFL game to be played in Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium, which took the total attendance through the 2 million mark for all 25 games played in London since the first one in 2007.
The total attendance now stands at 2,037,738. And the fans were treated to a great game that went to the wire with Chicago QB Chase Daniel intercepted and sacked on the Bears’ last two possessions that secured the win for Oakland.
For the second time in NFL London games, the first quarter ended scoreless. No points were scored in the first 15 minutes when the Saints beat the Dolphins 20-0 in Game 19 in 2017. But the crowd didn’t have to wait long for the first score in the second quarter when Josh Jones took a hand-off from Derek Carr to score on a 12-yard TD run on the first play of the quarter.
The Raiders scored 17 points in the second quarter to lead 17-0 at half-time leaving the Bears with a mountain to climb if they were to leave the capital with the win. Only two teams had won an NFL game in London after losing at half-time.
Detroit was down 21-0 to Atlanta in Game 10, but the Lions managed to keep the Falcons scoreless after the interval while scoring 22 points to secure a famous win. The other team to rescue a win from a losing position were the Vikings, who trailed Cleveland 13-12 in Game 21 last year before winning 33-16.
The common denominator in those two comeback wins? They are both NFC North teams. As are the Bears, whose defense finally turned up to play at the start of the second half.
They forced two punts and recovered two fumbles which swung the momentum Chicago’s way. And the offense responded in kind by scoring 21 unanswered points to start the fourth quarter leading 21-17.
Two of the three scores came on TD passes from Daniel to WR Allen Robinson who scored in his third successive London game. He caught TD passes for Jacksonville in 2015 and 2016 and now has four in total in London games.
When Cordarrelle Patterson downed a punt on Oakland’s three-yard line midway through the quarter, it left the Raiders with 97 yards to go to score a TD to go ahead in the game.
But Derek Carr drove his team a series high 97 yards down the field and thanks to a running into the kicker penalty and a fake punt, Oakland took control of the game and the clock.
Josh Jacobs finished the game with 123 rushing yards, which is the sixth-most in an NFL London game from 23 carries — and it was fitting that the rookie rounded off the scoring.
His two-yard run was also the 50th rushing TD in the history of the International Series. Jacobs also became seventh player to run for two TDS and the first since Jacksonville’s Denard Robinson in Game 11.
The Raiders’ running game took the pressure off Derek Carr who said afterwards, he doesn’t care about individual stats and securing points for Fantasy Football coaches.
This was Carr’s third game in London and he has thrown for just one TD and that was in his first visit in 2014 against the Dolphins.
The average points scored in an NFL London game before this 25th match-up was 45.3 and these two teams scored a total of 45 points as the Raiders improved their record to 3-2 while the Bears are also 3-2.
The three-point winning margin was the seventh game in which an NFL London game was decided by three points or less and that includes the 27-27 tie between Washington and Cincinnati in 2016.
The designated ‘home’ team is now 11-13-1 in London.
Next week, the Buccaneers are the designated ‘home’ team when they face the Panthers in an NFC South divisional match-up at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Key NFL London numbers:
2,037,738 – Total attendance for all 25 NFL London games
0 – Scoreless first quarter was the second in the Series history
123 – Josh Jacobs’ 123 rushing yards was the sixth most in a game
26 – 26 carries by Jacobs is third most in an NFL London game.
50 – Jacobs’ second TD run was the 50th rushing TD in NFL London games
2 – Jacobs’ is seventh player and first since Denard Robinson to run for two TDs
3 – Allen Robinson has caught TD passes on his last 3 visits to London
21 – Chicago set a record for points scored in the third quarter with 21
45 – The average points per game before this game was 45.3. The Bears and Raiders scored 45 points
32 – The longest plays of the game were 32-yard passes from Chase Daniel to Anthony Miller in the third quarter and to Allen Robinson in the fourth quarter
78.13 – Derek Carr is now first (78.13% Game 25) and third (74.19% Game 22) on passing accuracy in London games
97 – The previous longest TD drive was 95 yards by Philadelphia in Game 24, but the Raiders eclipsed that with a 97-yard TD drive to win the game
3 – This was the seventh game decided by three points or less including the 27-27 tie between Washington and Cincinnati in 2016
