NFL Divisional Finals Preview and Predictions: By Kyle Balfour

By Stuart Tomlin

Something different for this weekend, as this weekend marks my return to London for an NFL game. So, one from the Go For it On Fourth Archives (yes, we have archives!), a look back at my trip down to Wembley last season to see my own Colts play the Jaguars.

This article was originally written by me and posted on the old Go For It On Fourth blog on the 6th of October 2016.

Well, that was a bit of a weekend.

This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to be able to travel down to the first game of the 2016 NFL International Series, once again held at Wembley Stadium in London. It’s an annual trip for me these days, as I like to attend one of the three games usually held over here. Due to monetary reasons, it’s always the case of picking and choosing which game to go to each year.

This year’s choice of game was a no-brainer for me and had a lot of personal interest, as my own Indianapolis Colts were chosen as one of the teams to travel over to London, to face AFC South divisional rival the Jacksonville Jaguars, “London’s team”, as the Jags have hosted a London game for the last few years (and will continue to do so until at least 2020.) As intriguing as the LA Rams against the New York Giants (at Twickenham, no less, for the first time), or the Cincinnati Bengals against the Washington Redskins, the other Wembley game, seemed, it had to be my own team.

After hearing about the game while in my university cafeteria back in November of last year, and then booking my tickets on the day they were released (pretty much the minute they were released), I put the thought of the game to the back of my mind. It’s been a bit of a rough year, personally, so I didn’t really think about the game too much, but when I did, I was very excited about getting back to Wembley, and particularly excited about seeing the Colts live for the second time.

Now, I’d planned to write an article about this trip to say why you should go down to the Wembley games, or the International Series, and I stand by that. They’re great occasions, they really grow the game over here in the UK and it’s always a lot of fun getting together with NFL fans of all 32 teams, before, during and after the game, and once again that was the case. I just didn’t think the trip would be as eventful as it was.

After a 3.30am wake up call on the Saturday morning, myself and my two friends, Dave (a Panthers fan) and Mike (a Patriots fan), headed down to Edinburgh to catch our flight to London.

We probably needn’t have woken up so early.

Ryanair, the delightfully useful airline that they are, managed to delay our flight by eight hours. Seeing “Expected departure time: 2.10pm” was a bit of a kick in the lower region, and one I couldn’t believe was accurate at first. From a 7am flight, to what turned out to be a 3.45pm flight in the end, in order to get down to London in 55 minutes. We could’ve driven down in that time, and been there earlier, but hindsight is a beautiful thing. Ryanair didn’t even announce anything till about 2.45pm, and that was only to tell us that the flight had a further delay of an hour. They blamed everything from technical issues to a staff shortage. Regardless of that, an eight hour wait in Edinburgh airport went by quicker than I expected it to, but having to miss the Regent Street activities (and the chance to meet Vontae Davis later on as well), was a bit gutting. On the plus side, we did get to use the massage chairs in the airport, which were surprisingly very comfortable! We got an eventual refund for the flight as well. More on that later.

Eventually arriving in London about 5pm, we took a bus from Stansted Airport to Waterloo, and headed straight for the Admirality in Trafalgar Square, where I had heard that a Colts event was happening from 5-9pm. And I wasn’t disappointed. Going towards the bar and seeing hundreds of people all decked out in Colts blue was a genuinely wonderful thing. We met with my friends Jodi and Melissa from Indianapolis, who I had spoken to for a long time via Twitter, and met for the first time in person during my previous trip to see the Colts play in 2014, as well as my friend Sid from Twitter and his brother Matthew. I’ve probably not been as happy as I was in that pub for a long, long time, seeing everybody out here supporting the Colts, from not only the UK, but Indianapolis and even Germany. As a Pats fan, Mike got some stick from Colts fans, but it was all in good nature. There were a couple of fans wearing other teams’ jerseys, but they were treated very well. We went on to another pub and I genuinely haven’t laughed that much in my life. Just an absolutely wonderful evening, what we needed after what was a stressful day. Heard some stories from a group of English lads and lassies at the table next to us as well, which will not be repeated on here due to the *relatively* PG nature of this blog! We wandered home via Wembley and saw the banners up on the side of the stadium for the first time this year, and while I’d enjoyed seeing those banners before, it was something else to see Andrew Luck and the Colts displayed all over Wembley Way.

Sunday was Gameday. The day I’d been waiting for all year, the day I’d see the Colts for the second time in my life, and the day I’d been waiting for since the NFL International Series began and I really got into the sport and started going to Wembley. We were staying in the Green Man Pub Hotel, which of course is the meeting point for a lot of NFL fans, so we passed by the usual travelling to Wembley by London Underground on the day, which made life a lot easier for us. After an early game of “Jersey Bingo” (in which you have to try and spot a jersey of all 32 teams over the course of the day), we headed down to Frankie and Benny’s for breakfast/lunch.

We met up with my mate Ged from Liverpool, another Colts fan. Arranging a meet-up point was tricky, as meeting by “the Budweiser tent” proved harder than it looked, seeing as there were about a million of them* dotted around outside of Wembley. After breakfast, we went on a wee wander round the outside of the stadium. We ended up in the fan park, where a Jaguars fan was throwing a football about, that ended up at my feet. I returned the ball to him…and let’s just say, if Andrew Luck ever goes down injured again, I won’t be taking his place. After that, we said our goodbyes to Ged, as he wouldn’t be able to join us after the game, and headed into the stadium.

(*This might be hyperbole, but there were a lot and they ALL had massive queues.)

I’ve been to Wembley before to watch the NFL, and I’ve been to Wembley to watch a team I support (Everton). But there was no feeling like this. I was literally shaking going into the stadium and up the steps into that famous stadium. Seeing the Jaguars logos around was fair enough, I’d seen that before – but seeing the Colts logo on the big screen really drove the point home for me.

Inside the stadium, the home team always has flags made up and put into every seat for the occasion. I immediately discarded my yellow Jaguars flag and instead opted for my blue Colts scarf. Robin Thicke was the pre-match entertainment, and honestly, apart from the song Blurred Lines, I remember very little about his performance. I wasn’t there for that. I was there for the game. I was there for the Colts.

We lost the coin toss and the Jaguars elected to defer, meaning Andrew Luck was getting the ball first. The first play of the game, three and out. No biggie, right? I’d seen the Colts do this a thousand times. Plus, it was already one up on my previous trip to Indy (the Colts fumbled the ball on the first play in Indianapolis that day, then turned it over on an interception the next play – remember that part). The Jaguars did nothing of meaning on their first drive, which meant the ball came back to the Colts.

You know what I was saying about an interception?

Yeah. That.

Andrew Luck was picked off on 3rd and 8, as he tried to throw the ball, it was tipped and intercepted. Commence swearing. The Jags then took the ball up to the Colts endzone, where Allen Robinson pulled in a touchdown pass from Blake Bortles. Commence more swearing, and head in hands.

Dave however had Robinson in his fantasy team, so he got points for that.

An Adam Vinateri field goal was our first points of the day, leading to a 7-3 end of first quarter score. He then tacked on another three in the second quarter, before Blake Bortles tested my blood pressure by successfully converting a trick play after a stupid penalty from Cromartie gave the Jags pretty much a gimme touchdown, and that lead to another Jags TD. 14-6. A 32 yard field goal from Jags kicker Jason Myers was the only other points of the half, 17-6 half time.

I remember very little of the halftime entertainment, I was too busy moping and being angry at both the scoreline and the Colts performance. All I remember was four guys throwing balls into a Gatorade can in order to win a trip to Super Bowl LI. Think there was a tie and one guy won the trip on a tiebreaker. With one successful throw. You’d be a bit gutted if you lost that tiebreaker and missed the Super Bowl on that.

The third quarter saw one of the worst quarters of football I’ve ever seen, with just six points, both field goals from the Jags, 23-6. A penalty from TJ Green led to a Homer Simpson “D’oh” sound effect which drew a laugh from some of the Wembley crowd and a very rude swear word from me (which I won’t repeat here). However, the Colts’ traditional attempt at a comeback began as we started driving down the field towards the end of the third quarter. The third quarter ended with us down 23-6. Twenty three. To Six. More swear words.

However, things began to look brighter as Andrew Luck ran the no-huddle offence and the Jaguars didn’t have a clue what to do with it. Frank Gore ran in the touchdown, and with that, a little bit of hope. 23-13. Andrew Luck continued to care not for the Jaguars’ attempts to sack him, as on our next drive, he continued with the no huddle offence for the most part (and a response of “oh no” from myself whenever we did huddle) which lead to him avoiding the sack and throwing the touchdown pass to TY Hilton, giving me even more hope. 23-20, three-point game. Could the Colts do it again?

Unfortunately, on the very next drive, the Colts defence forgot how to tackle again, and it lead to an Allen Hurns touchdown. 30-20. I knew he was going to get one – he was on my fantasy bench. Actually, so was Frank Gore. (I still won this week, thank you Julio Jones).

With three minutes to go, and the ball around about the 30, on 3rd and 8, Andrew Luck threw the longest touchdown pass of the day, a beautiful 64-yard touchdown pass to Phillip Dorsett. 30-27. Cue absolute bedlam from myself and any Colts fans around me. That point, I honestly thought we were going to do it, especially when the Colts defence made the stop on the next drive. It’d come down to the Andrew Luck 2-minute drill, once again. Could it be his 16th 4th Quarter Game Winning Drive?

Unfortunately, this time it wasn’t meant to be. On 4th and 1, and Frank Gore for some reason on the sideline, Luck elected to pass it, and found Dwayne Allen – who then dropped it. Ballgame. The Jags ran the clock down to the 25 second mark, but with 80 yards to go when the Colts got the ball for the final time, it would take miracle to get into field goal range – and a sack on Luck was the finisher. The traditional game-ending “lariat the daylights out of it” didn’t come off, as per usual, and that was indeed that.

We met Jodi and Melissa after the game and headed to the Green Man Pub, where we were staying, but the traditional meeting point for NFL fans after a Wembley game. The three Colts fans amongst us, myself, Jodi and Melissa, were all understandably gutted about the result, but we made the best of the evening. It has to be said about the game over here, that it’s amazing that fans of all 32 teams can stand together in a pub, watching RedZone, and get on with no bitterness and attitudes towards each other except from some light-hearted rivalry (and a nearly argument between a Broncos fan, who was on the windup, and a Pats fan). Said Pats fan was from Dundee, so Mike had a new best mate, and he gave some light-hearted windups to myself and Dave about Andrew Luck and Cam Newton respectively. Jodi and Melissa in particular found it awesome that fans were able to get together like this, as it was something never really seen over in America.

Highlights of the evening included meeting a group of Seahawks fans and having a long discussion with them while watching their team beat the Jets, the aforementioned light-hearted windups between the Pats fans and everybody else (as while the Pats were getting shut-out by the Bills, everybody else was rooting for the Bills – “Let’s go Not Patriots”), finding out what Tom Brady was up to during his suspension (turns out he’s a female Packers fan from Essex), and meeting a Jags fan who initially picked his team because he liked the way the Americans pronounced Jaguars as “Jag-wars”. Hey, we all have our reasons for picking our teams. That might be one of the best ones I’ve heard. After Jodi and Melissa headed back to their hotel, the evening began to wind down and we ended the evening up back at the room eating Papa John’s and discussing the day’s events.

Getting back the next day though was the tricky part. We returned to Frankie and Benny’s in the morning, due to their £6 breakfast (Triple Stack Pancakes for £6. Welcome to Value-Town), then headed to the Underground station to get the bus back, but not before getting a few more photos in on Wembley way. However, unfortunately we ended up at the wrong station, Liverpool Street, instead of Victoria, and missed our first bus back. Then, when we did get the second bus, it took an hour and a half to get to the airport, with delays and traffic, meaning we missed our flight back. Well, we arrived just in time to see it take off. Ryanair have done it again. I do kinda wish that one was the one delayed! A switch to an easyJet flight was arranged, covered by the refund we received by the first flight (cheers Dave for sorting that out!) and we eventually got back to Edinburgh at about 8ish.

So that was Wembley weekend this year, a bizarre, sometimes trying, sometimes awesome experience. That being said, despite how challenging this weekend was at times, I wouldn’t change my support of the NFL (or the Colts) for the world, and I’m so happy I got a chance to see the Colts live again, even though we lost this weekend. If you haven’t been to the Wembley games before, go to one of them. No matter who’s playing, it’s an incredible experience. You will absolutely love it. Meeting fans of all 32 teams, enjoying the tailgating before the game and the Green Man Pub after the game, it’s nothing like anything else in sport. I’ve been to three Wembley games now and seen six different teams play at Wembley Stadium, including my own. I honestly can’t wait for next year’s trip back now.

Go Colts!

-----

Looking forward to now making that trip tomorrow to see the Arizona Cardinals play the Los Angeles Rams at Twickenham. Should be another fun and eventful weekend.

As always, Go Colts.