Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott would welcome a return trip to London despite admitting his side seemed sluggish in their 25-20 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Buffalo, led by quarterback Josh Allen and seeking their fourth straight victory, entered Sunday afternoon’s contest on a high after beating the Miami Dolphins but found themselves up against an 11-0 deficit after the first quarter.
Though the ‘host’ Bills, who enjoyed the majority support of a raucous 61,273-strong crowd, twice found themselves a touchdown away from staging a fourth-quarter comeback it was the Jags – coming off last weekend’s 23-7 victory over the Atlanta Falcons at Wembley and perhaps better-adjusted to the time zone – who ultimately held on.
Asked if Buffalo, who only arrived in London on Friday, might have been affected by the travel, McDermott said: “We’ll see if, whatever comes up down the road in terms of us coming back here, but we need to evaluate everything because I didn’t feel like our energy was good enough early in the game.
“They had better energy than we did. We’re going to fly back tonight, watch the film on the way home and learn from this and we’ve got to get ourselves back where we need to be fundamentally. It’s just talking about throwing and catching, tackling, right?
“Most of the things that are at the forefront of some of the reasons why we got the result we did today.
“We would absolutely [come back]. We enjoyed just the opportunity to be over here. It’s an honour to be selected to play here and we’re certainly appreciative of our hosts in London.”
While Buffalo had not played in the UK since 2015, Jacksonville have contested at least one match in the British capital every year since 2013 save 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic prevented international matches.
With Sunday’s victory, the Florida outfit became the first team to win NFL international matches in back-to-back weeks, with some speculating they were given a boost both from their familiarity with the UK grounds and, against Buffalo, were the better-adjusted opponent due to remaining in London between contests.
The Jags certainly looked the sprightlier side in the first quarter and Trevor Lawrence the more effective quarterback, Zay Jones completing the first touchdown and Travis Etienne, who would later make two TDs of his own, adding the two-point conversion.
Buffalo, who lost key linebacker Matt Milano to a knee injury in the first quarter, rallied late in the second to make it 11-7 at the halfway point and a scoreless third quarter ensured it was all to play for in the final 15 minutes.
A game largely dominated by defence broke open, both sides adding two touchdowns apiece – the Jags’ from Etienne, while Allen and Gabe Davis added to Buffalo’s score.
Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who collected from Allen for Buffalo’s second-quarter, 15-yard touchdown, refused to blame the cross-continental trip for the result.
He said: “It’s easy to say that after the game. If we’d won would we be saying yeah, we were tired, we were this, we were that.
“It’s easy to use that as an excuse. I’m not a big excuse guy so I won’t say it, but you’re going to have to ask the other guys.
“Tired or not, you’re going to have to get up to play a football game. You get up to do this thing that you love and play this game because it’s a blessing.
“I will never use the excuse of, you can obviously look at the data or whatever, but I feel like we can play better. We will be better.”
Giants releasing embattled quarterback Daniel Jones
The Daniel Jones era in New York has officially ended.
The Giants agreed to Jones’ request to be released Friday morning, ending a rocky partnership that lasted nearly six seasons.
Giants president John Mara said in a statement that Jones’ release “would be best for him and for the team.”
“Daniel has been a great representative of our organisation, first class in every way,” Mara said in the statement. “His handling of this situation yesterday exemplifies just that. We are all disappointed in how things have worked out.”
The Giants benched Jones in favour of Tommy DeVito during their bye week. On Thursday, Jones told reporters he takes “full responsibility” for not winning more as the captain of one of the NFL’s signature franchises.
After learning of his new role, however, Jones asked the team to be released.
Jones signed a four-year, $160million contract extension before the 2023 season. Jones will go through the waivers process, but teams are likely unwilling to pay the rest of that contract. If he clears waivers, he will become an unrestricted free agent.
The Giants will absorb a salary cap hit of around $20million by releasing Jones.
Jones was the sixth overall pick in the 2019 draft and has started 69 games over the last six seasons.
The former Duke quarterback had his best season in a contract year in 2022, throwing 15 touchdowns to just five interceptions and adding 708 yards and seven scores on the ground.
Jones has thrown eight touchdown passes and seven interceptions this season for the 2-8 Giants and ranks 32nd among qualified quarterbacks with a 79.4 passer rating.
Browns score late touchdown to end Steelers' streak in snowy contest
Nick Chubb ran for a 2-yard touchdown in heavy snow with 57 seconds left, and the Cleveland Browns stunned division rival Pittsburgh 24-19 on Thursday night, ending the Steelers' five-game winning streak.
Chubb's score came in his first game against the AFC North-leading Steelers (8-3) since the running back sustained a season-ending left knee injury on a carry last year at Pittsburgh.
The Browns (3-8) had blown a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter and were down 19-18 before getting the ball back with 3:22 remaining after Pittsburgh punter Corliss Waitman shanked a 16-yarder.
With snow piling up and covering the yard lines on the field, Cleveland's Jameis Winston completed a third-down pass to Jerry Jeudy to the Pittsburgh 9. Two plays later, Chubb barrelled into the end zone.
The Steelers had one last chance, but quarterback Russell Wilson's Hail Mary on the final play was knocked down by Browns safety Grant Delpit in the end zone, touching off a wild celebration at Huntington Bank Field.
NFL: Texans bounce back, extend Cowboys' woes
Joe Mixon's 109 rushing yards and three touchdowns helped get the Houston Texans back on track with Monday's 34-10 win over the floundering Dallas Cowboys.
Houston (7-4) snapped a two-game losing streak behind Mixon's powerful running and a defence that sacked Cowboys' fill-in quarterback Cooper Rush five times and forced two turnovers, including a fumble Derek Barnett returned 28 yards for a touchdown that gave the Texans a 27-10 lead in the fourth quarter.
Dallas (3-7) has now lost five straight, its longest skid since dropping seven in a row in 2015, and fell to 0-5 at home. The Cowboys have been outscored by 118 points (187-69) at AT&T Stadium, the third-largest negative differential through five home games in a season in NFL history.
Rush did throw a 64-yard touchdown pass to KaVontae Turpin in his second straight start subbing for an injured Dak Prescott, and finished with a career-high 354 passing yards with one interception while completing 32 of 55 attempts.
C.J. Stroud threw for 257 yards with an interception for Houston, which extended its lead over the second-place Indianapolis Colts to two games in the AFC South.
The Texans never trailed after Mixon ripped off a 45-yard touchdown run on the game's opening drive, and the veteran running back added a 1-yard scoring plunge late in the first quarter to give Houston a 14-0 lead.
Turpin got Dallas on the board by taking a short pass from Rush and breaking free from the Houston defence nine seconds into the second quarter, but the Cowboys were shut out in the second half after pulling to within 17-10 on Brandon Aubrey's 53-yard field goal with just under six minutes left before half-time.
Burnett's strip sack of Rush and return of the resulting fumble helped put the game away with 12:31 left, and Mixon tacked on his final touchdown of the night with 3:16 remaining to cap a 35-yard drive that began after the Texans stopped the Cowboys on downs.
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