NFL at Wembley: Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs Chicago Bears preview

The NFL returns to the UK on Sunday with its fifth regular season game at Wembley Stadium. This year sees a clash of two previous Super Bowl winners, as the Tampa Bay Bucccaneers (who won Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003) host the Chicago Bears (winners of Super Bowl XX in 1986).

The Bears come to Wembley with a 3-3 record, having trounced NFC North rivals Minnesota Vikings 39-10 last weekend. The Bucs (4-2) are tied for the lead in the NFC South with the New Orleans Saints, having held off a late Saints’ rally 26-20 last Sunday.

Let’s take a look at both teams, and the key players to watch out for on Sunday.

The week in numbers: w/e 2/10/11

Woods' ranking continues to plummet (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

51 – Tiger Woods‘ latest world ranking, the first time since 1996 he has been outside the world’s top 50. Woods has not won a tournament since the 2009 Australian Masters and had spent 778 consecutive weeks in the top 50 since October 1996, 623 of those at number one.

3 – Sir Chris Hoy won the team sprint on the final day of the National Track Championships in Manchester to add to his gold medals in the open sprint and keirin events.

3 – Andy Murray won his third title of 2011 at the Thailand Open, defeating Donald Young 6-2 6-0. The American had surprisingly beaten him at Indian Wells in March.

3 – Gold medals for British taekwondo players at the British Open in Manchester. 17-year old Jade Jones won in the women’s 57kg category, while Martin Stamper and Bianca Walkden won the men’s 68kg and women’s 67kg events respectively.

The week in numbers: w/e 26/12/10

Lionel Messi - 42 goals in 2010 (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

42 – As La Liga heads into its winter break, Barcelona‘s Lionel Messi finished calendar year 2010 with more goals (42), assists (15) and completed dribbles (166) than any other player.

29 – Messi has scored 29 goals in 28 games in all competitions (including internationals) so far this season. Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 27 in 28.

8 – Balls required by Tim Southee to claim five wickets – including a hat-trick – in New Zealand‘s Twenty20 win over Pakistan on Boxing Day. It is the first time a New Zealand bowler has taken five wickets in a match in the 20-over format.

21 – Wales international Gavin Henson returned to rugby after an absence of 21 months to help Saracens defeat Wasps 13-6 at Wembley.

The Ashes in numbers

98 – Australia recorded their lowest ever score against England at the MCG as they were skittled out for 98 by England on the opening day of the fourth Test in Melbourne.

Matt Prior - six catches in Australia's first innings

10 – All ten Australian wickets fells to catches behind the wicket, with England keeper Matt Prior claiming six of them.

10 – Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook recorded their tenth century stand as an opening pair – only Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe have exceeded that number for England.

577 – Cook’s 82 moved him to a series-leading 577 runs, which he has accumulated in just six innings.

158 – The unbeaten stand of 158 between Prior and Jonathan Trott was England’s largest sixth-wicket stand at Melbourne, surpassing the previous best of 140 set in 1929.

11 – There hasn’t been a draw between England and Australia at the MCG in their last 11 meetings there. Australia have won seven to England’s four.

The Premier League week in numbers

4 – Everton‘s 2-1 win at Manchester City last Monday night was their fourth successive away win against these opponents.

25 – City had 25 attempts on goal against Everton, but scored only via a Phil Jagielka own goal.

Carlton Cole - two goals at Fulham

2 – Carlton Cole scored twice in West Ham‘s 3-1 win at Fulham. It was the first time he has ever scored more than one goal in a single Premier League game.

5 – Cole has now also scored in each of his last five Premier League starts against Fulham.

14 – Sunderland‘s 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford means that former Manchester United player Steve Bruce has failed to beat his old club in each of his 14 attempts as a manager (two draws, 12 defeats).

8 – Manchester United have now won their last eight Boxing Day games (and 16 of the last 17).

Andy Carroll - five headed goals, all assisted by Joey Barton

5 – Newcastle‘s Andy Carroll has scored five headed goals in the Premier League – Joey Barton has provided the assist for each of them.

10 – Stoke‘s 2-0 win at Blackburn was their first Boxing Day win for 10 years.

0 – Aston Villa have not won any points from a game where they have been behind. They fell behind 2-0 at home to ten-man Tottenham before finally losing 2-1.

17 – Tottenham have now gone 17 matches – since the opening day of the season – without keeping a clean sheet in the Premier League.

The NFL week in numbers

14 – Devin Hester scored on a 64-yard, third quarter punt return as the Chicago Bears thumped Minnesota 40-14 in a freezing Monday night game. It was Hester’s 14th career return touchdown, setting a new NFL record. He also scored on a 15-yard reception in the second quarter.

Tom Brady - 319 passes without interception (image courtesy of Keith Allison)

319 – Passes thrown by New England‘s Tom Brady without an interception, breaking the previous high of 308 set across the 1990 and 1991 seasons by Bernie Kosar. The Patriots beat Buffalo 34-3. In his last 10 games, Brady has passed for 24 touchdowns and no interceptions.

15 – The Patriots have now won 15 straight games against the Bills.

38 – Chicago scored 38-plus points in back-to-back games for first time since 1989, as they beat the New York Jets 38-34.

3 – The Washington Redskins defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars 20-17 in overtime. It was the Redskins’ third overtime win this season (they are 3-1), which tied them for the NFL single-season record.

2 – The Detroit Lions won 34-27 in Miami. Having snapped an NFL record 26-game road losing streak last week, they have now won back-to-back road games.

(Some statistics courtesy of Opta Sports, The Times, @StatManJon, and NFL.com.)

The week in numbers: w/e 17/10/10

300,000,000 – Estimated price (in pounds) paid by the John Henry-led New England Sports Ventures to purchase Liverpool FC from Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr.

3 – By losing the second Test against India in Bangalore, Australia have now lost three Test matches in a row for the first time since 1988, when they lost three in a row to the West Indies.

Sachin Tendulkar

49 – Sachin Tendulkar scored 214 in India’s first innings of this match. It was his 49th Test century, and his 11th against Australia. The 37-year old is now the top-ranked batsman in Test cricket again for the first time since 2002.

5 – As a result of losing the two-match series 2-0, Australia will now begin the forthcoming Ashes series just fifth in the ICC Test rankings, one position below England.

6 – The Faroe Islands‘ 1-1 draw with Northern Ireland in their Euro 2012 qualifying match was only the sixth time they had avoided defeat in their last 41 games.

74 – Australia finished the Commonwealth Games with 74 gold medals, only one less than the combined total of second-placed India and third-placed England.

149 – Australia, India and England combined for 149 Commonwealth gold medals. The other 68 competing nations accumulated just 123 between them.

14 – Number of gold medals won by Australia in the Commonwealth Games cycling competition, out of a total of just 18 events.

Tom Daley

10 – England’s Tom Daley won the 10m platform diving competition, aided by his third dive of the competition, for which all seven judges awarded him a perfect score of ten.

4 – England’s Katherine Endacott finished fourth on the track in the Commonwealth Games women’s 100m final, but ended up with a silver medal after Australia’s Sally Pearson was retrospectively disqualified for a false start and Nigeria’s Osayemi Oludamola failed a drugs test. Endacott, a teaching assistant, is ranked just 135th in the world at the event.

3 – Number of drugs tests failed by Nigerian athletes at the Commonwealth Games.

2 – Andy Murray defeated Roger Federer 6-3 6-2 in the final of the Shanghai Masters to secure only his second title of 2010. Murray’s career record against Federer now stands at 8-5, although he has never beaten him at a Grand Slam. tournament.

2 – Number of 3-0 leads which were squandered in Football League matches on Saturday afternoon. Peterborough United led 3-0 at home to Swindon Town after 22 minutes of their League One game on Saturday. By half-time it was 3-3. Peterborough eventually ran out 5-4 winners courtesy of a Kevin Amankwaah own goal in the third minute of injury time. And a Leon McKenzie hat-trick gave Northampton Town a 3-0 half-time lead over Hereford United in their League Two game on Saturday. However, the visitors scored four goals in 19 second half minutes to finish as unlikely 4-3 winners.

The Premier League week in numbers

5 – Marouane Chamakh has won five penalties in all competitions so far this season, as Arsenal beat Birmingham City 2-1 in Arsène Wenger‘s 800th game in charge of the club.

27 – Birmingham have now visited Arsenal 27 times since their last league win at the Emirates/Highbury in 1957, losing 18 and drawing nine.

Nani

6 – Manchester United‘s Nani has six assists this season, more than any other player. He had a goal and an assist as Manchester United drew 2-2 at home with West Bromwich Albion.

3 – Tom Huddlestone scored Tottenham’s winner in their 2-1 victory at Fulham. Three of his seven Premier League goals have come against the Cottagers.

3 – Spurs have come from behind to win three of their last four games, having managed none in the previous 39.

181 – Time elapsed in seconds during which Ivan Klasnić scored Bolton‘s winning goal against Stoke City, and earned two yellow cards which saw him dismissed.

11 – Wolves‘ 1-1 draw with West Ham means they have now gone 11 league games without keeping a clean sheet.

19 – After their 2-0 defeat at Everton in the Merseyside derby, Liverpool occupy 19th place in the table for the first time in the Premier League era.

18 – Carlos Tevez netted twice in Manchester City‘s 3-1 win at Blackpool. He has now scored in 18 of City’s last 19 league wins.

The NFL week in numbers

Tom Brady (image courtesy of Keith Allison)

23 – The Patriots recorded their 23rd consecutive home win with Tom Brady at quarterback, moving him ahead of John Elway for the second-longest streak in NFL history. He needs two more to tie the record set by Brett Favre between 1995-98 (New England 23 Baltimore 20 (OT)).

13 – Chicago‘s Devin Hester scored with an broke off an 89-yard punt return for a touchdown, his 9th career punt return TD. He now has 13 combined punt/kickoff returns for touchdowns, tying with Brian Mitchell for the NFL record (Seattle 23 Chicago 20).

3 – All three of Green Bay‘s losses this season have been by three points (Miami 23 Green Bay 20).

24 – Detroit‘s 28-20 loss at the New York Giants was their 24th consecutive road loss, tying them for the longest streak in NFL history – set by themselves between 2001-03.

22 – Philadelphia won their 22nd straight game when leading at halftime, the longest active streak in the NFL (Philadelphia 31 Atlanta 17).

183 – Pittsburgh‘s Hines Ward had five receptions for 54 yards and a touchdown, his 183rd consecutive game with a reception. He is now tied Art Monk for the fourth-longest streak in NFL history and now trails only Jerry Rice (274), Marvin Harrison (190) and Terrell Owens (185) (Pittsburgh 28 Cleveland 10).

172 – Tampa Bay‘s Ronde Barber made his 172nd consecutive start, passing Dick LeBeau for the most consecutive starts by a cornerback in NFL history. (New Orleans 31 Tampa Bay 6).

2 – San Francisco‘s 17-9 win over Oakland was their first win of the season, leaving only two team – Buffalo and Carolina – still to win this season. (Neither played this weekend.)

(Some statistics courtesy of @OptaJoe, @optajim, @OptaJean, @StatManJon, The Times and NFL.com.)

Related Articles

• Tom Daley wins second diving gold medal at Commonwealth Games (guardian.co.uk)
• Commonwealth Games 2010: Tom Daley proving his worth ahead of London 2012 (telegraph.co.uk)