New England Patriots gear up to face St. Louis Rams in Week 8 – NFL Preview
New England Patriots head to London to face St Louis Rams in a crunch Week 8 tie on Sunday, October 28, 2012, at Wembley Stadium, London, England.
Despite their recent woes, Patriots are still on top of the American Football Conference (AFC) East with a 4-3 record. On the other hand, Rams (3-4) are at the bottom of the pile in National Football League (NFC) West.
Playing in London is not new for Patriots as they have done that back in the 2009 season against Tennessee Titans. Giving his views about playing overseas, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said:
"The time change, the travel -- that's certainly different than most normal games, but it's not anything we haven't dealt with before. We've traveled to the West Coast. We're just going the other direction. Hopefully, we'll be able to deal with it."
It will be the first time that Rams will play a National Football League (NFL) regular season game overseas. Talking about playing overseas, Rams head coach Jeff Fisher said of his players:
"They're excited. They know the challenges associated with going across the pond, as they say, and they're looking forward to it. We will gradually acclimate them and adjust their body clocks to play at 5 o’clock and we’ve got several days to do that.”
Patriots certainly have many other things to focus on after giving away too many points in the final quarter during their last two games.
The defence is certainly looking thin in absence of two of their starting safeties Steve Gregory and Patrick Chung. In absence of these players, Patriots defence has given away 14 touchdowns in five games.
However, Patriots might get a sigh of relief after looking at the performance of Rams offence in past few weeks.
Rams offence is currently ranked 26th in the league with the average of 18.6 points per game.
The offence gave a much better performance in their last week game against a strong defence of Green Bay Packer as they scored 20 points.
Patriots offence is also facing problems in scoring points during the fourth quarter. The team has scored just three points in fourth quarter in their last two ties. The inconsistent performances by the offence have cost Patriots a great deal this season.
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