San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos clashing in London this Sunday
The National Football League has international ambitions. San Francisco 49ers travelled to London this Monday and have now been joined by the Denver Broncos. The teams are preparing to face-off against each other at Wembley Stadium in NFL’s fourth sold out
cross Atlantic outing.
49ers' President, Jed York said that taking the teams to London was time and money well spent but added that the league must figure out what the ultimate goal for them should be. “When you sell out four games in a row, do you start to bring more teams over
here?”, York mused. He added that the next step for the league would be just that but the ultimate goal is to have a London based NFL franchise.
It would be a while before London can boast a team of its own. Till then, British fans have Sunday’s Broncos vs. 49ers game to look forward to.
When league scheduled two of its signature franchises to head for London, it had no idea how the regular season would turn out for them. In January, when the schedule for the game was announced, it felt like a good idea but both teams have been in a terrible
slump. Commissioner Goodell stated that the league wanted to put its best product on display at Wembley but 49ers vs. Broncos isn’t the best the league has to offer. Not in this season at least. San Francisco has had a disastrous season so far after having
won just one of its 7 games. It stands fourth in the NFC West. Thankfully though, the Broncos aren’t doing particularly better.
They too rank fourth in their division and have won just one game so far this season. Denver is on a 3 game losing streak while 49ers were able to defeat Oakland Raiders in the 6th week. You can say that the two teams are evenly matched. Neither
team has much of a chance of making the playoffs. London gets to see currently the two worst teams in the league face each other on Sunday. But then again, both teams desperately want to win for London fans and that is the recipe for an entertaining game.
“I think it's going to be a real physical game”, said San Francisco’s Joe Staley. San Francisco’s passing hasn’t been all that great and Broncos have been surprisingly good against the pass. 49ers would then focus more heavily on the running game on Sunday.
San Francisco will also be trying out a new quarterback in London. Alex Smith is out with an injured shoulder and David Carr has just been terrible. Instead, on Sunday Troy Smith would be starting for the 49ers and that could prove to be a good thing. “Troy
Smith gives us a good opportunity to win this game”, stated 49ers' coach, Mike Singletary. “I talked to David Carr about it. He understands.”
Troy hasn’t played as a quarterback for a while now so no one really knows what he can bring to the struggling 49ers. For the sake of 49ers, let’s hope Troy isn’t just the better of two bad options. He is known for his ability to run and that is something
the 49ers need right now.
Taking the lead for San Francisco in offense would be the running back, Frank Gore. Denver has the worst rush defence in the league, something that became abundantly clear when the Oakland Raiders crushed Broncos in a 59 against 14 humiliation. Raiders rushed
an unbelievable 328 yards on top of 204 yards passing. Gore could do for the 49ers what Darren McFadden did for Oakland.
The Broncos though wouldn’t just roll over. Having taken such a severe beating last week, they would now want to prove themselves. Broncos’ quarterback, Kyle Orton admitted that it was an embarrassing performance on their part against the Raiders and has
even apologized for it. “Whenever you go out and play like that, you want to get right back on the field and make corrections and we're excited to do that”, said Orton. They’ll get their chance at Wembley.
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