The pre match ceremony, as always was spectacular. Our seats were right down the front behind the endzone amongst a mix group of Bear, Bucs and neutral fans. Huge Bears and Bucs flags were brought onto the field which then found themselves being draped across the fans. This got us up on our feet nice and early.
Sadly there were several large gaps in the upper tier where the game had not sold, the first non sell out during the International Series. Though the near 77,000 crowd is still a lot of people. Many pundits blamed the lockout because of the non sell out, because tickets went on sale far later than usual.
During the national anthems, which were sung to perfection by the way, as audience members in the lower bowl were asked to hold up in front of our faces the piece of paper found on our seats. I was told later that from above one half of the stadium looked like a British flag with the other an American flag. The fan behind me summed it up perfectly: “This must look great on T.V but we can’t see a thing!” It was a real shame that the cameras could not at least shows us on the jumbotron during or after. I know the NFL beams this back to America, but surely it’s about keeping the fans in the stadium involved and ready to come back for more.
The Goo Goo Dolls then performed their famous song, “Iris” before it was game time. The game kicked off with the Bucs kicking to the Bears and all eyes were on return man, Devin Hester. I’m sure all the neutral NFL fans (and maybe even some Buc fans) wanted to see Hester return one to the house. Sadly the Bucs kicker kicked the ball into the sidelines which was met by a loud “boo” from the Bears contingent and I was hoping they would not do that all game.
Maybe I am bias because I am a Bears fan, who currently employ the greatest kick returner to ever play the game, but I really think that if a punter or kicker kicks directly out of bounds before it bounces they should be forced to re-kick not just get penalised with yardage.
The first possessions for both teams ended up with swift punts, not really what the NFL what hoping for. At my end of the field a squirrel ran on to the pitch to everyone’s delight. “Squirrel, Squirrel” was chanted by all of us, which probably confused the players. The squirrel got a large cheer when it ran into the Bucs endzone before being scared away. That was the highlight of the first two drives!
Though things changed on the Bears 2nd drive, Matt Forte brought the crowd to its feet. His 32 yard touchdown run was classic Forte, changing direction and stutter stepping to avoid tacklers.
Many Bears fans have felt that offensive co-ordinator Mike Martz has been asking his offense .to not pass too much, but has been dialling up long passing plays, which has left QB, Jay Cutler waiting a long time for his receivers to get downfield. This has resulted in him sadly being the most sacked QB in the league. Many feel that Martz will be on a manslaughter charge if this continues, and thankfully for the first half of this game, he kept the game plan to the ground where Forte was unstoppable.
Two back to back interceptions for both teams highlighted that both of these QBS were going to have a rough day of it. Cutler made some woeful throws and Josh Freeman looked like he had never played before.
Following their INT the Bears were on their goal line, and the predictable ball to Forte lead to an embarrassing Safety, and that’s where I thought the table would turn, but thankfully that was just a minor blip.
The next drive was straight out of the high school playbook of errors. Both teams kept committing penalties, and the crowd became deflated and frustrated. It was difficult to know what was going on so far down and sadly the announcer was very unclear, because Wembley has very poor speakers. Vanessa, Steph’s younger sister, who is new to the sport, was very confused. The jumbotron and scoreboards were so small that it was hard to know what was going on.
When the Bears got the ball back it was more Forte. Roy Williams dropped plenty of balls, but finally nabbed a TD after long powerful drives from Forte and Barber. Williams dipped past his defender for the second Bears TD.
It was more punts and as much as Hester tried he just couldn’t break one off. As the half came to a halt the Bucs chipped in with a FG and they trailed 14-5 at the break. My Dad is a big admirer of the half time show and sadly there was none, unless you call several grounds men pitching up parts of grass. There was not even a show from the cheerleaders or the Bears drumline. Yes, the drumline worked hard the last two days outside the stadium, but one the NFL has to get right and that is making the game more enjoyable for those with tickets in the stadium, not just trying to sell tickets with off-field fundays. Yes the pre- show was great, but half time shows are part of the American, no?
In the second half Martz decided to start passing to the Cutler’s detriment who got sacked. Back to the ground game they went and Marion Barber punched in from 12 yards out. If he stays healthy this year, then the one-two combo of he and forte could be really effective and then open up the pass game, not vice versa.
The Bucs looked rattled and the game was practically over at 21-5, or was it. Freeman’s first pass went to Lance Briggs of the Bears and he rumbled in for a rare defensive TD. Luckily for the Bucs, there was a penalty. The INT stood, but the ball was on the Bucs 40. Had that have been a TD it really would have been over, but the Bucs D finally stepped up and forced a punt. They had a lifeline.
The Bucs punted back giving the Bears another chance to stretch the lead. Forte who had over 100 yards rushing in the first half was probably getting frustrated that Martz was hitting the self destruct button by calling deep pass plays and end around trick plays. Still it left Robbie Gould with a 41 yard FG. I was told if he got two out of two today he would lead some kind of kickers all time accuracy record. Well he snatched at it and it went wide. Another opportunity to kill the game off.
The fans began with the “Mexican wave.” Some fans dislike this as it is distracting and possibly a sign that the game is boring. Well I personally like the wave. It was around this time I believe when a streaker came running onto the field. Well I say streaker he only really took his top off. The players are not allowed to get involved otherwise I’m sure someone like Urlacher or Briggs would have had no trouble taking him down. He got into the Bucs endzone after side stepping a security guard in a suit. Clearly he had learnt some tackle evading tricks from Mr. Hester. He got a big cheer. Not knowing where to go, he ran up the side line, somewhat cornering himself, and bang he got hit from behind by a diving security guard tackler.
The Bears should be signing two people. The streaker could be hired as a backup for kick return duties as he showed nifty skills while the diving security guard could be an extra middle line backer. The crowd gave a groan when he got caught, and applauded loudly as he waved to us while being dragged out of the stadium.
Both teams punted back to each other, with both QBs looking shaky. Then came the oddest of plays. Freeman was intercepted by Urlacher who ran for a few yards, got tackled then fumbled and lost the ball to the Bucs. But of course there was a Bucs facemask penalty that confused matters and the Bears challenged Urlacher’s fumble, claiming his knee was down. I was confused and so was everyone else. Would the Bears take the penalty? And what would that mean regarding the interception and fumble? In the end the fumble was reversed and the penalty added to the spot of the ball.
All of this perhaps took 15 minutes, yet after all this huffing and puffing to get the ball back, two plays later, Cutler was intercepted and finally the Bucs took the initiative and scored a TD themselves. Finally the Bucs fans had something to cheer about. I wasn’t too worried, especially after they failed the two pointer. 21-11 up, we just need to play smart football and run the clock down. In fact I was happy for the Bucs, because it now made it a close game for the neutrals and a close game is what the NFL want and need for the game to grow here.
The Bears run game was finally stunted and they punted back with ten minutes to go. Oh-uh. Finally the Josh Freeman that everyone was raving about pre game had woken up and took advantage of the napping Bears secondary. A few plays later and Freeman fired another ball to his WR who sadly beat one of my favourite Bears; Chris Harris, to the TD. This was now a three point game.
With seven minutes to play the Bears had the ball and had another opportunity to kill off the game. The Bears inched their way up the field via a big Forte reception that took us to the Bucs 4 yard line. With four yards to go this is when we need a big third down back (we now have one in Marion Barber) as Forte sadly just can’t do the short gain stuff (see earlier Safety), or do have a big TE go over the middle. Well Martz doesn’t like his TEs to catch and shipped off our best receiving TE, Greg Olsen to Carolina. So this time he twice went for passing plays. Both failed. I’m not surprised that last week Jay Cutler told Martz to “go F@#k himself” from the sidelines after calling another passing play.
On 3rd down Cutler was called to make a third passing play in a row and he got sacked. This would normally lead to a Robbie Gould FG and a six point lead, but the Bucs fell on their sword once more with a penalty. The alarming amount of penalties at this game frustrated both fans as some very good lays good wiped out. Penalties really kill the game. In this case it was a Bucs facemask which gave the Bears a fresh set of downs.
Now Martz finally calls up his runners. Three run plays later and Gould was lining up for a FG. It’s ok that we did not get the TD. Because the penalty shaved minutes off the clock. Gould this time pinged the ball in and the Bears were up by six with just under two minutes to play.
The Bucs needed a TD and a conversion to win. Surely the stout Bears D can stop the inconsistent Bucs, who had lost their star running back, Blount, before the game and their second string during the game. Yet this is the Bears and flashes of that game in Atlanta a few years when they allowed Atlanta to score a TD with 11 seconds to go. If the Bucs did make a win, it certainly would be that the Bears had given it to them, because they didn’t deserve the win at all.
Two mid passing gains had me slightly worried as the Bucs operated from the no huddle. We kept our safeties back nice and deep making sure we didn’t give up the big play. With Freeman running out of time, he threw into coverage, and Bears, DB, D.J Moore was there to pick off Freeman for the 4th time today which gave the Bears a deserved 24-18 win.
The game had not been the prettiest, but a win is a win. I think the neutrals would have enjoyed the razzmatazz of the game, but it was certainly hard to follow in parts. I have to say the NFL should do something about the length of time after punt and kick returns, because the game takes an age to start up again. At one stage I saw Jay Cutler waiting around the huddle watching the jumbotron. Though he was watching the Lions, which are proving to be a very watchable team this year.
It was a strange atmosphere, because there were more Bears fans than the “home” Bucs fans, yet the announcers clearly tried to get the fans behind the Bucs. But there was nowhere the hoopla that one finds at an FL game in the States. Sure the two mascots were fun as were the cheerleaders, but the jumbotron had just one game, very few replays, and the announcer, when he did tell us what was going on was inaudible. The shape and style of Wembley isn’t perfect for the NFL, and I would like to see how the game would work at Twickenham.
One thing that was good here was that the fans rarely got up to walk around like they do in the States. With “open” stadiums like LP Field and Heinz field, the concessions are behind the end zone lower tier, so you can get food and not miss the action. Which is great on one hand, but on the other it means a lot of fans are constantly walking about even though most stadiums have food and drink vendors that come to you in the stands. This certainly would have been good to have here at Wembley, because my Dad missed the TD in the second quarter because of the long lines and bad service that seems to be the norm at Wembley stadium. Every year they run out of hot food by half time, so get you hot dogs in nice and quick.
Overall I do think Vanessa had a good time and she certainly would have enjoyed the Fan rally and tailgate if she came to those, but sadly I don’t think the game was made clear enough for her to really be able to follow it. She likes the extra things, like the mascots and so on, but the game confused the hell out of her and that is a real shame, especially if the NFL wants new fans to the sport.
Still a cracking day out, a Bears win and I got to go to Wembley with my Dad
Go Bears
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