- WHERE: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (London)
- WHEN: 9:30 a.m. ET | NFL Network, NFL+
Sunday kicks off with a second straight week of NFL action in London and the first of two consecutive games in the city for the Jaguars.
Finally off the schneid, 1-4 Jacksonville is now off to its home away from home to continue a rescue mission of its season after beginning the campaign with four losses in a row. The Jags went 2-0 in London during their two-game stretch in 2023, something they’ll need to pull off again during this year’s double dip against the Bears and Patriots if they’re to avoid falling out of contention before returning to the United States.
Chicago, meanwhile, has turned a corner of late with a two-game win streak, an offense starting to click under No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams and a defense on pace to finish top five in scoring for the first time since 2019 — the last time the club played internationally.
Stacking another victory Sunday would send the message that the Bears have the potential to arrive ahead of schedule. After all, they had to wait until the last week of November to capture their fourth win last season.
Here are three things to watch for when the Jaguars and Bears square off in London on Sunday on NFL Network and NFL+:
1) Battle of No. 1 picks. Caleb Williams will join Trevor Lawrence on Sunday as the only quarterbacks taken first overall to start a London game as a rookie. After getting the better of Matthew Stafford’s Rams in Week 4, Williams can also become the sixth QB selected No. 1 overall in the common draft era to start his career 2-0 against former first-pick quarterbacks, per NFL Research. He’s rounding into form and proving well capable of doing so, especially with his stellar defense backing him. Chicago has outscored opponents, 60-28, in its past two games, both of which were turnover-free after the offense struggled in the category to start the season. Williams has a 71.1 completion percentage with 461 yards and three touchdowns during that stretch. Lawrence, too, is coming in hot. He completed 82.4% of his attempts for 371 yards, two TDs and an interception in Week 5, but his season has otherwise been a slog. And unlike Williams, the potential milestone he’s staring at as a former No. 1 overall pick is an unwelcome one. If he falls to Chicago, Lawrence (currently 0-5) will break a tie with Steve Bartkowski for most defeats against fellow No. 1 signal-callers without a win.
2) Can Jags get pressure and will it matter? Chicago is tied for the fourth-most sacks given up with 17, and the pressure percentage (35.8) allowed on Caleb Williams during his first three games was certainly eating him up. He completed just 36.4% of his throws under pressure, which went for 3.0 yards per attempt, one TD and one INT, good for a 42.4 passer rating. Since then? Williams is seeing even more pressure — 41.0 — but turning it into diamonds. Over the past two contests, he’s enjoyed a 116.9 passer rating with a 66.7 completion percentage, 9.8 yards per throw and one score under duress. Now enter the Jaguars, who are giving up an NFL-high 287.7 passing yards per game and rank 28th with a 26.4 pressure percentage. The onus will fall on Travon Walker, who leads the team with five sacks and had three in Week 5, and Josh Hines-Allen, who has two sacks thus far, to lead the charge and hopefully cause Williams to revert. Jacksonville’s secondary will need all the help it can get, considering it enters the game still seeking its first interception.
3) Backfield duos look to keep it up. It might have come about due to Travis Etienne’s lingering shoulder issue, but the Jaguars are surprisingly one of two teams to boast multiple running backs with 230-plus rushing yards apiece through five weeks. Etienne (231 yards) and Tank Bigsby (273) currently join Detroit’s Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery in that regard. Bigsby has been especially prolific after a disastrous rookie season. In Week 5, he posted a career-high 101 rushing yards, besting the career high of 90 he set the week prior, and he currently leads the NFL with 8.0 yards per carry. After a gobsmackingly poor start to his first season as a Bear that included 68 yards on 37 carries (1.83 per attempt) through three games, D’Andre Swift has caught fire with 93- and 73-yard performances on the ground the past two weeks, respectively, with a touchdown in each game and another 114 combined receiving yards. Meanwhile, Roschon Johnson has gone from a healthy scratch in the season opener to the bowling ball that could, complementing Swift at the goal line with three scores of his own since Week 4.
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