Well, yes, there will be some disadvantages for the Giants when they take the field at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday to play the Packers. Anyone who ever has crossed the pond, here to there, knows how jet lag can kneecap you for a couple of days before you feel normal again. If you crave a cold beverage, keep craving: They serve their ale cellar temperature and their soft drinks with a maximum of one ice cube.
And, well, just stay away from meat pies, at all costs.
But there is one overwhelming bright side to this: As strange as it may well feel to play an American football game on a soccer pitch, and as odd as it’ll probably be to have 62,850 spectators who have only a cursory understanding of the game looking on, it could be worse. It could be much worse.
It could be Lambeau Field — even in its October state, free from snow and sleet and ice and various other hints of frozen tundra. It could be Lambeau stuffed to the gills with 81,441 cheeseheads glaring and blaring at you, opening kickoff to final gun. Green Bay may be a shorter trip, by four hours and 2,500 miles. But you have to believe London is the more agreeable commute in this instance.
And that’s good. Because though both teams enter this game at 3-1, only one of them was expected to be — and the Packers are probably still a little angry that they let Opening Day at Minnesota get away from them as it did. The Giants are among the biggest surprises in the NFL, and they could approach this as a house-money game — especially with Daniel Jones’ ankle barking, especially with a receiving corps so depleted you half expected to see that Amani Toomer was added to the roster this week alongside Landon Collins.
Oh, yes: There’s also the matter of Aaron Rodgers, still chugging along and still chucking for the Packers, who escaped an upset bid at home to the Partiots last week and are surely hoping to make quick work of the Giants, regardless of their record. Rodgers would be a problem in Wisconsin, in the U.K., at the equator, at the North Pole …
Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale summed up that task succinctly: “Going against one of the best quarterbacks of all time is a great challenge for us to see where we’re at.”
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Head coach Brian Daboll added to the chorus: “You prepare as hard as you can each week, it’s just he’s one of the best to ever do it. So, obviously it’s very challenging because of his talent, his experience and what he does out there on the football field. He’s one of, not just best quarterbacks, best players to ever play.”
As did safety Xavier McKinney: “He’s one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever do it. Very dynamic. For us, we’ve just got to go out there and be ready to execute. It’s definitely going to be fun being able to play against him, and obviously the guys around him are really good too. It’s going to be a challenge for us as a defense and as a team. I think we know that.”
The Giants’ quarterback, Daniel Jones, has not yet been measured for a bust at Canton the way Rodgers has — but thankfully for the Giants, his balky ankle didn’t need to be fitted for a cast, either. He looked mobile, if a little slow, on the video emanating from the Giants’ practice an hour north of London on Friday afternoon.
So he will likely give it a go, and Davis Webb will be his caddy, and the Giants can hope it doesn’t come to something extreme, like when Tom Matte had to quarterback a Colts game in a pinch back in 1965 — or when Saquon Barkley had to take over just seven days ago, with Jones serving as a decoy out wide when he wasn’t hobbling on the sidelines.
“We look at him out there and we have a game plan that we try to execute,” Daboll said. “And we watch him do those plays. If we feel comfortable with him as a coaching staff, and obviously medical has to feel comfortable, we have to feel comfortable as well. And I’d say, he said this the other day, that again he’s made progress. I’d say good progress.”
So have the Giants. Three-and-one is already progress of the highest order. Four-and-one? They may have to tip a few cellar-temp ales to celebrate that one.
