NFL is on 25th London game, has still never had two winning teams

[Rusher]

On Sunday the NFL will play its 25th regular-season game in London. It still hasn’t sent a great matchup across the pond.

In fact, Sunday’s Bears-Raiders game makes the NFL 25-for-25 in failing to produce a London matchup between two winning teams. Eight London games have matched up two teams with losing records.

In part that’s because the NFL has tended to send teams to London that struggle to fill their home stadiums, and those tend to be the worse teams in the league. But it’s also just been bad luck some years, with games that looked good on paper when the schedule came out becoming stinkers by the time the teams took the field.

The end of that ugly streak could be in sight: In Week Six, the Buccaneers and Panthers meet in London. They’re both 2-2 now, so if they both win on Sunday, they’ll both be 3-2 and London will finally have a game between winning teams.

Here are the 25 London games so far, with the teams’ records heading into the game:

2007: Giants (5-2) vs. Dolphins (0-7)
2008: Chargers (3-4) vs. Saints (3-4)
2009: Patriots (4-2) vs. Buccaneers (0-6)
2010: Broncos (2-5) vs. 49ers (1-6)
2011: Bears (3-3) vs. Buccaneers (4-2)
2012: Patriots (4-3) vs. Rams (3-4)
2013: Steelers (0-3) vs. Vikings (0-3)
2013: 49ers (5-2) vs. Jaguars (0-7)
2014: Dolphins (1-2) vs. Raiders (0-3)
2014: Lions (5-2) vs. Falcons (2-5)
2014: Cowboys (6-3) vs. Jaguars (1-8)
2015: Jets (2-1) vs. Dolphins (1-2)
2015: Bills (3-3) vs. Jaguars (1-5)
2015: Lions (1-6) vs. Chiefs (2-5)
2016: Colts (1-2) vs. Jaguars (0-3)
2016: Giants (3-3) vs. Rams (3-3)
2016: Washington (4-3) vs. Bengals (3-4)
2017: Jaguars (1-1) vs. Ravens (2-0)
2017: Saints (1-2) vs. Dolphins (1-1)
2017: Cardinals (3-3) vs. Rams (4-2)
2017: Vikings (5-2) vs. Browns (0-7)
2018: Seahawks (2-3) vs. Raiders (1-4)
2018: Titans (3-3) vs. Chargers (4-2)
2018: Jaguars (3-4) vs. Eagles (3-4)
2019: Raiders (2-2) vs. Bears (3-1)