Struggling New York Jets and Atlanta Falcons desperate for win as NFL makes long-awaited return to London

The title of a weekly feature running in the New York Times tells you all you need to know about the soggiest of dampened expectations heading into this season at MetLife Stadium: “Are the Jets watchable yet?”

Not “Can the Jets make the play-offs?”, nor “Can the Jets win this weekend?”, but “Are they even worth flicking on the telly for?”

That the column asks the same question of New York rivals, the Giants, is of scant consolation; hearing that your hated neighbour’s car has failed its MOT does little for your mood if you have just caught a scrap-metal merchant grinning at yours.

And, after three weeks (and three defeats), the answers were damning. One of the two expert verdicts insisted it was too early to consider the 17-game season a write-off, “but not by much”. The other was even less optimistic: “Find somewhere for a nice brunch instead.”

This weekend, as the Jets come to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to face the Atlanta Falcons, it will be breakfast on offer as the alternative Stateside, but far fewer are likely to be tempted away after their most encouraging display of the season so far.

Last weekend, the Jets beat potential post-season contenders Tennessee Titans in overtime to pick up their first win of the season and now head into the first International Series game since 2019 with a chance of matching their wins tally from last year a little more than a quarter of the way through the new campaign. Suddenly, things look a little less bleak.

“When you have a young group that gets a little success it really snowballs, and guys feel like they’ve become invincible,” said new head coach Robert Saleh this week.

The win over Tennessee was Saleh’s first as a head coach following his appointment in the summer, which made him the first Muslim to hold the top coaching gig at an NFL franchise, but having spent three years on the staff with perennial London tourists Jacksonville Jaguars, he brings plenty of transatlantic experience to the Jets’ first overseas game since 2015.

Both teams flew in overnight, arriving in the capital this morning, and the mood on the Falcons plane may have been a little less buoyant after their latest exhibition in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, Arthur Smith’s team leading Washington by eight points with four minutes to go on Sunday, only to slip to defeat and a 1-3 start.

The Falcons’ ‘choker’ tag largely stems from the infamous 2017 Super Bowl loss to the New England Patriots, when they surrendered a 28-3 advantage, but it appears more deeply ingrained and as far back as their previous London visit, in 2014, they somehow turned a 21-0 stroll into a 22-21 loss to the Detroit Lions at Wembley. It would be too obvious a gag to suggest they might feel more at home at Spurs, but Smith, who is, like Saleh, in his first season in charge, insists there are positive signs.

“You’ve got to get over wins and losses quickly in this league, whether we’re playing in London or the Maldives,” he said.

“We’re making progress. Nobody’s trying to cook the books here — I’m not trying to send out a shareholder letter to pump our stock up with some Wall Street analyst.

“You just look week to week. Week one wasn’t good enough, week two was a bit better, week three the same thing.”

The Manchester City and Liverpool of the NFL these teams are not, but both are desperate for the win; after all, 2-3 looks a heck of a lot better than 1-4.

For British fans who have had to wait two years for the league’s return to these shores that should, at least, make this clash watchable.

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