Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) The Buffalo Bills came out flat against the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday in London. The Jaguars were rested, having been there for over a week, with back to back games overseas.
The Bills arrived in London Friday morning. That's the current trend for teams, based on advice from sports scientists. London is five hours ahead of New York.
The sluggish Bills punted on their first four possessions and managed just 29 yards on the ground, and ended up losing to the Jags 25-20.
Bills coach Sean McDermott was questioning the science after the game.
“We’ll see if, whatever comes up down the road in terms of us coming back here, but we need to evaluate everything because I didn’t feel like our energy was good enough early in the game. [The Jaguars] had better energy than we did,” McDermott said.
Sal Capaccio, Bills sideline reporter for WGR, traveled with the team. "Everybody's different. For me, it was an adjustment, but I thought I was pretty acclimated by the time that Sunday came around. It felt pretty normal," he said.
Capaccio spoke with players in the locker room about it. "They said it's no excuse. They told us they did everything that they were supposed to do."
Still, will we ever know if jet lag was the issue?
"The Jaguars did the exact same thing last week. And won a football game," noted Capaccio. "So the answer is, I don't know."
The Baltimore Ravens left for London Monday morning and will spend the entire week in London before their game against the Tennessee Titans on October 15.
The Ravens made the decision after being routed by the Jaguars 44-7 in 2017. It was the second worst blowout in an NFL international game.
Like the Bills, the Titans will fly to London on Thursday evening.