In 2015, the Chiefs — with Matt Nagy as their quarterbacks coach — traveled to London for the NFL’s International Series and routed the Lions 45-10 at Wembley Stadium.
“We went there and we had a successful week,” Nagy said during the NFL annual meetings this week. “I thought it was great.
“That’s where you’ve got to rely on your support staff to make sure that everyone’s in it together. And I think we’ll handle it well.”
The Bears still are deciding what to do for their game in London this year against the Raiders. But it sounds as if they’re favoring a shorter trip. It’s what the Chiefs did in 2015 — and obviously that worked out extremely well.
“We went over there on a Thursday,” Nagy said. “We weren’t there the whole week and that felt like still plenty of time. Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night and then we came back. That was still a good time. There’s still time to be able to see things over there and do what you want to do, but I thought the shorter week was better. I’m not saying we’re going to do that but that’s just what we did.”
The Chiefs had only one evening practice on Friday in London.
“It was like Friday night lights,” Nagy said. “We had the music playing and the guys were a little bit tired but it like sparked us a little bit. They felt like they were in high school again and everybody had an energy going. Then we had a walkthrough the next day and then played. I’ll always remember that.”
Chairman George McCaskey described the scheduling for this year’s trip as “entirely a football decision.”
In 2011, the Bears had similar plans as the Chiefs did. They traveled to London on Thursday for their matchup against the Buccaneers. Of course, they won 24-18.
“Whenever [general manager Ryan Pace] and Matt say we’re going out, that’s when we’re going out,” McCaskey said. “And whenever they say we’re coming back, we’re coming back. And hopefully we’re coming back from a with a win.”
