Raiders Early Preview: Visiting London

The circumference of the earth measured at the equator is 24,901 miles wide. The average jet liner travels at about 550 miles per hour, meaning it takes about 45 hours to fly around the world without stops. The Raiders will cover many of these miles.

Road Trip

Coincidentally, the Raiders will be travelling a lot this season. In fact, the Raiders will travel 35,308 miles this season, which is the most in the league. This means the Raiders are in for about 62 hours of travel.

The Raiders start their season off with two straight games at home, against the Denver Broncos and the Kansas Chiefs, but then begin the toughest stretch of the season where the team will have four games on the road over their next five, including one in London against the Chicago Bears.

Hiccups

Not only does the team travel the most, the Raiders also have the most difficult strength of schedule based on the outcomes of the 2018 season.

Therefore, the Raiders face the longest travel and the toughest schedule, and their toughest challenge of the season arises during their toughest stretch.

London

The Chicago Bears were excellent throughout the entire year (12-4) and had an opportunity to beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card Round with ten seconds left in the game, parked on the Eagles’ 35-yard line, but things just did not bounce in favor of the Bears.

The Bears made one major change in the off-season. By sending Jordan Howard to the Eagles in order to give Tarik Cohen the reigns. Chicago is also in the process of executing a kicker search after cutting Cody Parkey. Nevertheless, their biggest names are still around as Mack, Trubisky, and Cohen remains on the roster.

The Bears are one of the better teams the Raiders will play this season. However, the off-field situations will make this game the most difficult.

Rough Stretch

The Raiders will travel to London for their Week 5 matchup against the Bears. Nevertheless, before this, the Raiders will have played three straight games against opponents with above-.500 records, with away games in Weeks 3 & 4 taking them from Oakland to the Midwest to play the Minnesota Vikings and the Indianapolis Colts. If the Raiders return to Oakland after each game, the Raiders will travel about 12,000 miles in the three-week stretch.

Reunion

The media will also be buzzing. Not only about the game being in London, but due to this being the first time the Raiders will face Khalil Mack since his departure.

On the positive side, the Raiders facing their toughest game in Week 5 means easier roads for the last eleven. Also, the Raiders enjoy their bye week immediately following this. As a result, those days off could lead to a decent playoff run.