The Dallas Cowboys travel to London to take on the Jacksonville Jaguars, live on Sky Sports

Wembley’s third and final chapter in the story of this NFL season sees the Dallas Cowboys come to the capital to take on a Jacksonville Jaguars team that have made London their second home.

Live NFL

The teams could hardly be in more contrasting positions going into the week 10 fixture – despite two successive losses, the Cowboys are firmly in the playoff picture at 6-3 and are just one win back of NFC East leaders Philadelphia. They also still have to face the Eagles home and away.

The Jaguars, meanwhile, are yet again facing the prospect of being on the outside when the post season begins. They sit at 1-8 and have conceded over 30 points in five of those defeats. Once again they are looking forward to the draft, rather than a Super Bowl run.

Still, a change of scenery could lead to a change in fortunes, right? A victory would certainly please owner Shad Khan (who will squeeze in a double-header over the weekend, also watching the football club he owns, Fulham, play Huddersfield Town), even if his American investment are already certain of missing out on posting a first winning campaign since 2007.

Will Romo play?

Will he, or won’t he? The biggest question coming into this contest is over the health of quarterback Tony Romo and whether he will be available to start for the Cowboys, despite having two small broken bones in a back that already underwent off-season surgery.

The fact he travelled (because you’re always taking a risk sticking a man with a bad back on a transatlantic flight), plus the fact he has practised since arriving on English soil, suggests the quarterback will be under centre from the outset this weekend.

It will be a risk, but one the Cowboys will clearly feel is worth taking. Brandon Weeden struggled when replacing Romo – who was injured the last time his team faced Jacksonville, back in 2010 - against the Arizona Cardinals, throwing two key interceptions as Dallas squandered an early 10-0 lead in Texas.

Keep on running

As well as triumphing on their travels, the Cardinals became the first opponents to keep DeMarco Murray under 100 yards in a game last week. The NFL’s leading rusher was held to a total of 79 on 19 carries.

The Jags, though, are not Arizona when it comes to stopping opposing runners. They have given up on average 123.4 yards a game so far, a number that only went up after Cincinnati rookie Jeremy Hill managed 154 against them last week in the Bengals' victory.

Murray should therefore be licking his lips at the prospect of facing Jacksonville, though the fact the game is played on real turf and in an open-air venue in November could slow down his progress. Indeed, judging by the Jaguars’ defensive stats for the year, it could be the only thing that slows him down.

Painful memories

Wembley was not too kind for the Jags in 2013 – they suffered an eighth straight loss on the season when going down 42-10 to the San Francisco 49ers, Colin Kaepernick rushing for two touchdowns and throwing for another in the rout.

Chad Henne was the starting quarterback for Jacksonville that day, while Maurice Jones-Drew had 75 rushing yards on 19 carries. The former is unlikely to feature on Sunday, seeing as he was demoted from his starting role midway through a 44-17 loss to Indianapolis in week three. Jones-Drew, meanwhile, definitely won’t be in England – he’s now on the roster in Oakland instead.

The heavy defeat to the 49ers was the first of four regular season games Jacksonville will play at the home of the England football team, and they can only hope for better fortunes this year. At least in this campaign they arrived with a win on their record already!

Future thoughts

With Henne now in a headset on the sidelines and Jones-Drew a Raider, the Jags have turned to two new faces – Blake Bortles and Denard Robinson - to be the cornerstones of their offence.

Rookie quarterback Bortles was rather thrown in at the deep end against the Colts, and has just about kept his head above water since. He has shown flashes of ability, but often undermined his efforts with turnovers. So far he has thrown 13 interceptions and also fumbled three times.

Robinson, meanwhile, has risen to the challenge of becoming an every-down back. He has 423 yards and averages five yards per carry, the same as Murray for the Cowboys. Together with Bortles, the tail-back - who was hampered by a nerve injury in his hand last year - offers some hope for the future for a franchise that badly needs something to grasp in what will be another losing season.

What they said…

"If you love the game, you'll always try to get on the field. Any time you miss a game, it's just hard," Tony Romo talks about his fitness

"Each week, we have to prepare for both quarterbacks. In our mindset, we anticipate seeing Tony, but we'll be ready for both," Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley covers all bases

"It has cachet. It has an air about it of international competition. I think that London is probably one of two or three cities outside of the United States that really does have all of the criteria that I would look at for having an NFL team," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on the potential for a franchise in London

Watch the Dallas Cowboys take on the Jacksonville Jaguars LIVE on Sky Sports 2 HD from 5pm on Sunday, or keep up to date with the action via our interactive blog from Wembley