The NFL preseason is continuing in Week 3 and many coaches around the league consider that third game to be the most important to the team as it can be like an audition for the regular season and on Thursday night there will be two games as the New England Patriots take on the Detroit Lions, while on the other side the Baltimore Ravens will play against the Carolina Panthers.
The schedule in Week 3 has a number of interesting games, as the New York Giants and Jets will play on Saturday at MetLife Stadium, while Friday has two great matchups with the Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers playing at Lambeau and the Chicago Bears and Oakland Raiders facing off in the Bay Area. The Ravens and Panthers game is an interesting matchup, as the Ravens are coming into the season as Super Bowl champions and the Panthers are coming in for the third year under Cam Newton and are expecting improvement after a solid 6-3 finish after starting 1-6 last year.
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Newton has shown flashes of brilliance in his short career, but he has yet to put things together like Flacco did last season and now he has the chance to prove himself in the short time he plays against the Super Bowl champions on Thursday night. The Panthers made a number of additions to their roster over the offseason on offense and they will need those pieces to step up, as Jonathan Stewart is dealing with an injury and likely will miss the start of the season. Newton will be looking at DeAngelo Williams more than ever and now the team has the chance to prove something against the Ravens.
Baltimore has had a number of changes from their Super Bowl team from last year, as names like Ed Reed, Ray Lewis and Dannell Ellerbe as well as Paul Kruger are no longer around and with Dennis Pitta being lost for the season, players will have to step up. The team signed Dallas Clark to be a tight end after Pitta was injured and they are also expecting Torrey Smith to step up after Anquan Boldin was traded to the 49ers after the Super Bowl.
The team knows what it has in Ray Rice and they expect another excellent season from him as well and along with Bernard Pierce they could have a solid rushing attack. The team just traded for running back Delone Carter from the Indianapolis Colts for more depth and now he comes on as the team is finishing up the preseason and since he was traded for, he could have a chance to make the roster. He comes in after rushing for 27 yards this preseason and he has nearly 500 yards rushing in his career.
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