[TheShark72]

Some very eyebrow raising scores to digest from week 3 of the preseason...as well as a fair few significant injuries to report. To the results first :

San Fransisco 49ers 37 - 30 Chicago Bears
Philadelphia Eagles 27 - 17 New England Patriots
Atlanta Falcons 17 - 3 Tennessee Titans
Dallas Cowboys 23 - 22 Houston Texans
Denver Broncos 24 - 27 Green Bay Packers
Detroit Lions 26 - 6 Cleveland Browns
New York Jets 10 - 7 New York Giants
Miami Dolphins 24 - 0 Kansas City Chiefs
Carolina Panthers 47 - 3 Washington Redskins
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 17 - 23 Jacksonville Jaguars
Cincinatti Bengals 0 - 13 New Orleans Saints
Minnesota Vikings 10 - 12 Pittsburgh Steelers
St Louis Rams 24 - 10 Baltimore Ravens
Oakland Raiders 0 - 24 Arizona Cardinals
Indianapolis Colts 7 - 20 Buffalo Bills
San Diego Chargers 18 - 17 Seattle Seahawks

Week 3 Scores Review

Some standout scores here - Carolina's demolition of Washington, another New England Patriots loss, another Indianapolis loss, a shutout Miami win all being "WTF" kinda scores.

The Patriots will not be ringing alarm bells at all just yet, but they will not like going 0 (wins) and 3 (losses) in their three games so far. Tom Brady, the NFL's #1 stud QB is still battling a nagging injury and hasnt played at all so far. Their first choice offence has played a few series but it just doesnt look right so far for the Pats....one preseason game left and they will wanna see signs of it starting to click.

Very much the same for the Colts - they are Peyton Manning-less and his injury seems a touch more serious than Brady's - though all reports out of Indy say he will be fine for their first regular season game. But the offence has looked very impotent so far and that cannot all be attributed to the lack of Manning under centre. The worry for the Colts here is they are in a very tough division - arguably the toughest in the NFL. If they dont hit the ground running, their recent dominance could well be under threat, especially by the Jacksonville Jaguars

No doubting that Miami will get the headlines - for a team who only won 1 out of 16 regular season games last season (one of the worst records ever in NFL history) they have won 2 out of 3 preseason games and Chad Pennington seems to be doing well as new QB at the Fins. A shutout is always a fine effort in any NFL game and whilst the Chiefs arent the strongest of opposition, they arent the weakest either.

Amazingly, only the Detroit Lions have won all their preseason games so far - the Patriots, Browns and Bears are yet to pick up a win of any note so far also.

It should be noted that as said, the preseason games are more for testing out squad depth and making final cuts/tweaks to teams rosters than being a sign of what is to come. Still not nice seeing a L against your team name though....

Couple of big injury blows - the New York Giants have lost one of their key defensive men for the season after an injury sustained in the loss to the Jets - Osi Umenyiora needs knee surgery and this is huge as he was the leading sack getter for the Big Blue in their SB winning season last year. Expect the Giants to trade to cover this huge loss to their D

As well as high profile QB injuries to Brady (Patriots) and Manning (Colts), the Vikings still have injury concerns over their starting QB, Tavaris Jackson, while Derek Anderson of the Browns has still not been cleared to resume training following his concussion. On the other side of the coin, the QB's of the Eagles (McNabb) and Chargers (Rivers) seem to have overcome their own injury worries gained last year and both look set and healthy to lead their teams into battle.

Cincinatti big name WR Chad Johnson needs shoulder surgery but is refusing to have it, as he knows that will pretty much spell the end of his season also. How this impacts on his selection/performance remains to be seen, but expecy opposing defences to target his shoulder and show him no mercy if he does line up against them.

One more week of preseason action to go, the final rosters are announced, then we are underway.........!!!!!!!!