Preview Preseason Game 3: Patriots at Panthers

Tonight the Patriots have what's generally thought of as the first dress rehearsal for the regular season. Typically this is the one preseason game where you'll see the regular players get a lot more snaps.

With Jimmy Garopollo being the Patriots' starter for the first 4 regular season games, will we see a lot of him, or will we see a lot of Brady? Your guess is as good as mine. As on now all of the people in the know are saying that Brady will be seeing some action tonight. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't in the stadium come game time. Now won't that make for a great conspiracy theory if Brady is once again not in the stadium during the game?

My silly theory of Brady not being in the stadium had 2 thought processes. One is that maybe missing 4 preseason games will in fact cover his ludicrous suspension. The other is that Belichick doesn't want him in the stadium now since he won't be able to be their at the start of the season. My second theory is much more plausible as Belichick is always planning and preparing for the future.

When Garopollo does take the field against last year's NFC champs it will be the second year in row that he's faced them in the preseason. Last year he helped hand them their only preseason loss as he went 13 for 17.

Besides paying attention to who is throwing passes for New England tonight, I'll also be paying attention to the offensive line to see if they are coming together. This should be a good test as the Carolina fans will hopefully bring some noise.

Tonight will also be a good night to assess our defensive unit as they will be facing a pretty potent offense.