The New England Patriots will play the Carolina Panthers on Friday night to get Week 3 of the NFL 2015 preseason underway. Both teams will have high hopes for this coming season and with just a few weeks now until the regular season commences they will want to turn things up a notch or two for today's game. The game has a scheduled start time of 7.30 p.m. ET and can be watched online through live stream via the link below.
Week 3 of the preseason is when things usually start getting more serious for NFL teams, and that should mean we are in for a good game tonight.
The Patriots have a lot more re-organization than they had hoped for, and must prepare for life without Tom Brady for the start of the season.
The Panthers also have extra adjustments to make after finding out that Kelvin Benjamin will be out for the whole season with an ACL tear. Quarterback Cam Newton looked out of form last week in the first half against the Miami Dolphins, and was unable to connect well with his young receivers.
Carolina will be hoping that Newton and the receivers can connect much better today to give them extra confidence ahead of the season beginning in a few weeks time.
Newton was only able to complete 4 of 10 passes for 42 yards last week, and gave away an interception to the Dolphins.
The Patriots will have noted that and will be hoping to rattle Newton and his receivers early on and not let them settle.
But by far the biggest concern for the Patriots at this point will be trying to ensure that life without Tom Brady does not undermine their entire season. The quarterback will serve a four game suspension due to DeflateGate, and that means backup Jimmy Garoppolo will have to step up and hold things over until Brady makes his return. Garoppolo has been making progress each week, and the Patriots will be hoping for further strides forward this week.
In Week 1 of the preseason, Garoppolo could only manage a very mediocre 20 of 30 completions for 159 yards and a pick. He was also sacked an alarming seven times.
But in Week 2 things improved significantly and he was able to post 28 completions of 33 throws for 269 yards, one touchdown, one interception and zero sacks.
Whether he can improve more remains to be seen tonight.
The New England Patriots against the Carolina Panthers has a scheduled start time of 7.30 p.m. ET and can be watched online through live stream by clicking here.
