Football season is coming up. Let's use this thread for any football and maybe other sports related chatter.

Anything interesting happen on the east coast last night?

Patriots are still "tuning up", not looking particularly sharp so far, but there are, as always, promising signs.

How about the Giants and the Jets? What are the early impressions of them so far? Looking good, or problems looming?

Lions are looking good; may have a slightly improved secondary this year.

Let's not forget this is still the pre-season. Results achieved so far have little relationship with the future. The major cutdowns are still to happen. Everybody is playing plain vanilla offenses and defenses. Nobody is showing any exotic packages, 1) because they do not want to give away any secrets and, 2) because the players are still learning them. Although the third preseason game is the one in which the starters play the longest. Next game first string warms the bench.

I made it to the half time of Giants-Bears, Giants leading 26-7. Woke up this morning and the final score was 30-26 Bears or something like that. From what I saw, the G-men looked good although suddenly they are thin at cornerback - Terrell Thomas was injured a few days ago and his replacement, Prince Amukamara went down yesterday with a high ankle sprain.

The Jets look like the Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. They still haven't scored a TD in the preseason. Let's see how they do against Carolina Sunday night.

Looks like the Red Sox are dismantling the team and starting from scratch. Dodgers are getting many of the Sox "castoffs".

Well, the Patriots have not looked great either. Tackle has been a problem all pre-season, and that was not foreseen. Nate Solder, who played a lot of right tackle, and some left tackle last season, was dubbed heir apparent to replace Matt Light, who retired at left tackle. Sebastian Vollmer, a solid right tackle, but frequently hurt, has been out but is due to return.

On the interior, the Patriots have been rotating numerous players at left and right guards, as well as center. There is a chance that returning center, Dan Koppen may not make the team; he plays only center. Dan Connolly filled in well for him last year. If Koppen puts it together, he could start at center and Connolly could shift to right guard. Logan Mankins returns this week, but he has been on the PUP list since camp opened, as has Vollmer, also returned.

So the Patriots have a lot of tuning on the O Line to do before they are really to unleash their high octane offense. They'd better get ready for the Giants; the Eagles ate them up, and so did the Bucs on Friday. Don't expect to see much of Brady unless that line gets cleaned up; instead the Pats will probably send out their scabs and see which, if any, of them stick.

Bellichick also said, quite realistically, that the entire team probably won't be in full sixty minute game shape much before October. That's not to say they won't show some bright spots, but they won't be their usual fine tuned machine much before then.

Hopefully that O Line gets back continuity; then it will do well. As for the defense, the run defense has looked good; the pass defense did well in game one with a good rush, only fair in game two and not very good at all in game three, taking into account how much progress ought to have been made.

But as you say, these are just observations. Patriots are deep at most positions, something other teams wish for. Even with injuries, they usually have at least three people per position ready to go and they teach people multiple positions so they can even go deeper than that in emergencies.

Giants might eat up the Pats this Wed unless both teams just go out with their fringe players to see who makes it and who gets cut.

Giants staff already has said that only the backups will play the last game. They don't want the starters to get hurt just before the season, and they want to give the other players a chance to impress. Cutdown to 53 players is next Sunday, if I'm not mistaken.

I did not know if it was next Sunday or Monday for the final cut, but you are right; glad to hear that the Giants will play backups; I hope the Patriots do too. Not expecting the game to be much more than evaluation of players "on the bubble".

The Jets finally got their "ground and pound" going but it's the offense "grinds" and the defence that pounds. The defence is starting to look like the swarming defence of couple of years ago when 3rd and long meant a jailbreak attack by the Jets.

The offense is still without a TD. The offensive line seems like it is having problems moving their opponents which is surprising since there are three Pro Bowlers playing on it. But, as we keep saying, it is only the preseason. On September 9th all will come together automagically for the Jets offense and it will be a force to be reconned with. (yeah, right)

My guess, and it is only a guess, is that the Jets will eventually do better than what we've seen in pre season. In recent years, the Patriots have not particularly impressed in pre season either, nor particularly in the first month of the regular season. In the Patriots case, that seems to be in line with Bellichick's expectation. He wants to see them improve every day, but he doesn't expect to see them in December or January form the first week of September. Relative to other teams, he does expect them to do their jobs, do their best, play like a team, respond to coaching, and go out in the regular season with the intent to win the next game, and that's as far ahead as they will admit to looking.

I am positive their team goal each year is to win it all, but they stubbornly, and wisely refuse to talk about that unless and until they get there. I think that is wise.

As far as addressing their weaknesses from last year, they definitely made an attempt to do so. It remains to be seen whether or not they were successful; time will tell; they did try. On the surface, the Patriots seemed to do better than other AFC East opponents in addressing their need. Most analysts believe that the other team that may finally move up is the Bills. Those same analysts see the Jets about where they were last year in a best case scenario and much worse in a worst case scenario.

At the end of the day, none of us really know, one way or the other. Any of the teams has fine athletes and on any given week is able to beat any other team. The Patriots team does look stacked and it once again seems to have good depth, but like anything else, we'll have to see how that actually translates to play over the sixteen game season.

They can hardly do worse. :-D

All it takes is an injury to couple of the key players and a team's season is down the toilet.

In 1998 the Jets were poised to take the league by storm based on their performance in 1997. Then Vinnie Testaverde blew out his Achilles tendon in the first game of the season. Sic transit gloria.

Going into this season, the Giants arguably were favorites to get back to the Super Bowl. They thought they had depth at cornerback. Good thing they did because right now one of their starting corners is fourth on the depth chart. The three ahead of him are out with injuries for varying periods of time.

Carolina Panthers may just have to give Maurice Jones-Drew whatever he wants. They are quickly running out of running backs.

Well, for either the Patriots or the Giants, if Tom or Eli went down, there would go their Super Bowl chances. Same if any of the key offense or defense guys went completely out.

I do feel, unless I am completely mistaken, that if the Patriots were to lose a few fairly important players (and they very well may), they are still poised with enough depth in most positions to remain competitive, but probably not champions. I am not as familiar with the Giant or Jet rosters, but the Giants are probably in better shape than the Jets in that regard, based on what I know from past seasons. In fact, the Giants WERE limited by injuries, as were the Patriots, last year, and both of them made it all the way to the Super Bowl. Injuries in the secondary to players that they had hoped would work out better did still make the difference, and as a result, the Giants prevailed; they got more of their key players effective down the stretch and had a great finish.

Green Bay is another wild card. They obviously had a great season last year, but played relatively ineffectively during the playoffs. New Orleans was another good one, just a bit short. Out of all of them, the Giants had the best secondary when it counted.

Detroit looks good again, but I think unless more positive changes take place, they are still going to come up short. They look roughly like they did last year, so it could be a really good three team race between the Bears, Lions, and Packers. Injuries on any of the teams could wipe them out. The Bears were really good last year until Forte was hurt, and they had a few defensive injuries that really hurt them. In that division, the team with the best secondary could emerge, because all three of those teams have potentially lethal running and passing offenses.

I don't see anyone challenging the Giants, barring complete breakdown in their division. Skins? Nothing I know of. Cowboys? Give me a break! Eagles? Maybe, but though the Eagles D Line really brings it, their O Line is questionable, and Vick doesn't seem to know when to dump to save his body; he'll be lucky to make it through the year, which is just what Jaws said last year - and was proven correct.

I wonder if the Niners can step it up? They had an awesome defense, but they need a bit better offense. Again, injuries hurt them; with fewer injuries, great defense and solid running, with ball control could do it for them with a slightly improved air attack.