Looking at Week 3 of the preseason.

Week 3 of the preseason gets underway tonight with the Jacksonville Jaguars on the road at the Green Bay Packers, and the New Orleans Saints on the road at the Kansas City Chiefs.

We’re just two weeks away from the start of the regular season, and it can’t get here fast enough. We’re going to start seeing more of the starters in the last two preseason games, but that means we’ll be seeing more caution, because no one wants to get their starters hurt this close to the start of the season.

This week features several matchups between in-state foes. There’s the Cowboys-Texans matchup at Reliant Stadium on Saturday, which I’ll be covering as usual, from start to finish. Along with those matchups, the Giants take on the Jets at the Meadowlands, the Ravens take on the Redskins at Fedex Field (I was tempted to call it RFK Stadium for a second), and the Eagles go to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers on Sunday night.

Outside of the NFC East, the Bucs take on the Dolphins in Miami. Monday Night Football will see the Falcons on national television on the same day of Michael Vick’s plea hearing, taking on the Bengals at the Georgia Dome. I’ll take a wild guess and say that the announcers might spend more time talking about something Vick-related than talking about the action on the field.

Here’s the complete Week 3 schedule.

Thursday

Jacksonville at Green Bay
New Orleans at Kansas City

Friday

Tennessee at Buffalo
New England at Carolina
St. Louis at Oakland

Saturday

Detroit at Indianapolis
Tampa Bay at Miami
Baltimore at Washington
San Francisco at Chicago
New York Jets vs. New York Giants
Dallas at Houston
Cleveland at Denver
Minnesota at Seattle
San Diego at Arizona

Sunday

Philadelphia at Pittsburgh

Monday

Cincinnati at Atlanta

Dallas, Detroit, Green Bay, and Miami will all be putting 2-0 starts on the line this weekend, and the Patriots, Colts, Bengals, Chiefs, and Cardinals will be looking to get their first wins of the preseason. Somehow, I don’t think the Colts, Patriots, and Bengals are too worried about going 0-2 their preseason starts, because they’ll likely be getting the wins when they really count. And, for the Lions, Packers, and Dolphins, we’ll know before long if the preseason is their high point of the year.

And, an injury note that won’t wait for today’s news roundup - CB Terence Newman likely won’t play in the last two preseason games because of a strained heel. The injury kept him out of the Broncos game, and I figured he’d be back for this weekend, but since it’s a strain, Wade Phillips is going to give Newman a couple of weeks to rest and recover so that he’ll be in tip-top shape for the season opener vs. the Giants. Aaron Glenn is the probable starter in his place.

I’ll have more Dallas and NFL news later on, and tomorrow,I’ll preview the Texans game and have the weekly ‘Hub Headliner’ feature. It’s a little late this week, since I’ve been running around like a headless chicken trying to take care of a lot (including a new site that will be launching in the next couple of days), and some things have had to be pushed back. But, I’m catching up now, and I’ll most certainly be here this weekend.