Full Coverage Of Thursday’s NFL Preseason Games

Football is back ... kind of. The NFL preseason holds a special place in the hearts of fans. On the one hand, there is delight that football is back. On the other hand, it is preseason football.

To facilitate our Friday-morning quarterbacking session, our crack team of GIF gurus spent the night waist deep in digital bytes and bits, chugging sugary energy drinks and powering through pack after pack of Marlboro reds to helps us recap the evening.

This is the same ref that mixed up Atlanta and Arizona ... twice. Now there’s this.

They forgot to set the first down marker. And because they forgot to set the chains, the ref had to come out and say “the first down chains were not set prior to the snap so we shut the play down prior to the snap.” That was a real sentence uttered over the microphone from the department of redundancy department.

Fletcher played in 10 games for the Pats last year and finished with 32 tackles.

For more on the Patriots, visit Pats Pulpit and SB Nation Boston.

Mix Arizona and Atlanta up once, shame on you. Mix Arizona and Atlanta up twice and ... you know what, just get out. You’re done here. You can hit the showers for the rest of the night.

Well, this was just horrible. Again, the same ref stumbled and bumbled through a challenge explanation. And again he mixed up Arizona and Atlanta. At least this time he caught himself, I guess.

All in all, the first drive of the day was solid for Manning. He threw the ball 20 yards down the field a couple of times and showed that at least some of his arm strength was there. We didn’t see a bomb out of him but that’s to be expected this early in the preseason.

That drive was all she wrote for Manning. Backup Caleb Hanie relieved him on the next series.

I bet every one of them believes they’re the only one making that joke, too.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say this Julio Jones guy is going to be pretty good.

For all the Julio Jones you can get, visit The Falcoholic and SB Nation Atlanta.

Preseason is a good time to work out the kinks. And ESPN probably needs to work this out:

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Is that the Manningface I see? It’s been a while.

Manning isn’t expected to play very long against the Bears. Broncos executive John Elway said you can expect a series or two from Denver’s new quarterback, depending on how things go.

Greg A. Bedard of the Boston Globe reports that Brady has confirmed he will be playing in Thursday’s game against the Saints. Brady did not play in the 2011 preseason opener, but that was mostly due to concerns about the offensive line following the NFL lockout.

For more on the Saints, check out Canal Street Chronicles. For more on the Patriots, head over to Pats Pulpit.

Manning traditionally doesn’t do a whole during the preseason and it doesn’t sound like that will change in Denver. Broncos executive John Elway told NFL Network that Manning will likely see one or two series’ of action before getting pulled.

Manning’s health was one of our things to watch for tonight. It’s been well over a year since he’s taken a snap in a game. His health, especially his arm strength, is one of the key points to watch in this game. Unfortunately, we’ll have to figure that out in just a series or two.

Game Date/Time: Thursday, August 9; 7:30pm ET

Location: Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts