Arian Foster

Falcons coach Mike Smith must be pleased with how well his defense played against the wholesale Dolphins jersey . The Carolina Panthers' defense has quietly had good performances and has shown a better pass rush than expected. The only debate about the starting quarterback job in St. Louis is when the Rams want to announce Sam Bradford is the starter. He picked apart the Patriots' secondary and already looks like a new version of Matt Ryan

Matthew Stafford of the Lions looked particularly sharp against the Browns. Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco looked downright scary in the no-huddle offense, completing 21 of 34 passes for 229 yards against the Giants. No quarterback has looked better in the preseason than Aaron Rodgers of the Packers. Whether he's throwing short or deep, Rodgers is already in a zone.

But enough about the negatives. Plenty of positives came out of Week 3. Texans halfback Arian Foster, undrafted a year ago, continues his amazing rise to the team's starting halfback job by rushing for 110 yards on 18 carries against the Cowboys. Rookie runners C.J. Spiller of the Bills, Jahvid Best of the cheap Lions jersey and Ryan Mathews of the Chargers all had a great week.

Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was a loser for his decision-making in throwing two interceptions against the Cardinals, but that can be fixed. What Cutler must worry about is an offensive line that allowed four sacks. Vikings quarterback Brett Favre may have received a partial win with word from wide receiver Percy Harvin that doctors may have identified reasons for his migraine headaches, but Favre took a few extra hits and has extra worries knowing wide receiver Sidney Rice is out until midseason.

There were plenty of losers on the field, too. Pittsburgh QB Dennis Dixon made enough blunders against the Broncos on Sunday night to show why the Steelers -- who have no margin for error during Ben Roethlisberger jersey's suspension -- need to go into the regular season with Byron Leftwich as the starter. Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart did better Saturday night against the Bears, but he may not have done enough to wrestle the starting job away from Derek Anderson, who shows a little more spark in running the Arizona offense. Tough decision for Ken Whisenhunt.

Fortunately, officials have one more tuneup this week to fix the problem.

The biggest loser of Week 3 was clearly the decision to place the referee behind the offense for safety reasons. After 49 preseason games, the positioning change looks messy. Peyton Manning was clearly affected by how slow umpire Garth DeFelice set the ball before plays and then tried to move to the right spot behind him. DeFelice isn't to blame. In retrospect, the mechanics didn't seem to be well thought out because in this age of no-huddle offenses and quick calls by quarterbacks, the game shouldn't be slowed by umpires trying to get into position.
Dress rehearsals are over in the wholesale NFL hats as 32 teams completed the critical third week of the preseason, the week in which starters generally play until the second half.