captadamnj

After yesterday's game, my gut feeling was that Cassel wasn't the reason we lost. Looking for something to back that up, I took a look at scoring drives through 3 quarters around the league on Sunday. (Let's face it, the game was over at 35-13 by the start of the 4th.) This doesn't take in consideration field position at the start of drives, non-QB fumbles after long drives, etc., but the bottom line is putting points on the board, and the glory and the blame for the success of the offense ultimately winds up on the shoulders of the QB.

The final tally of % of scoring drives through 3 quarters of all games yesterday, not including end of half possessions is below. I listed all the games down further to have a look, including Missed FG, which you may consider as the QB having done his job, but that only brings two other teams (SF vs. DET, which may also and winless, and BAL) into the 50% or greater bracket.

75% - 1 (SEA vs. STL)
71% - 1 (MIA)
63% - 1 (DEN)
57% - 1 (NYG)
56% - 1 (ATL vs. KC)
50% - 4 (ARI, DAL, NE, NO)

So there you go, only 5 of 30 teams had a better % of scoring drives than Cassel did yesterday. One of those was, of course, MIA, 2 were against teams that might go winless on the year (STL and KC), and 1 was in a game (DEN-NO) that more resembled a 4-4 hockey game than a football game. One of the other 50% teams was NO in the aforementioned DEN-NO game.

I'm not saying Cassel is a top 10 QB in the league. But he is not the reason the Pats lost in the manner they did yesterday. The long drives yielded by the Pats defense yesterday, 5 of which resulted in TD's, limited the Pats to the 2nd fewest possession through 3 quarters. Had the game been close going into the 4th quarter yesterday, I have every confidence we would've put another 7-10 points on the board, which would've been our highest scoring output of the year.

The defensive performance and failure by coaches to adjust to being run over by the same 2 plays - seam routes and the Ronnie Brown direct snap - are much bigger concerns.

ATL - 38 (5 of 9)
KC - 14 (2 of 10, 1 Missed FG)

BUF - 24 (3 of 11)
OAK - 23 (3 of 10, 1 Missed FG)

TB - 27 (1 of 9)
CHI - 24 (4 of 11, 1 Missed FG)

MIN - 20 (3 of 8)
CAR - 10 (1 of 8)

MIA - 38 (5 of 7, all TD)
NE - 13 (3 of 6)

NYG - 26 (4 of 7)
CIN - 23 (3 of 7)

TEN - 31 (4 of 10)
HOU - 12 (3 of 9)

WAS - 24 (3 of 7)
ARI - 17 (3 of 6)

DEN - 34 (5 of 8)
NO - 32 (5 of 10, 1 Missed FG)

SF - 31 (4 of 9, 1 Missed FG)
DET - 13 (2 of 8)

SEA - 37 (6 of 8)
STL - 13 (3 of 8)

BAL - 28 (3 of 8, 1 Missed FG)
CLE - 10 (2 of 9)

JAC - 23 (2 of 7)
IND - 21 (2 of 5)

PHI - 15 (2 of 7)
PIT - 6 (2 of 8)

DAL - 27 (4 of 8)
GB - 16 (3 of 8)

maverick4

Matt Cassel played well yesterday, it wasn't Cassel who gave up 5 TD's on pretty much the same play over and over.

For his 2nd start since high school, he played pretty well.

Box_O_Rocks

Thanks Capt.! (You may now wear the the cool MIB dark glasses of those branded blind homers by the footsieballs intelligentsia - congratulations and welcome to the club.)

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