bostonia3333

Say what you want about the F minus rated defense, but the best player on the field from both teams tonight was Matt Cassel. After 10 weeks of being on a leash from his coaches, the NFL world finally got to see what Matt Cassel is made of. He can be a leader and not just a game manager. Cassel was absolutely insane on that last drive. If Matt Cassel still has more ceiling than this, it will be an extremely interesting offseason.

maverick4

The next Steve Young, for multiple reasons

ALP

lets hope ALL the reasons u surmise are true....

__________________
Last time I lived in New England the Pats became a Dynasty

Then I moved away and they haven't won since

...now I'm moving back, and a Lombardi I predict

CheerforTom

I jumped on the Cassel bandwagon around week 3 and I've defended him before on the board, but I think his stats were a little inflated this game. He played a lot of prevent defence (not just on the last drive) and still struggled to move the ball at times, especially in the first half.

I'm thrilled he had a huge game stats-wise though.

Gwedd

The young gun played very well, and as much as I hate to lose to the effin' Jets, I can deal with this loss. The Pats played well and held out till the end. But for a play or two the score might well have been in our favour.

Good game, but especially for Cassel.

swheeler23

if he could connect on those long passes to Moss the Pats would be a Super Bowl contender. If he cant, the Pats will not get to the Super Bowl.

bostonia3333

Interesting you mentioned Steve Young. After tonight's performance, you can see an eerily similar situation developing. Remember when Joe Montana broke his hand after Leonard Marshall hit him in that '90 NFC title game? Montana was out for 2 years and Steve Young became the unpopular punching bag in SF, although he did win the MVP his first year as a starter. People in the Bay area still hated Young b/c he couldn't beat the Cowboys. The same thing has happened with Cassel this year. He's 6-4 as a starter, but people are disappointed he's not 10-0. We don't know how long Brady is out, but I have a feeling he won't be ready for training camp. Very interesting to see how this pans out.

Alex24

Cassel is doing a incredible job as a starting QB who pretty much had no prior experience as a QB in the NFL before this season lol,we as patriot fans need to realize that the defense is old period.

tombonneau

Agreed. They will also need to take some chances throwing the ball into the end zone in the red zone, but if Cassel can perfect (or even just improve) his deep ball, and the team starts letting him pass the ball into the end zone, the team will be tough to beat.

Cassel was easily the best QB on the field today, if not the best player. A win would have been amazing, but just to be in OT showed a lot.

Patriot Missile

It took Brady a few years under center to develop his deep ball. If it doesn't come to you naturally like some QB's, you have to work at it hard. I don't expect Cassel to be able to just start throwing them overnight.