Why We Lost Today

primetime said:

And that TD was because Ellis Hobbs gave the Patriots the ball at the Fins' 25.

To be fair, they should have had another TD that was called back and could have completely changed the candor of the game since it would have been the Patriots who opened the scoring, but Cassel and the offense looked terrible.

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Sorry, but what basis are you calling the Phins the worst team in the league? Their record from last year? As I just pointed out to gdp, teams change so much from year to year, that past results are not gauges of future per formance.

The entire OFFENCE looked Terrible. The O-line especially. And, if you've listened to Belichick at all over the past 7 seasons, you should know damn well that games are won and lost in the trenches and the Pats o-line has been horrible. Particularly Kaczur.

If the O-line isn't doing its job, there is now way the RBs can do theirs and there is no way that the QB can do his. And that is NOT Cassel's fault.

DaBruinz said:

How many "open" receivers did he miss by a wide margin?

I have news for you, Tom Brady threw into double coverage all the time. And he was 50/50 on his success rate.

I agree, he needs to work on his short passes some.

Your comment about the long passes is as ignorant as your ones about him missing open receivers and says you haven't watched the games the last two weeks.

BTW, I've said Cassel played lousy. But please try and explain how most of it is not directly affected by the poor protection from the O-line?

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He missed Moss at least twice when Moss had a few steps on the corners. He overthrew receivers on swing passes. He threw an interception on a screen pass. He has trouble hitting any receiver outside the numbers. His one long pass today should have been intercepted, his previous completed long passes have been more the result of receiver skill than anything on Cassel's part. You might attribute some of this to lack of chemistry or bad protection (the schemes of which are admittedly designed around Brady's super-quickj delivery that makes them look better than they actually are), but I simply attribute it to him being a lousy quarterback. He stares down his receivers and he has no ability to feel the rush, and he doesn't step up into the pocket either.

As for watching the games, I guess you're right. I had a hard time doing so when I was at the stadium for all three of them.

As for the Dolphins, they're not a good team and had no business beating the Patriots. Are you going to tell me the Jets and Chiefs are any good, too? Of course they're not, the Patriots beat them!

gpds69 said:

What are you. Cassel's Dad or something..Settle down. He's NOT A GOOD QB.

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I'm not Cassel's dad or something. I am someone is is intelligent enough to know a horrible poster who doesn't understand anything about the game and really doesn't know what he's talking about. Your posts, so far, have proven it. Any intelligent poster knows damn well that the success of the offense is predicated on its line play. The O-line has been horrible. Kaczur is making Grant "Turnstile" Williams look like Orlando Pace. Mankins has been beaten regularly. So have Koppen and Light. And it hasn't mattered if it was their run blocking or their pass blocking. And if they are not blokcing properly, then the offense isn't going to succeed. And I don't care if you had God himself back there. He'd be getting sacked by Joey "The Turd" Porter.

Cassel had a bad game. And he clearly did more during pre-season that Gutierrez otherwise Gut would have stayed and Cassel would have been cut. Yes, Gut is back, but only because Brady is out.

Deus Irae said:

Cassel completed better than 60% of his passes against the Dolphins

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Yeah, Cassel and his mighty 4.2 yards per attempt.

Wipe out the 22 yard reception that was a Welker miracle play (and should have been an interception) and you're talking a smoking 3.6 yards per attempt.

Hall of fame numbers if ever I've seen them.

Pennington and his famous noodle-arm had a mere 11.3.

I blame the inability of the offense to move the ball more on McDaniels than Cassel. We were completely one dimensional in the passing game and the Dolphin defense knew EXACTLY what we were going to do. 25+ yard passes keep the defense honest. We didn't do that today.

DaBruinz said:

I'm not Cassel's dad or something. I am someone is is intelligent enough to know a horrible poster who doesn't understand anything about the game and really doesn't know what he's talking about. Your posts, so far, have proven it. Any intelligent poster knows damn well that the success of the offense is predicated on its line play. The O-line has been horrible. Kaczur is making Grant "Turnstile" Williams look like Orlando Pace. Mankins has been beaten regularly. So have Koppen and Light. And it hasn't mattered if it was their run blocking or their pass blocking. And if they are not blokcing properly, then the offense isn't going to succeed. And I don't care if you had God himself back there. He'd be getting sacked by Joey "The Turd" Porter.

Cassel had a bad game. And he clearly did more during pre-season that Gutierrez otherwise Gut would have stayed and Cassel would have been cut. Yes, Gut is back, but only because Brady is out.

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Did you watch the preseason? Cassel shouldn't be on this team. Gutierrez played better.

primetime said:

Yeah, Cassel and his mighty 4.2 yards per attempt.

Wipe out the 22 yard reception that was a Welker miracle play (and should have been an interception) and you're talking a smoking 3.6 yards per attempt.

Hall of fame numbers if ever I've seen them.

Pennington and his famous noodle-arm had a mere 11.3.

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Well, it didn't take you long to change your complaint. Your argument was that he was missing wide open receivers and had no touch. That had little to no merit, so you moved the goalposts.....

Learn the facts before forming the opinions. Then you won't have to move those pesky goalposts. By the way, coming into today, his YPA for the season was 7.7. Brady is at 7.2 for his career. Pennington is at 7.1 for his career. So, perhaps you should be focused on how the hell Pennington was averaging more than 4 YPA above his average rather than going after a guy making his second NFL start.

P.S. For the record, Cassel was at 4.2 YPA, not 3.6. Those pesky facts again....

KontradictioN said:

I blame the inability of the offense to move the ball more on McDaniels than Cassel. We were completely one dimensional in the passing game and the Dolphin defense knew EXACTLY what we were going to do. 25+ yard passes keep the defense honest. We didn't do that today.

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The offense did run deep routes on a few plays. Cassel focused on the short game. He might just not be confident enough to throw it up yet. I'll give him that - throwing the long ball on a regular basis takes a confidence he might gain with experience.

primetime said:

He missed Moss at least twice when Moss had a few steps on the corners. He overthrew receivers on swing passes. He threw an interception on a screen pass. He has trouble hitting any receiver outside the numbers. His one long pass today should have been intercepted, his previous completed long passes have been more the result of receiver skill than anything on Cassel's part. You might attribute some of this to lack of chemistry or bad protection (the schemes of which are admittedly designed around Brady's super-quickj delivery that makes them look better than they actually are), but I simply attribute it to him being a lousy quarterback. He stares down his receivers and he has no ability to feel the rush, and he doesn't step up into the pocket either.

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One of the "routes" that he missed Moss on was one that Moss actually gave up on and didn't put his arms out for. Another one, when Moss was on the sidelines, Moss was covered and Cassel threw the ball away because it was that or get plastered by the sack.
One of the "swing passes" he intentionally over-threw because Will Allen had it played perfectly.

Its just plain DUMB to say that the long passes that Cassel has thrown have been completed only because of the receiver. It shows you don't know about the skills of the game at all.

How can you attribute to him being a lousy QB when the O-line hasn't given him adequate time?

Doesn't step up into the pocket? You haven't watched the games, clearly. Whenever he's stepped up, he's gotten plastered because the interior linemen haven't been able to hold their blocks properly.

primetime said:

As for watching the games, I guess you're right. I had a hard time doing so when I was at the stadium for all three of them.

As for the Dolphins, they're not a good team and had no business beating the Patriots. Are you going to tell me the Jets and Chiefs are any good, too? Of course they're not, the Patriots beat them!

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No offense, but you being at the stadium doesn't mean squat. You don't get the benefit of the replays and definitely not in the clarity or with the over-all view. HDTV is such a wonderful thing.

The Dolphins are clearly a better team than you are able to give them credit for. The played MUCH better than the Patriots. And that means ALL 45 men on the game roster. From Randy Moss to Ray Ventrone. The Patriots got abused. The Patriots didn't deserve to win that game and its ignorant to say that they did. As Belichick said during his press conference. They got out played and out coached. From top to bottom.

You clearly don't understand the phrase "Any Given Sunday". Please, go learn what it means.

gpds69 said:

Did you watch the preseason? Cassel shouldn't be on this team. Gutierrez played better.

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Yes I did. And so did Belichick. Gutierrez played against 2nd/3rd stringers most of the time. And he did ok. Cassel played against the 1st stringers each time. And did ok. Do you understnd the difference?

primetime said:

Yeah, Cassel and his mighty 4.2 yards per attempt.

Wipe out the 22 yard reception that was a Welker miracle play (and should have been an interception) and you're talking a smoking 3.6 yards per attempt.

Hall of fame numbers if ever I've seen them.

Pennington and his famous noodle-arm had a mere 11.3.

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If we want to win more then 4 games this year, Cassel needs take some chances down field, take at chance at Randy. Keep him happy. 4.2 yards per attempt isn't going to win very many games. Stop with the dink and dunk crap. Open the playbook Josh McDaniels..do something.

primetime said:

The offense did run deep routes on a few plays. Cassel focused on the short game. He might just not be confident enough to throw it up yet. I'll give him that - throwing the long ball on a regular basis takes a confidence he might gain with experience.

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Keep in mind that I'm not talking about a "long ball", per se. Just passes that exceed 5-10 yards past the LOS.

Deus Irae said:

Well, it didn't take you long to change your complaint. Your argument was that he was missing wide open receivers and had no touch. That had little to no merit, so you moved the goalposts.....

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I didn't change the argument. He threw 31 passes and had a paltry 131 yards on those passes. He missed wide open receivers, had no touch on his short game, and the only passes he managed to complete besides a single 22 yard miracle play were mostly extremely short and easy, 1-to-2 yard drag-and-runs. Subtract YAC and I bet his numbers are somewhere around 2 YPA.

This forum is impossible. Some (like Briz) will reject all logic and observation and demand the return of stiffs like Chad Jackson. Others (like you two) will reject all logic and observation and demand that Matt Cassel is a passable starting quarterback. Everyone has their binkies, but jesus.

KillEM said:

Dont be a smart ass. Obviousky Jackson isn't starting. Which is even sadder. The Vikings back up QB is better than our current starter

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Why not be a smart ass? It's not as if you made a particularly cogent point based on hard evidence. For the record, this season saw Jackson start for his club while Cassel was the #2 QB here. Cassel was moved up based on injury to the starter and Jackson was set down, rightly or wrongly, because his time at QB led to an 0-2 record. Jackson's #2 QB is now 1-0 as a starter, Cassel is 1-1 (2-1 for games where he was the primary QB), both Minnesota and NE were picked in preseason as playoff contenders - I'd say Cassel has done more to help his team than Jackson at this point.

KontradictioN said:

I blame the inability of the offense to move the ball more on McDaniels than Cassel. We were completely one dimensional in the passing game and the Dolphin defense knew EXACTLY what we were going to do. 25+ yard passes keep the defense honest. We didn't do that today.

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I blame the inability of the offense to move the ball solely on the O-line. The first run, the O-line didn't pick up the run blitz and Morris got next nothing.

Should I put blame on McDaniels to? Yep.. he's got some of it.. I agree that his play calling was too one dimensional. However, with the O-line being as lousy as it was, it was hard for them to do much else. They certainly couldn't go long because the O-line couldn't keep Cassel on his feet long enough.

Part of the problem is that they don't have a TE who can block. Both David Thomas and Watson were horrible

Box_O_Rocks said:

Why not be a smart ass? It's not as if you made a particularly cogent point based on hard evidence. For the record, this season saw Jackson start for his club while Cassel was the #2 QB here. Cassel was moved up based on injury to the starter and Jackson was set down, rightly or wrongly, because his time at QB led to an 0-2 record. Jackson's #2 QB is now 1-0 as a starter, Cassel is 1-1 (2-1 for games where he was the primary QB), both Minnesota and NE were picked in preseason as playoff contenders - I'd say Cassel has done more to help his team than Jackson at this point.

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Jackson's a worse quarterback than Cassel. At least Cassel tosses it short when he's afraid to throw it deep. Jackson tosses it deep anyways and ends up tossing it into double and triple coverage. He's so bad he's scary, Cassel is just bad.

primetime said:

I didn't change the argument. He threw 31 passes and had a paltry 131 yards on those passes. He missed wide open receivers, had no touch on his short game, and the only passes he managed to complete besides a single 22 yard miracle play were mostly extremely short and easy, 1-to-2 yard drag-and-runs. Subtract YAC and I bet his numbers are somewhere around 2 YPA.

This forum is impossible. Some (like Briz) will reject all logic and observation and demand the return of stiffs like Chad Jackson. Others (like you two) will reject all logic and observation and demand that Matt Cassel is a passable starting quarterback. Everyone has their binkies, but jesus.

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What's impossible is people like you who just pull opinions out of their ass rather than speaking from a position of knowledge. Again, Cassel is completing 2/3 of his official pass attempts on the season. That's just fact, no matter how you try to spin it. Brady's career completion percentage is 63%. Again, that's just fact. It's not my fault that your argument is crap.

As for Cassel being a "passable starting quarterback", he's a backup. He's done what you would expect of a backup, and a bit more, which is why the team is 2-1. The refusal to dump all over a guy who wasn't to blame for the team's loss does not equate to having that player as a binkie.

KillEM said:

Dont be a smart ass. Obviousky Jackson isn't starting. Which is even sadder. The Vikings back up QB is better than our current starter

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you have obviously not watched many games...

primetime said:

I didn't change the argument. He threw 31 passes and had a paltry 131 yards on those passes. He missed wide open receivers, had no touch on his short game, and the only passes he managed to complete besides a single 22 yard miracle play were mostly extremely short and easy, 1-to-2 yard drag-and-runs. Subtract YAC and I bet his numbers are somewhere around 2 YPA.

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So, its Cassel's fault that he didn't have the time to hit longer receptions. Its Cassel's fault that his best receiver gave up on routes and didn't play effectively.

Instead of spouting your " I BET BS" why don't you just stick to actual facts.

primetime said:

This forum is impossible. Some (like Briz) will reject all logic and observation and demand the return of stiffs like Chad Jackson. Others (like you two) will reject all logic and observation and demand that Matt Cassel is a passable starting quarterback. Everyone has their binkies, but jesus.

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YOU are just as bad as Briz. You don't offer logic and your "observations" are extremely limited to the views that you get at the stadium. You claim logic, yet when people throw facts at you, you go "well, yeah, but" and throw something else out.

Sorry, but I watched the game and I have the benefit of my DVR where I can rewind it and watch the line play and watch people get pressure on his that makes it look like he's throwing garbage passes and missing players by a wide margin, when, in fact, he was throwing it away ( I can recall 3 different plays where he did this) because, had he made the pass, it would have been intercepted.

You want to b!tch and complain about plays, but when other GOOD plays are brought up, you ignore them. So, look in the mirror before you go calling other people ridiculous. You'll find that you are being even more so.

gpds69 said:

Did you watch the preseason? Cassel shouldn't be on this team. Gutierrez played better.

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By what standard? Better execution of the offense? Cassel was better, hands down. Better competition? Cassel played against starters, Gutierrez against reserves. Better play behind a porous O-line - neither guy was particularly brilliant in the face of the defense winning so many line battles.

Your claim flies in the face of BB's choice when he put the roster together. Unless you're Mike Shanahan with those glowing red eyes, I'm guessing your expertise pales in comparison to BB's.