A history lesson from this board

Triumph said:

And?

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And, the guy that was such a bad passer he only won because they changed their whole offense to a run only offense was 8th in all of football in passing yards, 11th in percentage.

He passed for more yards than 24 team's quarterbacks.

dales804 said:

I did not see you quote that post in the one I replied to. But last year at the end of the season Brady was handcuffed because of the lack of weapons to throw to. That clearly showed up in the AFCCG. And even the divisional game. It doesn't mean Brady is no good just that the better option was to run to win games at that point.

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I'm trying to respond to an inane post. Cassel passed for more yards than 24 teams quarterbacks.

I actually think that Brady guy is pretty good, despite finding it better to rely on the running game sometimes.

dales804 said:

Personnel wise, they didn't have much but they got the job done.

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Correct.

The Pats changed the scheme for Cassel. Its so foolish people are disputing that fact.

Triumph said:

Cassel is a bust.

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Brother Triumph, Ladies & Gentlemen!!

Triumph said:

Correct.

The Pats changed the scheme for Cassel. Its so foolish people are disputing that fact.

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Is there a reason a game planning team wouldn't adapt their scheme to suit the quarterback? Seems like a pretty obvious thing to do, seeing they knew Brady was out for the season.

It's the part where you said they became a run only offense that doesn't jibe with the reality of Cassel's passing numbers, which 24 teams would have loved to have from their quarterback.

Maybe, at the meeting where BB told everybody they were going to be a running offense only that year, Randy Moss raised his hand and suggested he could probably get a 1,000 receiving yards if they would just let Cassel pass the ball once in a while?

I bet when Randy said that, Welker piped up and said that he could get even more yards than Randy if they would just play action sometime, in their run only offense, and sure enough he caught 111 balls for 1191 yards.

Besides those two it was three yards and a cloud of dust of course, if you forget the 58 catches by Faulk and the 38 by Gaffney, but of course there are always exceptions in these extreme running offenses.

Another thing that should be commented when we talk about Cassell's 2008 season that should be mentioned. It's the way the team finished that year. IIRC they won their last 4 games by a combined total of something like 130-50 and beat the eventual superbowl winners (if the refs didn't get involved) Cardinals, something like 44-14. In other words they were playing their best ball of the season at the end. It was just extremely bad luck they didn't make it into the playoffs with 11 wins. I saw this on another thread and it bears repeating

But back to the topic of Mallett, I think people are focused on the 2 bad throws on the screen and the pass to Thompkins. They forget that in the first 2 series he completed 3 third down throws, only to see 2 of them wiped out by penalties. I thought THAT was progress. (disclaimer). I have to admit that I didn't get to watch much more than the first quarter and most of the 4th.

patfanken said:

Another thing that should be commented when we talk about Cassell's 2008 season that should be mentioned. It's the way the team finished that year. IIRC they won their last 4 games by a combined total of something like 130-50 and beat the eventual superbowl winners (if the refs didn't get involved) Cardinals, something like 44-14. In other words they were playing their best ball of the season at the end. It was just extremely bad luck they didn't make it into the playoffs with 11 wins. I saw this on another thread and it bears repeating

But back to the topic of Mallett, I think people are focused on the 2 bad throws on the screen and the pass to Thompkins. They forget that in the first 2 series he completed 3 third down throws, only to see 2 of them wiped out by penalties. I thought THAT was progress. (disclaimer). I have to admit that I didn't get to watch much more than the first quarter and most of the 4th.

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That Pats team probably could have made it out of the Wild Card round before they eventually got taken out by either the Tits, Steelers, or Ravens (if they didn't play Baltimore in the WC). Those three teams were much too physical and the Steelers came into Foxborough and spanked that ass in the regular season (they had one of the best defenses of the 2000's, which is saying something). That Ravens/Tits Divisional game was a blood bath. I don't see any way that Cassel-led Pats team could have withstood a game like that and made it out on top.

I find it very difficult to criticize Mallett when he had no time to have a play develop and for him to let it rip.

One play which also I blame the receiver for was where Mallett saw one thing Boyce saw another.

Mallett saw the sluggo and lead Boyce to where there was no defenders as well as a possible TD. Boyce decided to squat on a spot and wait for pass, resulting in the pass sailing well past him.

Two throws I blame Mallett for but more importantly the o line left him feeling pressured.
One was where he threw the ball at Thompkins feet, the second he threw a pass to Finch before Finch even realized he was the target.

Finch was headed up the seam and Mallett sensing the heat let it rip a good three seconds earlier then he had to.

Let's see the next 3 games before we draw any rash conclusions.

KontradictioN said:

That Pats team probably could have made it out of the Wild Card round before they eventually got taken out by either the Tits, Steelers, or Ravens (if they didn't play Baltimore in the WC). Those three teams were much too physical and the Steelers came into Foxborough and spanked that ass in the regular season (they had one of the best defenses of the 2000's, which is saying something). That Ravens/Tits Divisional game was a blood bath. I don't see any way that Cassel-led Pats team could have withstood a game like that and made it out on top.

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The Pats '08 defense was no slouch. They finished 8th in the NFL in points allowed, and 10th in yards allowed. We'd have been thrilled with that in 2010-2013. That team could have held their own in the playoffs.

KontradictioN said:

That Pats team probably could have made it out of the Wild Card round before they eventually got taken out by either the Tits, Steelers, or Ravens (if they didn't play Baltimore in the WC). Those three teams were much too physical and the Steelers came into Foxborough and spanked that ass in the regular season (they had one of the best defenses of the 2000's, which is saying something). That Ravens/Tits Divisional game was a blood bath. I don't see any way that Cassel-led Pats team could have withstood a game like that and made it out on top.

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That's the thing K, we just don't know. So many unlikely teams are winning the superbowl or making it there. Its a real crap shoot once the playoffs start and almost any of the teams can get hot and win. Just ask the Ravens and Giants (twice). The Pats were RED hot at the end of that season. I don't see how you can dismiss them based on a regular season loss to the Steelers much earlier in the season.

Not saying your analysis is flawed or crazy. You could be right, but recently its been a tough go for favorites in the playoffs.

I rewatched the game last night. Mallett wasn't that bad. The big problem was the OL, which couldn't block for the run (always facing 3rd and long) nor pass protect, and the penalties, which stopped whatever momentum the Pats were able to establish. Mallett completed 4 of his first 5 third down throws including two throws into tight windows. All 4 completions would have been 1st downs without the penalties (One could say he was a clutch performer, but that goes against the script of this board). On the 1st one, he stepped up nicely to avoid pressure and delivered a strike to Thompkins into a very small window. His one bad series was the one with the bad screen (chalk that up to the difficulty trying to throw to Finch), miss to Boyce (where Boyce ran the wrong route and Mallett had to get rid of the ball) and wheel route to Finch (yes he should have put some more air under the throw. But JimmyG missed on the same route in the second half). His last series doesn't count.

While I know the flavor of the board is to run Mallett out of town, I'll wait until the end of preseason before passing judgement on him.

goheels22002 said:

The '08 defense was no slouch. They finished 8th in the NFL in points allowed, and 10th in yards allowed. We'd have been thrilled with that in 2010-2013. That team could have held their own in the playoffs.

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They couldn't stop the long pass if their lives depended on it. That was the first year the secondary became a problem. PPG can often be a misleading stat. For example, the 2010 unit ranked 8th in PPG. Do you honestly believe that was truly a top 10 unit? No, you don't. I know this because you just spoke of that unit negatively in this very post.

patfanken said:

That's the thing K, we just don't know. So many unlikely teams are winning the superbowl or making it there. Its a real crap shoot once the playoffs start and almost any of the teams can get hot and win. Just ask the Ravens and Giants (twice). The Pats were RED hot at the end of that season. I don't see how you can dismiss them based on a regular season loss to the Steelers much earlier in the season.

Not saying your analysis is flawed or crazy. You could be right, but recently its been a tough go for favorites in the playoffs.

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I've always thought that team was overrated on this board and benefitted from a weak strength of schedule. Down the stretch, when they were playing their best ball, they beat the Seahawks (4-12), Raiders (5-11), Cardinals (9-7), and Bills (7-9). The combined record there was 25-39. So it's not like they ran through juggernauts.