Matt Cassel has arrived!
 

400 passing yards, 3 TDs along with 62 yards rushing. Cassel had a phenomenal game that announced to the NFL world that he has arrived as a starting QB.

Was he perfect? No. He missed a few scoring opportunties on the deep ball. There was one play where he could have taken off and scored himself instead of throwing yet another incompletion to Watson. Is it me or has pass to Watson become almost synonymous with incompletion?

BUT when the chips were on the line, Cassel drove down the field with less than 2 minutes, no timeouts, and laid down a picture perfect pass to Randy Moss to tie the game. That's a hell of a performance for a kid who is essentially a rookie starter.

For better or for worse, Cassel has established himself as 'the guy', the starting QB for the New England Patriots. And the exciting part is that he is getting better every week. He finally had his payoff/arrival game. I can't wait to see what a more confident and mature Cassel can show to us in the remaining games of the season.

Re: Matt Cassel has arrived!
 

Yeah, it's just you.

8 receptions, 88 yards (11 YPC) 1 TD, 1 fumble lost (did not result in a score by the Jets).

He's not flawless but he's averaging a first down per catch and blocking well.

Just saying - the good and bad with most of our team is balanced and that goes from top to bottom.

Re: Matt Cassel has arrived!
 

Impressive stats:

"CASSEL IS FIRST PLAYER SINCE 1970 AFL-NFL MERGER TO TOTAL AT LEAST 400 PASSING YARDS AND AT LEAST 60 RUSHING YARDS IN A GAME

CASSEL HAS MOST RUSHING YARDS FOR A PATRIOTS QUARTERBACK IN 30 YEARS "
Game Notes - Reiss' Pieces - Boston.com


Grogan's Mini Me:D

Re: Matt Cassel has arrived!
 

Yesterday's disappointing ending is tempered somewhat by Matt Cassel's play. He looked really confident to me. He's a good QB and once more, BB's judgment in keeping him and going with him as our starter is looking pretty good.

Re: Matt Cassel has arrived!
 

PS although Matt Cassel missed some deep balls last night, I would note that even Tom Brady didn't look very good on deep balls earlier on in his career (although he had the disadvantage to throwing to mostly scrubs). It wasn't until later that he mastered the deep ball AND had decent targets to throw to. Of course the culmination of that was the 2007 season where he broke all kinds of passing records. In short, it may take some time for QBs to learn to throw the deep ball well. So Cassel might get the hang of that too, given some more time. One thing that Cassel has been pretty good at from the get go is his completion percentage. That speaks well for his accuracy and potential down the road.

Re: Matt Cassel has arrived!
 

Groganesque with all the running skills but a far superior passer and game manager. My man Grogs was Bledsoelike in throwing picks in the Red Zone.

Re: Matt Cassel has arrived!
 

I just keep shaking my head and laughing at what we were all saying about Matt a few months ago.

If the injury bug weren't SO pervasive this year (for whatever reason), I wonder what our record would be. 8-2, almost certainly. I wish we had AD playing last night.

I thought when Brady went down that this season might be more fun to watch, less stressful, lower expectations. But it sucks just as bad to watch them lose games they could easily win. You get the feeling this team is on the brink, when they put it together, they look great. But with the constant injury barrage, it's getting harder and harder to do the patchworking and be effective.

Re: Matt Cassel has arrived!
 

Might be worth noting that for our observation, Cassel technically threw 4 TD's. What I mean is the two-point conversion was as good as a red zone TD, performance-wise. I recognize that statistically it's not that, but you can bet that play means no opponent from here on in can count on the run being the play we use to get red zone TD's anymore.

Re: Matt Cassel has arrived!
 

It's also vastly entertaining to watch the guy run. When he takes off, the result is often very good. We didn't have that before because on the rare occasion it happened, we were all too busy holding our breath.

Re: Matt Cassel has arrived!
 

The team will Franchise Cassel at this rate and then deal him before the tender is signed. A team like Minnesota will swing a deal for Cassel in a heartbeat if he keeps progressing.

We already have a 1st, two 2nd's and likely two 3rd's before even considering a Cassel deal.

When you consider the young players we have and then all of these picks, the future looks even brighter. My hope now is that Redd earns a chance to get reps this year and get ready for next year. My goal is to see Redd and Crable as bookend OLB's. That would beet 13 feet of athleticism out there!!!