The good NFL teams are planning for the future, winning today - Peter King - SI.com
here is another interesting quote
I include New England in this group for a simple reason: Tom Brady has played for eight minutes in 2008, and the Patriots are 5-3. There are lots of good stories in the first half of the season, but none are as surprising as New England sharing the AFC East lead with Matt Cassel playing quarterback for 31 of the team's 32 quarters. The Cassel story illustrates why the Bill Belichick/Scott Pioli way is so effective. Remember the hue and cry to go get Chris Simms, Daunte Culpepper or Tim Rattay when Brady went down? The Patriots said: No, we'll stay in-house for our quarterback, because how can a Simms or a Rattay learn the offense as much as Matt Cassel, who's been here four years? If we've trusted Cassel to back up Brady, why don't we trust him to play?
And I believe this: If Cassel gets hurt at some point down the stretch, or when he leaves in free-agency after the season, the Patriots will put 2008 third-round pick Kevin O'Connell under center, or use him to back up Brady. The quarterback is develop-able. That's the New England mantra. Brady got developed. Cassel got developed. And O'Connell will too.
The Patriots, uncharacteristically, played a stupid fourth quarter last night. Belichick left his team without a timeout for the last 11 minutes, which haunted the team late. Jabar Gaffney dropped a potential winning touchdown pass. David Thomas had a dumb unnecessary-roughness penalty that cost New England three points. Reverse any of those, and New England might be 6-2 this morning. But that's not the issue here. My point is, the way the Patriots have been formed, and the team-first mentality at the heart of everything they do, are the reasons we're so attracted to football. When you send your kid to play high school football, you just hope he gets those unselfish team values drilled into him.
here is another interesting quote
The Cowboy Hierarchy. The Cowboys had no chance in this game because the Cowboys had no competent backup plan in the offseason for Tony Romo getting hurt. Brad Johnson (5-of-11, two interceptions and down 21-7 when yanked) had no business trying to win a big game at Giants Stadium, and Brooks Bollinger is nothing more than a marginal third-stringer.
Look around the league. Very few quarterbacks consistently play all 16 games, and the Cowboys should have either drafted a decent one in the last couple of years and developed him under an excellent QB coach in Jason Garrett, or acquired a younger one than Johnson, who's 40. This fact absolutely amazes me: The Cowboys have not drafted a quarterback in seven years.
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