As in the number of sacks Matt Cassel has taken through seven games. Sixty is really the magic number when it comes to sacks and only six quarterbacks have ever reached that level. If you hit 60 you've either got stone feet (Jon Kitna, Steve Beuerlein) or seriously crazy-happy feet (Randall Cunningham, twice; David Carr, twice). The way I see it, Cassel, who's on pace for 64, falls into the later category but he's far from Cunningham-esque, meaning that I think the kid lacks grace, style, speed -- all that stuff you look for. Tom Brady is no Cunningham but he knows when to throw the ball away instead of curling up.
When Cassel moves I see more Carr in him than anyone else, which is scary. He gives up on his routes early, pulls the ball down, loses all sense of direction or composure and then he's dead meat. Against St. Louis last week on 2nd-and-8 I watched him drop back, panic at the slightest sense of pressure and then scramble right before sliding feet-first two yards short of the first down marker. There wasn't a pursuing defender anywhere near him.
What's worse, Cassel has gotten worse at this as the year has progressed. In his first three career starts he was sacked 10 times. In his last three, against the likes of St. Louis, San Diego and Denver, he's been sacked 13 times.
When asked to point out a weakness in New England's offense, one AFC defensive coach told us, pointedly, the "Broncos had six sacks." He added, "To say Matt Cassel has arrived, I don't think you can say that."
In fairness, maybe Cassel has been instructed by Bill Belichick not to take risks, to pull the ball down and eat it when things get hairy, in which case I have some rethinking to do. But I doubt it.
