This is...Why Cassel?

[Ring 6]

Cassel survived. Many fans do not believe it.

But all you have to do is put on your Bill Belichick glasses to see why. Cassel is not a starter, but he did send Vinnie to the shadow roster last season. And Gutierrez to the PS.
Off those experiences, Bill asked Cassel to be the sacrificial goat this preseason and do some specific things in preseason, for the good of the Team.

First to test and act like a tackling dummy if necessary, as Bill experimented with various OL pickups, to try and replace Neal for half a season. He did that, without complaint, and Brady had times to heal, and most importantly not get hurt.

Then Secondly, he asked Cassel to play with no receivers, except for a bunch of end-of-roster types, to see if any of them were worth keeping. Dutifully, Cassel did so without complaint, while maintaining his POISE despite wrong routes, dropped passes, mis-timings et cetera, and try to run the entire Patriots Offense, even if in vanilla form for the rookies, despite the breakdowns of the others.

He did so and PASSED the test with calm and no finger-pointing. He accepted the fact that the QB would be blamed for failure, despite sending scrub receivers and OL candidates out against first string opponents by and large.

Fans didn't see that, and only noticed raw rookie KOC going against 3rd and 4th string future UPS truck drivers, and NOT running the Offense, but merely scrambling around and improvising. That is what you expect from a rookie, who would get killed doing that against a first string.

At the same time Gutierrez showed that he has a little more knowledge but still reverts to dumb raw rookie tendencies. He essentially eliminated himself, by his dangerous passes, many more of which would get picked against a first string.

Through it all Cassel only threw one pick. That was when CJax did not read a blitz, and ran the wrong pattern. It was a horrible looking pick as the defender easily caught it, and Jackson was no where near the ball, but it wasn't Cassel that screwed up.

Finally as a sop, to reward Cassel he gave him Randy Moss and company for an extended first period and Cassel promptly completed passes, marched the field, unlike the other two while executing the Offense, only to have Faulk fumble in the red zone. Another time a drive lead to a FG. He also scrambled showing he had not lost his mobility when necessary. It was a good scramble started only when the play had broken down; and he was flushed from the pocket, not an instant panic run.

That small opportunity playing with most of the genuine first stringers, reassured Belichick that Cassel had not lost his POISE or ability, despite the short end of the stick job that he had been given, for so long.


Bill even let Gutierrez have the first stringers in an early appearance against the Giants and it confimed that Gutz is not ready yet. That confirmed that the dangerous passes did indeed become picks. Maybe next year Gutz and KOC, will mature enough and will fight for th 2nd string job.

Meanwhile... Vinny is still on the shadow roster, knows the Offense backward and forward, and is on Bill's speed dial.

Can we please stop acting like 50 year old Vinny Testaverde has any chance of getting an NFL job. Last year he couldnt play not due to injury but because he was too old to get ready for the next game after playing 1/2 of one.

 

[Dragda]

VinnyT is officially retired after he got hurt playing for the Panthers. He'd have to file re-instatement papers and I just don't see it happening.

If we're going to pick up old retirees, maybe we can call Otto Graham instead.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

I happened to listen to the archived Patriots Monday interview with Cassel last night (who btw handled being saddled talking with D&C as well as his predecessor always did). And much like I and several other rational posters opined over the pre season, when asked if he was sweating roster cuts given his pre season performance and all the talk of Gutierrez and the rookie leading scoring drives he said no, not really. He was disappointed he couldn't do more but he knew he'd done what he was asked to do and every week as the pre season game films were broken down the coaches had confirmed that and told him they were pleased with his performance and development.

Coaches here don't blow smoke up player's asses... They also don't evauate players in a vacuum. They know how each player is performing and was expected to perform relative to the entire unit he's playing with on each and every snap. Each player is being asked to execute the play called while making appropriate reads and reactions to what the opposing defense presents pre and post snap. The Preseason is a test. It's not about winning meaningless games, it's about mastering execution. The significance of execution is something all to many fans here just don't comprehend. When a play doesn't work they look for an easy scape goat who is seldom the one or more at fault. Or they adopt the kneejerk position that the OC called the wrong play. They ignore the franchise or the HC when they honestly explain to them that the 11 players on the field simply have to execute better as a unit... Poorly executed plays seldom work and changing the play doesn't alter that outcome.

Fans love improvisation when it works. Good coaches cringe at it. Sometimes in a game situation with your back against the wall you pull a play out of your ass and it pays off. More often than not it doesn't, particularly at this level playing consistently against elite talent and coaching once the games actually do count. It works far more often at the college level and in pre season where your often facing guys who won't be in this league next week or next month often coached by personnel who are in the same boat. That's what makes player selection and gauging potential NFL development as much art as science. Can a player do it consistently at the next level? It's not just what you do, it's where you can do it consistently.

 

[AzPatsFan]

0-15 as a starter?

Personally, I give Cassel, not Brady, the win against KC, but that's just me.

So do I. The score was 0-0 when Brady went down. The Defense allowed 10 points and the Offense scored 17. The average Offense in the NFL averages about 17-20 points a game. The Defenses allow more than 10 on average, usually about 17.

So the D played much better than average; and the Offense scored slightly less then average. But Brady went scoreless for the most of the first Q. Under Cassel the Pats averaged a slightly better than average number of points or better, over the last three Quarters, when Cassel was under center.

 

[spacecrime]

Cassel could NOT take the team into the end zone ONCE in all the tries in preseason and he DID NOT face 1st stringers every play so for the Cassel ball washers lets not make it sound like he played against pro bowlers all the time throughout the preseason because he did not and besides he is the #2 going into the preseason so he is expected to play against higher rated players whcih of course he failed miserably

0 for whatever in preseason TDs means you suck dog balls anyway you slice it

Unfortunately for Guiterrez, who actually had some decent throws including actually taking the team into the end zone - did not perform when it was most important,and that was in the 4th preseason game,It might have been his worst showing of all 4 games and at the wrong time to do it thus Cassel gets the nod because he did not suck as bad (if that possible) as Gutz did in the 4th preseason game.

Ready to man up and admit you were wrong?

Or still clinging to the Cassel sucks refrain?

Gute was cut and no one signed him even for their practice squad, which made him available when Cassel became our starter and the second best QB in the history of the Patriots.

As someone said in another thread, Cassel drove Flutie and Vinny off the team because he had overtaken them and they did not want to be #3. When they because the emergency QB they wouldn't come back.

For three years I thought Cassel was an awesome QB. It turns out he is even better than I thought.

And he is still getting better EVERY SINGLE WEEK!!!!!! Who knows what his ceiling is?

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Cassel is useless but he makes a good tackling dummy. Look for Brady to rest the first 8 games of the season.

Whoa! mcbee knew!!!!

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Sounds nice but I can't see us winning any game if Cassel is the starter.

Jeez, I thought I was bad saying we'd be 8-8 with Cassel. BB ain't gonna hire either of us.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

I happened to listen to the archived Patriots Monday interview with Cassel last night (who btw handled being saddled talking with D&C as well as his predecessor always did). And much like I and several other rational posters opined over the pre season, when asked if he was sweating roster cuts given his pre season performance and all the talk of Gutierrez and the rookie leading scoring drives he said no, not really. He was disappointed he couldn't do more but he knew he'd done what he was asked to do and every week as the pre season game films were broken down the coaches had confirmed that and told him they were pleased with his performance and development.

Coaches here don't blow smoke up player's asses... They also don't evauate players in a vacuum. They know how each player is performing and was expected to perform relative to the entire unit he's playing with on each and every snap. Each player is being asked to execute the play called while making appropriate reads and reactions to what the opposing defense presents pre and post snap. The Preseason is a test. It's not about winning meaningless games, it's about mastering execution. The significance of execution is something all to many fans here just don't comprehend. When a play doesn't work they look for an easy scape goat who is seldom the one or more at fault. Or they adopt the kneejerk position that the OC called the wrong play. They ignore the franchise or the HC when they honestly explain to them that the 11 players on the field simply have to execute better as a unit... Poorly executed plays seldom work and changing the play doesn't alter that outcome.

Fans love improvisation when it works. Good coaches cringe at it. Sometimes in a game situation with your back against the wall you pull a play out of your ass and it pays off. More often than not it doesn't, particularly at this level playing consistently against elite talent and coaching once the games actually do count. It works far more often at the college level and in pre season where your often facing guys who won't be in this league next week or next month often coached by personnel who are in the same boat. That's what makes player selection and gauging potential NFL development as much art as science. Can a player do it consistently at the next level? It's not just what you do, it's where you can do it consistently.

Above is an old post by Mo but it bears repeating for those seriously interested in the Pats football philosophy. Postgame after beating the Phins Sunday, Cassel was again asked if he feared being cut at the end of pre-season. He said no, because he'd gotten continuous positive feedback from the coaching staff. Why writers and some voluble posters seemingly pay no attention to BB's philosophy and approach in their off kilter prognostications is frustrating to me.

 

[AzPatsFan]

Wow......were you in the war room as they drew these pre-season schemes for cassel out? Are you saying that you were there when BB told Cassel that he wanted him to play as badly as he possibly could? How did you get this kind of clearance into the Pats camp man? Please explain!

Mark my words....when their careers are all said and done....Gutz will have had a better career than Matty Cassel........

I merely looked at the circumstances. And I observed what was happening. Would you like to make a wager as to what Matt Cassel versus Matt Gutierrez future career prospects are?

 

[ctpatsfan77]

As someone said in another thread, Cassel drove Flutie and Vinny off the team because he had overtaken them and they did not want to be #3. When they because the emergency QB they wouldn't come back.

As a minor point, he drove Flutie into retirement, but Testaverde was always the 3rd QB (even before Cassel became a holder, which would require him to be on the 45).

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Why do we dig up old threads just to embarrass and prove others wrong but threads that contained stuff like Chad Jackson is the next great WR get buried and stay there? ... and those who love Chad are the same guys who dig up stuff like this?...Typical actions of many in here

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Why do we dig up old threads just to embarrass and prove others wrong but threads that contained stuff like Chad Jackson is the next great WR get buried and stay there? ... and those who love Chad are the same guys who dig up stuff like this

...because it would be unnecessary cruelty violating UN Human Rights to ridicule the many loud fools here who thought Chad Jackson was a playah.

I also think there was a strong undercurrent of man-boy love going on over Chad's svelt muscular physique, taut rippling musculature and dark, brooding good looks...
I'll be in my bunk.

 

[JSn]

I also think there was a strong undercurrent of man-boy love going on over Chad's svelt muscular physique, taut rippling musculature and dark, brooding good looks...
I'll be in my bunk.

Simultaneously hilarious and gross.

I keep wondering why "what's-his-face" changed his "Bench Matt Cassel" signature.

I loved it, lol.

 

[JoeSixPat]

Interestingly, Belichick was asked a similar question yesterday on WEEI. The guys on the big show noted how bad Cassel looked in the pre-season games, and asked Belichick what it was he saw during practice - rather than pre-season - that made him decide to keep Cassel as the backup.

Belichick stated that that neither practice, nor pre-season games, really provide any real insight into how a QB will respond to the real game scenarios.

It seemed like a bit of a humble moment for Belichick who in a way, seemed like he wanted to say that there was no way he could truly have predicted that Cassel would respond the way he has through the progression of the season.

In doing so he basically shows that those who assert Cassel's performance in practice was an indication of his potential to be full of just as much BS as those who asserted Cassel's performance in the pre-season was an indicator of the limit of his potential.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

In doing so he basically shows that those who assert Cassel's performance in practice was an indication of his potential to be full of just as much BS as those who asserted Cassel's performance in the pre-season was an indicator of the limit of his potential.

FWIW those of us who posted about Cassel in the public practise sessions we attended were shall we say, not complimentary. That said, I thought ALL the QBs had a somewhat crappy summah '08. Even Tom was somewhat off in the sessions I attended.

Your comment begs the question of why BB was SO adamant in his well placed faith in Matt Cassel as THE guy to back up Brady and eschewed the vet option.

 

[Wax Frog]

I also think there was a strong undercurrent of man-boy love going on over Chad's svelt muscular physique, taut rippling musculature and dark, brooding good looks...
I'll be in my bunk.

Oh my! :blush: :kiss2:

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Oh my! :blush: :kiss2:

JSn & Wax, I thought that was some of my best creative writing.