Gawd. I don't WANT TFB to be out any length of time, much less -- as all the pundits seem to hope -- for the whole season.
But if so we need to get our heads around the idea that Cassel is good until he is not.
This, by the way, from a guy (me) who said the day Drew went to Buffalo, "we might have got rid of the wrong quarterback."
There's no reason to believe right now that Cassel is Brady revisited. There's also no reason, however, to believe he can't pull a Mark Bulger or a Billy Volek, and use the weapons around him to manage the game competently, at the very least consistently beating the many bad teams on this schedule.
Eventually someone will say it, so I'll say it now and get dumped on: this gives this team some additional urgency. Anybody who just can't get it up for a game where the outcome isn't virtually guaranteed by the presence of TFB, has that much more reason to do a gut-check and get 'er done.
Not like the offense was slacking last year, mind you... but putting on a show is just different from gutting it out. You always prefer to be in a position where the outcome is hardly in question, and DUH, the Pats are always in MUCh better shape with than without TFB. But at least for one afternoon, maybe for as long as a season, it's Cassel's team.
For as long as he's in there let's wish him well.
PFnV
