Reiss on inevitable O'Connell move

[NYCPatsFan]

I disagree with this. I think the reactions on this board have been pretty polarized and not as level headed as you describe here. Plenty of posters here, and Pats fans outside of this board, went way too far in their hopes and expectations of Matt Cassel - simply b/c of the "similarities" to Tom Brady's story - and were bound to be let down. Think about all the "Cassel:Brady::Brady:Bledsoe" type stuff that was in the print for the first few weeks of the post-Brady injury aftermath.

I strongly believe that the media and Patsfans alike had far too bloated expectations of our young backup QB and particularly the days following Brady's injury. As I said at the time of Brady's injury, there was an overly positive and overly optimistic counter-reaction to the doom and gloom many posters had. This reaction went along the lines of "Brady did it in 01, why can't Cassel do it in 08", doing a disservice to how amazingly rare it is to have a QB of Brady's caliber. What was glossed over by so many is that we're not asking Cassel to be the Brady of 2008 or even the Brady of 2001 (who may not have had the numbers of his 2008 self, was equally special & clutch), we're asking him to be Matt Cassel, and what that ends up being, we'll find out.

The reaction you describe - of people expecting Cassel to come in and do his job well enough so that this talented team can win - is the rational line of thinking, but seemingly proved to be a minority amongst patsfans. Perhaps its just that the other lines of thought were louder.

I am sure you have a strong basis for concluding this polarization but to the limited extend I read the posts (and count me among those who thinks BB kept MC for a reason and that we must be patient for a few more regular season games before judging MC), I thought some of the anti MC posters kept blasting in almost every response MC is not TB, MC is terrible etc. which in turn lead to other posters supporting MC and point out the team's poor performance in other areas.

It's my opinion that a high number (say 70%) of the patsfans do want to see MC can do and in NO way thinking that TB's shoes are easy to fill in by any backup QB.

Maybe we should set a poll up to gauge the feeling towards MC...