Cassel is pretty happy todayMike Reiss is reporting that thanks to a 3 touchdown pass performance on Monday Night Football, Matt Cassel has been named AFC Offensive Player of the Week. In related news pigs are flying (and not just Sarah Palin in an airplane, zing!)….
This will be the first Monday morning meeting for the “Matt Cassel Fan Club”. Without further ado here comes the president, Matty…
Matty: Thank you, thank you. It was a very successful day in Patriots Nation yesterday, as Matt Cassel did what he is supposed to do, not screw up. I will address questions and concerns now.
Drunk Guy In Back Pounding a Miller High Life 40 oz in a Brown Bag: Didn’t you pick the Jets on your radio show yesterday to win the game?
Matty: Yes I did, however, I did it in the best interests of the MCFC and Pats Nation.
DGIBPAMHL40IBB: How is that in the best interests of MCFC and Pats Nation?
Matty: Well, to be honest, generally everything I touch turns to crap, and I became very concerned that becoming President of the MCFC would be detrimental to the young man’s career and in turn, the Patriots. It’s called reverse psychology.
DGIBPAMHL40IBB: (mutters an obscenity, burps, and then screams something about his fantasy football team losing by triple digits as he storms out of the room)
Matty: Ok then. The good out of yesterday-no turnovers, he seemed to have a good grasp of the short passing game and how to use Wes Welker, and the running game managed to take some pressure off. The negative-he under threw Randy Moss on a deep ball, and he must keep Moss involved in the game or risk him drifting. I give Cassel a B+ for his individual effort yesterday. That will now adjourn this week’s meeting. I look forward to him throwing at least 2 touchdowns against Miami, keeping Randy Moss happy, and keeping the Pats in the win column. Until next Monday…
Well…maybe Bill “Yoda” Belichick knows what he is doing after all. Matt Cassel’s 1st NFL start looked a whole lot like one of the 1st few games that one Tom Brady took over for Drew Bledsoe in 2001, lots of running, lots of screens and lots of short dump offs and take 1 shot down the field just to stretch the D. Cassel didn’t turn the ball over and was a fairly efficient 16 – 23 for 165 yards. Lamont Jordan gave the running game a boost in the 2nd half, pounding his former team for 62 yrds in 11 carries. The Pats beat the Jets 19 – 10.
The Chicago Bears choked up a lead and a game against the Carolina Panthers 20 – 17.
The Oakland Raiders, who may be minus a head coach today, beat the KC Chiefs 23 – 8.
The New York Giants totally stomped on the St Louis Rams 41 – 13.
The Colts barely slipped by the Minnesota Vikings with a late FG 18-15.
Backup QB Kerry Collins and rookie RB Chris Johnson led the Tennessee Titans to a big 24 – 7 win over the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Redskins D picked off Drew Brees 2 times and Jason Campbell finally got Jim Zorn’s offense to edge out the New Orleans Saints 29 – 24.
Trent Edwards has a strong game as the Buffalo Bills outlast the Jacksonville Jags 20 – 16.
JT O’Sullivan gets sacked 8 times, but still throws for over 300 yrds and leads the 49ers to a 33 – 30 win over the Seattle Seahawks.
The Tampa Bay Bucs bring Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons back to Earth with a 24 – 9 win in Tampa.
The Arizona Cardinals and Anquan Boldin sliced and diced the Miami Dolphins 31 – 10.
The San Diego Chargers got a little robbed as the Denver Broncos went for 2 and won the game 39 – 38.
In the nightcap, not exactly the way the NFL drew it up, The Pittsburgh Steelers limped to a 10 – 6 win over the Cleveland Browns.
Jon Lester looked like an ace once again, helping the Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4 – 3. The Sox took 3 of 4 against the Jays and head to Tampa 1 game back of the Rays.
The New York Yankees did the Red Sox a favor by beating up on the Tampa Bay Rays 8 – 4.
NL Central leading Chicago Cubs sure got a game out of Carlos Zambrano. With the game moved to Miller Park in Milwaukee, Zambrano threw the Cubs 1st no hitter in 36 years, beating the Astros 5 – 0.
The Milwaukee Brewers fall continued as the Philadelphia Phillies finished off a sweep of the Brewers with a 7 – 3 win. The win propelled Philadelphia to a tie with the Brew Crew for the Wild Card lead.
The Minnesota Twins dropped another game in the standings, losing to the Baltimore Orioles 7 – 3.
The LA Dodgers lose to the Colorado Rockies 1 – 0 in 10 innings, but still remain 4 1/2 games up on the Arizona Diamondbacks.
STEP #1: SHOCK AND DENIAL
“Tom’s fine, he may have sprained his knee or something minor like that. I think Belichick is just jerkin the league around and hopes that he can remove the target off of New England…………………………no way is Tom Brady out for the year, uh-uh, no way.
Maybe a lesser man-ning couldn’t have their knee hyper-extended like this and bounce back to find #84 23 times this season…..but we all know that Tom Brady was born on the planet Krypton and is invincible.”
STEP #2: PAIN AND GUILT
“I should have been there, I should have been there to block Pollard……….I would have thrown all 5 and a half feet and 146 pounds of me into him. I may have died in the process and left nothing but a stack of bills for my wife and three kids to pay, but at least Tom would be okay. At least my kids would have Tom Brady to watch every weekend until the cable was shut off and child services took them. Oh god, no more number 12 out there behind center, no more sweet long balls to Moss, no more sticking it to the Bills and the Jets.”
STEP #3: ANGER AND BARGAINING
“Goddamned Pollard…..and what the hell is Morris doing…..you take the penalty and keep your QB healthy…….and why did we have to go get Randy Moss, huh? If he couldn’t stretch the field and our offense was dink and dunk, Tom never would have held the ball so long and Pollard could never have stuck his helmet right through Tom’s knee and the collective hearts of Pats’ fans everywhere. Why? Why did this have to happen? Maybe if we still had Reche Caldwell things would be okay. Sure we would get freaked out everytime there was a close up of him, but seeing this……………
Is a helluva lot easier than seeing this……….
Okay God…..I know I just got a little irrational back there, but if you could please make Tom Brady able to play all season, I will stop dr–I mean my brother will stop drinking and unwrapping those magazines at the local Rite Aid and read them while standing in line only to tell the cashier that you aren’t buying because someone unwrapped it………huh, whaddua say? Do we have a deal?”
STEP #4: DEPRESSION
“Oh god, he’s really gone and he is not coming back…..nothing I can do can make him come back. What will I do without seeing Tom on our annual Fall, Sunday dates? Who is going to remind me that with all the evil-doers out there like the Mannings and LT that there is still some good to believe in? I know I’ve got school and my career, but what does that matter without Tom? I don’t care about the rest of the team…..don’t give me that sh*t, we don’t have Tom……and Tom is more valuable than 100 USC QBs. What good is Randy Moss without Tom huh? Wes Welker isn’t going to be the man in the middle without Tom. You can’t convince me that the team will be fine…..we might as well be Jets fans, they don’t have a decent starting quarterback either.”
STEP #5: ACCEPTANCE
“You know, Matt Cassel isn’t Tom Brady…..then again who is……..but we’ve got talent around him and the defense is solid. Now maybe if Ellis Hobbit learns to cover someone the secondary won’t be that much of a concern. And hey, we’ve got about 1,000 running backs on the roster……not to mention the greatest coach in the history of the NFL. Now I am not saying Super Bowl, but there is still a chance for the AFC East and maybe a run to the Conference Championship….then who knows. Man, I am going to go buy supplies for Sunday…like the Sox said 4 years ago when things were looking bleak:
IT’S TIME TO COWBOY UP
The Matt Cassel Widget, courtesy of ESPN.com, has been added as the Central Maine Sports Blog continues to show this man unwavering support.
A Patriots Players has told ESPN’s Trent Dilfer that “Cassel is our QB for the rest of the year”
Pro Football Talk is reporting Brady has a torn ACL
There is a rumor out there now that Brady will have an MRI tomorrow, however I don’t think a Pats player would make a comment like that. I do not know if Gillette has an MRI machine, but let’s put it this way, I doubt we see Brady again this year….
UPDATE:From WEEI.COM
An NFL source close to the situation has told WEEI.com’s Ron Borges that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has a torn ACL in his left knee. — Rob Bradford (Aug. 7, 7:24 p.m.)
The Maine Sports Blog 