I'll never forget the moment when I saw Bernard Pollard buckle up under Tom Brady's knee. Brady's season was over and Matt Cassel's only just began. Patriots fans were worried, they thought their season was over.
I however did not see the situation as being so glum. I knew very well that Tom Brady had been a quarterback who had flourished in New England's system then finally reached his peak with the aid of Randy Moss. The question still had to be asked.
Could Matt Cassel possibly be effective in New England?
Keep in mind that he had not started a game since 1999 in high school. How could a player like that ever succeed in the NFL? After all, he's no Tom Brady.
True that Cassel was no Tom Brady, but no one should ever fail to underestimate the power of the "system" in place in New England. Patriots fans especially are guilty for their belief that Tom Brady is more exceptionally gifted then he really is. Don't get me wrong, he is very good but he had also been a major product of his system.
Don't believe me?
In comes Matt Cassel. A player with virtually no experience in the college or pro ranks. He is not as physically gifted as Tom Brady. Yet, could he still be effective? Prior to this Sunday's game, his quarterback rating this season has been a 87.3. Do you realize that rating is almost identical to Tom Brady's career quarterback rating before Randy Moss came in 2007?
So essentially, his numbers have been Tom Brady-esk circa 2001-2006. How on earth could a player with no experience who lacks exceptional physical abilities do this?
The answer lies within the system of New England. It always helps to have a quality defense back you up. Also, just as Randy Moss had done his entire career, he has managed to make another quarterback look good. I've always said that he made a good quarterback in Tom Brady look great and he'll make a bad quarterback in Matt Cassel look good.
Hate to say I told you so.
True, its not all due to Randy Moss' contributions, New England has an excellent system set up. To prove me point, look at the numbers. In Tom Brady's career of 130 total games, he threw for over 400 yards a total of zero times. In the past two weeks, Matt Cassel has managed to eclipse the 400 yard mark twice.
Last week he became the only player in NFL history to throw for over 400 yards and rush for over 60 in a single game. He led the Patriots on a comeback drive and threw the game-tying touchdown pass to none other then Randy Moss with one second left. Very reminiscent of Tom Brady if you ask me.
Now this week he he threw for 415 yards, 3 touchdown passes and ran in for a 4th. Not bad for a quarterback with no experience who was randomly thrown into the mix.
No one believed me when Brady first went down but there is no question that the power of New England's system can produce positive quarterback play regardless of who is under center.
19 comments Last one added 5 months ago — Leave a Comment
Cody Swartz 7 months ago
I think you're taking away credit that Cassel deserves. It's a great system, but the system isn't solely why Cassel is good.
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Helen Medmim 7 months ago
I completely agree. Say what you want about Bill Belichick, but I don't think you can ever count the Pats out as long as he's coach. Their 7-4 record doesn't really show how well they've played this season. They should really be 9-2. They outlplayed the Jets last week but made critical mistakes. Anyway I've always thought Brady was the most overrated player in this era. I know he's got 3 rings but he woudn't even have 1 if he didn't have the great supporting cast (ie the defense) all those years. I personally think Manning is more talented; if he had been drafted by NE he would probably have 3 or 4 rings too. I will say this though. I think that although Moss benefited from the system, he was just as good if not better when he was playing in Minnesota. He's just got pure talent. He doesn't even try 100% of the time + he's always doubled + he's still making history.
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jack benimble 7 months ago
Are you people completely high? Tom Brady a "good" quarterback? Overrated? Matt Cassel a "bad" quarterback? How could you get it so completely, utterly wrong? There are so many flaws in your logic it beggars description. First of all, Matt Cassell is far more athletic than Brady, so already you're losing me. Did it occur to you that Matt Cassell might have been good because he has trained under Brady, as well as Bellichick? They both clearly contributed. Cassel has had 3 years of the best training possible, and has the tools, mentally and physically, to take advantage of it. As far as having a supporting cast - look at how many sacks Brady has taken over the years. It was only last year when the offensive line really got better at protecting him - and they still couldn't do in for the Super Bowl. Anyway, you can't win anything without a great supporting cast. Didn't Montana have Jerry Rice? Don't forget, Moss hasn't won a ring yet. That means Brady did it without him. Obviously, he wasn't going to have 400 yard games with Dionne Branch and David Givens and Troy Brown as his top receivers! But they *won*, and that's the genius of Brady and Belichichick. It's not about 400 yard games. It's about strategy and field position and versatile, smart players and everyone being on the same page and situational football and preparation and being smart and all that good stuff. The sum of the parts is greater than the whole. If a player thrives in a system, it means the system is good, but you can't hold it against the player. Brady is smart enough to thrive in any reasonable situation because he understands the game as well as any qb who's come before him. Cassel has trained under the best and seems to have a pretty good idea about what he's doing. He's not "bad" - he's pretty good, and getting better.
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Bing Wang 7 months ago
So according to your logic Young and Montana are both overrated, I mean Young was 3-16 as a starter before coming in for the injured Montana. I mean Testaverde was able to bring that bad bucs team to a more respectable 6-10 record after young was traded.
If you put Marino and his 56% career completion percent in the playoffs on those SB winning 49ers teams that had the best playoff QB in the history of the NFL, one that had never thrown a single INT in any of his 4 super bowl wins, marino would have won 4 SB? Compared to Joe Cool? No.
Brady was able to consistently throw a 2 TD to 1 INT ratio his entire career with receivers who stopped seeing the field once they left New England. Brady has thrown more TD's and less INT's than Manning has in the playoffs, consider the fact that Manning plays games in a Dome while Brady has had to play in the freezing New England Weather. Manning has had Harrison/Wayne/Clark, 3 possible future HoF players, Brady has had Brown, Givens, Branch, you could count their pro bowls together on one hand. Last year when Brady got the type of receivers Manning has had his entire career, he broke the NFL record for TD's thrown to 8 interceptions. systems dont teach that accuracy, you could say that Manning was a system QB, his system paid for the best Offensive weapons in the game and in exchange for explosion in the regular season they get to fail in the playoffs. The one year Manning "led" his team to a SB win, he threw more Interceptions than Touchdowns.
The system was so good it produced a 5-11 season with bledsoe. IT takes a special combination of a coach like BB and his system and a QB like Brady to create this dynasty.
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Ryan Michael 7 months ago
Dallas clark a HOF'er?
He was drafted in 2003 and Wayne in 2001, that's not Manning's entire career.
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Ethan Mitchell 7 months ago
wow You were not worried at all when Tom Brady's little knee got buckled and then torn to little pieces?! i wish you could tell me how to do that!
ya right you dont all of a sudden know Matt is just going to go off throwin 400 yarders back to back game. ya he is good but not being worried that is crap
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Ryan Michael 7 months ago
I'm a Colts fan so I wasn't saying that I was upset Brady got hurt. I'm not saying I thought that Cassel would be as good or better then Brady but I did know that almost any QB in that system would do well.
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Billy DeCosta 7 months ago
We'll know just how good Cassell is when he signs up to be somebody's starter next year.
Also, while the system in New England does make mediocre players into good ones, I think that's where Belicheck deserves the most credit. He's set up a system where he can fill a hole with somebody and not worry about them totally destroying a game for him, the system is set up in such a way where that can't happen. That's every coaches dream
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Ryan Michael 7 months ago
I agree, I believe he is more responsible for the Patriots success then Tom Brady. Brady was more so a product of the system.
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Joshua Smith 7 months ago
If by "system", you mean a preturnatural ability to find top QB talent in the bottom rounds of the draft, you're absolutely right. If you're talking about base offensive packages...Brady's essentially played in three different systems during the '01-'04 Weiss era, a mix and match in '05, and didn't start to consistently run the Urban Meyer style spread until stretches of '06 and as a true base package in '07. Yeah, Moss helped him maximize his talent, but I don't see how this is any different than Wayne and Harrison doing the same for Manning. I mean, he very nearly turned Reche Caldwell--Reche Freakin' Caldwell! (aka: the man who makes David Terrell look like Terrell Owens)--into a pro bowler. Now don't tell me that you can't be better than good to do that, and that's not to mention that Brady's most consistent receiver over those years--David Givens--didn't fly the way of the Dodo after he left New England.
The whole notion of the system quarterback is a load of bunk in the NFL. This isn't a backwater chunk of the MAC conference we're talking about here. Yeah, Cassel has benefited from a top notch coaching staff, a good three years learning, and a first rate corps of skill players hitting their stride in the organization. But to sling for 400 yards in consecutive games in the tops of all tops gridiron pro leagues against two pretty to very good defenses (Now keep in mind that Volek did this against defensive bottom dwellers) does take more than a modicum of genuine skill.
There are no "system" quarterbacks in the NFL. If this were true, J.T O'Sullivan would be a pro bowler.
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Ryan Michael 7 months ago
What i meant was that Brady and Cassel have played well due to being on a really good all-around team and playing with Randy Moss.
Reche was no where near the Pro Bowl. He had 760 yards and 4 TD's, no where close to the level you claim.
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Pay-a-ton Manning 7 months ago
-If this "system" is so good, why hasn't anyone really copied it yet.
-Why have all the other Pats backups never done well in "the system"
-Hey, if Drew Bledsoe could bring this team to a title in "the system' anyone can....... oh wait. He never did jack in "the system"
I always find it funny when people with an obvious agenda try to pass off garbage like this as "objective journalism." He should have just said "I'm an unintelligible hack who hates the Patriots and everything they've done to MY team.
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Bruce Dickenson 7 months ago
I said at the beginning of the year that Matt Cassel looked aweful. He is making me look funny.
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Rob Dern 7 months ago
All teams have "systems." That's called coaching and organization. Some are better than others. The advantage that Manning had for years was that his system included the same head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterback coach year after year. He also had all-star receivers. The disadvantage he had was that the defense was very average to weak and there wasn't much of a running threat. Being a great quarterback, he made the best of a tough situation, racked up amazing stats and, lacking a balanced system, couldn't win the SB. The Colts took quite a while to figure out that you have to have more balance to win the SB, but when they did, that was it. Manning was just as great before that. When the system adjusted, he also won the SB.
Belichick's "system" is that he seems to be a brilliant reader of talent, character, intelligence and potential. Auerbach used to say that he would rather have a good athlete who was coachable than a great one who wouldn't take coaching. Same for Belichick. You will notice that he chose Cassel and not other guys with fancier arms or more impressive backgrounds. He must have seen that Cassel is smart, learns fast, is clearly tough and is a fiercely competitive player. Not everyone is all of that.
Not all teams have a coach like Belichick and a personal director like Scott Pioli, who know how to assess talent, draft well, and work within the confines of the cap the way they do. Part of a good system is knowing how to exploit the strengths of your personnel and cover their weaknesses as best you can.
Belichick doesn't just plug in any old guy into a "system." He picks the right guys that can learn to play team football the way he teaches it. They buy into it because it's smart and wins a lot of games. Then the veterans teach the new guys both by example and, if necessary, getting in their faces. Rookie LB Mayo is obviously Belichick's kind of player: smart, very hard working and also, at #10, a great athlete. But he is also being taught/mentored by Bruschi and Vrabel—all of them are part of the "system."
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mmqb 7 months ago
Cassel has definitely gotten bettter and has made himself a lot of money.
He may even end up staying with the Pats
But of course, it doesn't hurt to have Randy Moss, still the most dangerous
wide receiver in the NFL.
Yesterday's numbers- 8 catches, several spectacular. 125 Yards, 3 TD's and the victory
over the Fins. Enough said.
Got to be the shoes. www.pony.com/moss
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Rob Costa 7 months ago
Patriots haters were gonna have a field day either way when Brady went down. If the team sucks; Belichick's overrated like they always knew he was. Should Cassel do well, Brady's "the most overrated player of his era" (the most mind-numbingly stupid comment thus far). Well ain't that convenient?
Cassel's been the starting QB for all but 8 minutes of the season. That helps; we're now seeing what half a season of good practice brings. He's also not the only backup doing pretty well this season, in case no one's noticed. The reason Cassel's flourishing now is BECAUSE of Tom Brady and the 8 seasons he spent laying the framework; turning them from the patriots into the PATRIOTS. When the Niners kept rolling after Steve Young replaced Montana no one dumped on Joe's legacy. Montana built that team to where they were and everyone knew it.
Drew Bledsoe was 5-13 in this supposed plug-anyone-in-and-it'll-work-at-QB system and he threw for what...50,000 career yards? Having Moss and Welker is part of the equation for Cassel but no more than his four years of working with Brady. Anyone recall those geniuses that predicted Brady would fall off after Charlie Weis left? Anyone remember when Belichick was a 5-11 failed Head Coach in Cleveland? Since 2001, on game day, the practice field, in the locker room, Brady elevated this teams' level of play, season after season, something Bledsoe couldn't do.
Truth is; if Brady really were overrated, it would've been proven last season, when he had exceptional WR's for the first time in his career. Rather than simply improving his normal regular season numbers, he went off-the-charts historic with his level of play; probably the greatest season ever. That was all I needed to see. He's Hall of Famer, one of the all-time best and it's been right there for us to watch. Who the hell else is winning three Super Bowls? But the greatest of the greats don't just play their position well, they turn their team into a monster. It had to start from scratch somewhere.
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Ryan Michael 7 months ago
Keep in mind Brady in 2007 threw 43% of his TD passes to one player who also hogged up the coverage for the other guys. They also played in the weakest division in recent memory.
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tom thunm 5 months ago
Brady is an A+ QB.
Cassell is a C+ QB.
Who cares that Cassell got 400 yds twice. The running game is crap and he had to throw 50 times. He didnt get 400yds vs Indy, Pitt or Sd. As a matter of fact, vs the only good teams the guy played (indy, SD, Pitt) Cassell only combined for 550yds 0td 5int.
When the Pats were favored and were supposed to win, they did. When they were an underdog, they lost and got the crap beat out of them.
Cassell's overrated if anyone thinks he's great. Put Cassell on the Raiders, Clev, Detroit, St. Louis, etc. and the guy would throw 14td 20int and win 2-4 games. Put Moss/Welker on Philly and McNabb would throw 45td 15int 4,800 yds. I'm just trying to show you how far Cassell is away from a McNabb. People say McNabb is average. He's WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better than Cassell. If you just put Moss on Philly McNabb throws 35tds, 14 more than Cassell.
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tom thunm 5 months ago
If you want to really figure out where Cassell should be rated among QB's in the league, look at each QB's stats, then add 10-15td passes and 1,000 yards to their final stats for the year, what they would get if you added Moss/Welker to their team. Now compare Cassell's stats to other qb's. He'd be very close to the bottom of the league. The guy did crap with the talent he has.
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