New England’s now Cassel-vania!

by Brady Rynyk
Love of Sports Correspondent

Not only is Matt Cassel not losing games for The Patriots, he is now winning them - and turning some heads in the process.

For a quarterback who had not started a game since his high school days at Chatsworth High, Matt Leinart’s back-up at USC is doing more then what was ever expected of him when he was burdened with the job of replacing the injured golden boy, Tom Brady. 

Although Cassel’s production on the team wasn’t immediate, the 26 year-old has been improving on a weekly basis at an exponential rate; expanding his comfort zone and getting the trust of his coaches and the convictions of his supporting cast of receivers.

With his confidence building, the new kid on the block has expanded his portfolio of plays to include scrambling out of the pocket and making some plays with his feet – something his predecessor does not do. 

In last week’s overtime finale with their division rival, Cassel accomplished something that no other New England QB before him had ever done – run for 62 yards and average close to 8 yards a carry.

In his first few starts, Cassel seemed to have few weapons in his repertoire, only averaging about 180 yards in his first 6 games and about 4.5 yards per pass.

Although he did not lead his team to victory against The Jets, Cassel did spark an impressive comeback which climaxed with a game tying touchdown pass to Randy Moss with only seconds to go.

Proving last week’s performance was no fluke; Cassel took the field against another division rival, the Miami Dolphins. He dominated in similar fashion – only this time coming out victorious. Almost mirroring his statistics from the previous week, Cassel again lead the league in passing with 415 yards, 3 touchdowns and even added a 14 yard rushing touchdown.

Just as impressive was the new found dynamic with wide receiver Randy Moss, who finished with 125 yards (and the 3 TDs of the game).  After struggling to connect against The Jets, the two finally got their timing down, and Cassel seems to be developing the deep-ball as yet another asset in his playbook.

Having only 28 total yards of offence coming into the 2008 season, Cassel now has 13 TDs and 2615 yards passing, and has officially had his coming out party. It might be too soon to call Cassel an elite NFL quarterback, but it is safe to say he is certainly one in the making - especially considering he is the first Patriots player to register back-to-back 400 yard games (something Manning, Brady, Montana and Marino never did).

If the Patriots decide not to hold on to Cassel, there will certainly be interest from around the league to throw big bucks at the apparent back-up.  But if the last two weeks (and rapid development up until this point) are any indication of what lies ahead, come next season, the Patriots might have a conundrum on their hands. 

Could it be possible that Tom Brady gets Bledsoe’d?