Sweet Sixteen! Matt Cassel leads New England Patriots to 17-10 victory over Kansas City Chiefs
The New England Patriots won their 2008 season opener, 17-10, at home against the Kansas City Chiefs, but they lost their starting quarterback Tom Brady, last year’s NFL MVP and a two-time Super Bowl MVP to game-ending, possibly season ending and maybe even career ending knee injury.
Brady’s back-up, the not highly thought of Matt Cassel, stepped in after Brady went down on the last play of New England’s second drive in the first quarter, which ended when wide receiver Randy Moss somehoe lost the ball without getting hit. The teams shared a scorelss tie at that point, with the Patriots looking sloppy and the Chiefs rather punchless.
For all of the uncertainty surrounding the offensive line going into the season the Patriots had four regular starters and one some-time starter: Left tackle Matt Light, left guard Logan Mankins, center Dan Koppen, right tackle Nick Kaczur and right guard Billy Yates. That specific combination was last fielded by the Patriots in week two last year against the San Diego Chargers.
Cassel started his first drive from New England’s one-yard line late in the opening quarter. Two runs up the middle for very short losses set the stage for a dramatic third-and eleven play and the first real test of Cassel’s career. The perennial backup from USC – where he played second string behind Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart came through brilliantly lofting a 51 yard play-action pass from behind eight blockers to Moss down the right sideline.
Cassel finished off the drive with a ten yard touchdown strike to Moss, again on third down but this time from a shotgun spread formation with only five blockers protecting him. He played it well by letting three of the four pass rushers run by him on the outside before stepping up in the pocket to throw the ball to Moss (Mankins controlled the fourth pass rusher more or less at the line of scrimmage, where I assume the defensive tackle was guarding against a screen or a scramble).
Sammy Morris had a 22 yard run on the Patriots first scoring drive, four plays after Cassel’s bomb to Moss, that was the result of hard running by Morris and great execution of a beautifully drawn up play. Both guards pulled to their right luring the linebackers to flow with them. Kaczur and Koppen waded into the linebacker corps. Tight end David Thomas went in motion from right to left and walled off the defensive tackle lined up over Mankins to the inside. Light mauled the Chiefs’ right defensive end. The only glitch was Spach’s inability to get to the right outside linebacker, but Morris broke his tackle and gashed up the middle before veering left for a gain of 22 yards. It was a great play that went right up the gut while influencing KC’s defense to its left. Great stuff. Moss was flanker wide left and Jabnar Gaffney splitwide right on the play.
The Patriots tried a little razzle-dazzle midway throgh the second quarter with a flea flicker from from Maroney to Cassel. Unfortunately, Cassel couldn’t find an open receiver on his first read and was flattened when Mankins failed to hold his block on defensive end Alfonso Boone.
That debacle was immediately followed by a very well designed and executed play. Patriots used a shot gun formation with Maroney and Morris split in the backfield (last season it was a rarity for the Patriots to use two runingbacks in shotgun formations). The two ran a runningback screen of sorts: Cassel threw a short pass to Morris was given room to work with thanks to a hammering block by Maroney. It was almost like a pick except Maroney’s block clearly came after Morris made the catch. Morris picked up 11 yards.
Notable players on defense
A lot of players need to make a lot of plays for a team to give up only ten points, but some players make more plays than others:
Left defensive end Ty Warren and nose tackle Vince Wilfork had great games, frequently stuffing runs coming in theor direction, or running down plays that went the other way.
Left outside linebacker Mike Vrabel had a bit of a slow start but gradually elevated his game and finished with two sacks (oe in the third quarter and one in the fourth). I think he also played a crucial role on right outside linebacker Adalius Thomas’s sack of Brodie Croyle. Instead of Vrabel rushing and Thomas dropping back, as they usually do, Vrabel dropped into covergae and Thomas looped inside. I got the impression that Croyle looked downfield to his right, where he probably expected his wide receiver to be open on a comeback pattern only to see Vrabel in coverage and then got steamrolled by Thomas before he had time to reset. That was Broyle’s last snap of the game.
Vrabel also knocked down a pass intended for KC fullback Tim Cox in the left flat in the first quarter, which set up a third-and -long that the Chiefs were unable to convert, in part because of pressure applied by Vrabel.
Cornerback Ellis Hobbs gave up a touchdown pass but also snagged an interception that set up Patriots final score of the game, a 37-yard field goal by Steohen Gostkowski.
Strugglers and stragglers
In spite of the sack he got Thomas generally struggled throughout the day, both against the run and in coverage.
While Moss did score a touchdown, did haul in he 51 yard pass and did finish the game with 116 yards receiving on six catches, his speed resembled that of a tight end’s rather than a big-time, game breaking receiver’s. His fumble on the play that Brady got hurt on is mind boggling.
Welker finished with six catches for 51 yards but also dropped a couple of passes and, worst of all, fumbled the ball to end New England’s first drive of the game. But one should keep in mind that Welker wasn’t exactly sterling in last year’s opener against New York Jets either.
Brandon Meriweather still doesn’t know how to keep balls from bouncing off his chest.
The End of the Brady Era
What about Brady’s injury? Not being the most optimistic fan in the world I’m going to say this: I think Brady’s season is over and I think his career is, too. Sure, he’ll probably come back and play next year, and maybe also 2010 (which I think will be his last) but he won’t be the same stone-cold slinger with dead-on accuracy. In fact, he looked hampered by his reported foot injury even before he went down with his knee injury. On the first drive of the game Patriots faced a third-and-three on New England’s 45-yard line. Kansas City’s right defensive end got inside leverage on Patriots left tackle Matt Light . Last season Brady routinely side stepped such pressure to deliver spot-on passes, but on that play he sort of shuffled to his left and threw, seemingly without getting properly set, a pass to Wes Welker that was just out of reach for the receiver.
Brady gave us seven season’s of pigskin mastery that in my lifetime has been rivaled only by Joe Montana. Thank you, Brady, thank you.
Six Degrees of Pain
There were many fates that intertwined when Brady went down with injury.
The runningback who failed to protect him against the blitzer was Sammy Morris, a back up runningback who was playing because Brady’s normal shotgun pocket sidekick Kevin Faulk was suspended for having violated the league’s (recreational) substance abuse policy. Morris suffered a sesaon ending injury last year when a back up tight end, Marcellus Rivers, failed to clear the way on a running play. Morris was knocked out of commission with a very unsusual injury when pulling right guard Stephen Neal fell on him. Neal is currently on the Physically Unable to Perform, battling an arm injury that has haunted him ever since he pounced on a loose ball in 2002, the yearafter Tom Brady got the starting job after the devastating injury suffered by Drew Bledsoe against the New York Jets. Playing in Neal’s place against the Chiefs was Billy Yates, a journeyman interior offensive lineman who had his last two seasons spoiled by injuries. Yates probably wouldn’t have started had not interior offensive lineman Russ Hochstein not been banged up, too.
My point is simply this: Football is a violent game that wears down the bodies it doesn’t break down.
Bottom line
The Patriots entire season has been thrown into disarray with the injury to Brady. Beating Kansas City with Cassel as quarterback is not an accomplishment I would take as a sign of great things to come. All Patriots players need to dial it up a notch. This is going to be as challenging a season as 2006, or heck, maybe even 2002.
