Artificial Turf: Storm Clouds Bring Rain, not Reign.

I miss you this morning, Tom.

I was faced with an opinion poll last week while I was surfing the Globe Sports Page online: Who do I want as a starting QB next season, Brady or Cassel. As a huge Cassel supporter, my immediate inclination, of course, was to pick him. I then considered that Cassel has been an outstanding fill-in, a serviceable player and has even shown Brady-esque flashes of on-field generalship and athleticism. I then considered that Brady (at the very least, from an accolade perspective only) is the greatest quarterback of all time, ever……..      ever.

This here is Ben's $102 million, Patriot-beating smile.

Last night’s game was truly atrocious to watch. The first half, which ended in a 10-10 tie, was lead by a sunny and defensively prolific first quarter. It was our ray of sunshine and hope. Even when Big Ben, the highest paid played in all of football, squeezed in a 19yd TD pass to Santonio Holmes I thought: no worries, we get the ball back at the half and we’re moving the ball. -It wasn’t until this morning that I realized our only scoring drive came off a turnover and we only needed to cover 14 yards, 2 of which came from Sammy Morris crashing through the line for a score-

Then came the second half Patriot TDs, a new beer and our trademark half-time adjustments. I am still waiting on 2 out of those 3 (though I did my best to compensate with more beers.) Instead, the second half brought dropped passes, missed opportunities, missed blocks, sacks and fumbles.

Never in my life have I looked at a play and thought: Where's my guy Ellis Hobbs?

It hurt us to watch too, Randy.

I was basically done watching after Moss dropped two (and didn’t make a play on a third) pass in the end zone. What I saw in that succession of plays, capped by a missed Gostkowski FG, was Cassel not getting the pass off quick enough. Randy ran three (essentially) identical patterns; 3 yards deep into the end zone, cut in, expect the ball. Cassel waited until Randy was open to release the ball as opposed to firing it in there as he made his move. This additional split second gives the over-top help, in this case that fierce and cheap-shot taking Free Safey, Ryan Clark, time to recognize the play progression. As soon as a receiver like Randy Moss takes more than 2 steps through the middle, his priorities go from catching the ball to protecting his multi-million dollar hands and body. No homo. This means that as soon as Cassel sees Randy open and making a break across the middle, it’s too late to throw him the ball.

That is the value of Wes Welker. He is fearless. He makes plays across the middle because he knows if he’s gonna take a hit, he might as well come down with the ball. And he knows that if some jack-ass free safety de-cleats him with a cheap shot, his team will be right there for him to send a message of protection: That’s our boy.

I’m still waiting for the appropriate retaliation. I’m not even mad at Clark for the cheap shot (flagged for hitting a defenseless receiver). His play took every last bit of steam out of the Pats offense… and that is probably what Tomlin and he were laughing about on the sideline. Where was our fearless Matt Light then? Who was there to start a little skirmish with Clark to let him know that the Patriots will not be Effed with??? NO ONE. So Welker spatulaed himself off the wet artificial turf, and limped his concussed brain over to the sideline. If I was Matt Cassel, I would have kicked Clark’s ass myself. It’s just UGLY.

The lack of retaliation was embarrassing, not the cheap shot.

Someone needs a hug.

So why mention Brady? Because he wouldn’t have sucked last night. Brady’s ability to read a pre-snap defense and identify where the pressure will come from was what had led us to dominate the Steelers over the past 5 seasons. Cassel’s look of utter confusion when the heat came was very disheartening.

And that’s what I have to deal with today, a bunch of still-in-town Steelers fans who damn near outnumbered us at the game, and the fact that we all might as well go out and buy ourselves some Patriot-logoed man-purses.

On a lighter note, one of our readers quipped to me that he picked against the Pats this week as it is possible that Matt Cassel hasn’t thrown a football in the rain in 10 years… looked about right last night.

And I’m way too pissed to talk about what great game Faulk had.

Need to go win all 4 down the stretch to make the playoffs. Seattle, Oakland, Arizona, Buffalo.

StartMattCassel