“He’s playing some hellified ball.” —Randy Moss on Matt Cassel
Published 00:52, November the 24th, 2008
10 Things We Learned Yesterday
In no particular order, here are 10 things we learned about the Patriots in yesterday’s game, a 48-28 win over the Miami Dolphins:
1. Yesterday, the Patriots made sure the last five weeks of the season would still mean something in New England. On an afternoon they absolutely needed a win to stay in the division picture — and, in all likelihood, the playoff race — the Patriots were able to get a tremendous effort from their offense in a surprising blowout of Miami. Matt Cassel had another career day, tossing for 415 yards and three touchdowns. “He’s playing some hellified ball,” said wide receiver Randy Moss of Cassel, who did something yesterday that Tom Brady has never done — put up back-to-back 400-yard passing games. Moss (three TD catches, 125 yards) and Wes Welker (eight catches, 120 yards) added the oomph needed for New England to get over the top. In the end, they were able to overcome some bad penalties and a few dropped balls to pick up a very satisfying victory. “It’s nice to come down to Florida and win; you know, this hasn’t been a great venue for us through the years,” said Patriots coach Bill Belichick. “Offensively, we had a lot of good production, but we had some penalties and a couple miscues. But I thought those guys really stayed after it and moved the ball effectively.”
2. No matter the quarterback, Randy Moss is still one of the most effective weapons in football. Moss had a tremendous outing yesterday. By my count, four of his catches were the kind of grabs that only a handful of receivers could make. There was the one-handed reception along the New England sideline midway through the first quarter that went for 22 yards. There was the catch and run late in the second that he ended up going for 25 yards and a touchdown when Moss lowered his shoulder and plowed into Miami defensive back Renaldo Hill. How about the 15-yarder midway through the third quarter, a laser from Cassel over the middle that turned a 3rd and 15 into a 1st and 10? Or finally, there was the 29-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth where he elevated over Miami cornerback Andre Goodman, his third TD reception of the day? “I’m always amazed at what Randy can do,” Cassel said. “He’s got amazing hands, his body control, and how he’s able to control the defender with his body, and then go up and get the ball. He’s a special player and those guys don’t come around much, so I’m lucky to be on the same team with him.”
3. Cassel is developing a deeper relationship with his receivers. Our favorite new stat is receiver ratio, where we measure the number of times a quarterback throws toward a receiver against the total number of catches for that receiver. It is not a true measure of a receivers’ ability — we have no way of measuring truly uncatchable balls — but it can show how comfortable a quarterback is with a pass catcher. (The more passes thrown in his direction, the more comfortable a quarterback is with that target.) In all yesterday, Welker caught eight of the 10 passes thrown toward him, while Moss was eight for 11, Kevin Faulk was six for six, Jabar Gaffney was five for seven, Matthew Slater was zero for one, Sammy Morris was two for three and Ben Watson was one for one. Four passes were either thrown away, or tossed to multiple receivers that ended up going incomplete. As we’ve said previously, Welker and Cassel have a Brady-to-Troy Brown, circa 2001 feel to the both of them, and all you have to do is look the numbers. Over the last three weeks, Welker remains as dependable as corruption on Beacon Hills — he’s caught 25 of the 28 balls thrown in his direction.
4. Vince Wilfork’s play was a big reason the Miami running game wasn’t able to gain a lot of traction. The massive nose tackle had one of his finest games of the season, taking up big pieces of real estate along the line and blunting the Dolphins running game, a stark contrast to the Week 3 blowout. (In the 38-13 loss in Foxborough, Miami gained 216 rushing yards. Yesterday, the Dolphins ended up with just 62 rushing yards.) As for the Wildcat package, Miami ran it eight times yesterday, picking up 25 yards. Back in Week 3, a prideful New England defense was embarrassed it allowed so much yardage on a gadget play. Yesterday, it was a different story. “We stopped the run, and stopped their Wildcat formation,” Wilfork said. “I think for the most part we did a really good job on defense. We still had a couple of problems, but overall, I think it was a pretty good effort.”
5. That being said, Wilfork may have been the only really good part of the New England defense yesterday. Through most of the first three quarters, the Patriots were unable to stop any part of Miami’s passing offense — the Dolphins had three touchdown drives of 69 yards or longer, and were 6-for-12 on third down opportunities. New England did get two sacks (Mike Vrabel and Richard Seymour) on Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington, but the pressure by the front seven was sporadic at best, as the Patriots finished with just three quarterback hits. In the end, Pennington’s final line wasn’t that much worse than Cassel (341 passing yards and three TDs). There were some good moments in the secondary — including Brandon Meriweather’s interception — but it was mostly a mixed bag for the New England defensive backs. Ellis Hobbs struggled at times, getting beaten in single coverage on a 46-yard pass play in the third quarter from Pennington to Ted Ginn, Jr. (Ginn also made Hobbs swing and miss twice on the same play later in the same quarter, an eight-yard connection.)
6. Offense is the least of New England’s worries. It’s not comparable to what they were doing last season, but the New England offense is starting to come together nicely down the stretch. The Patriots scored on eight of their 11 possessions yesterday and finished with an astounding 530 total yards, including a second straight 400-yard passing game from Cassel. Every single part of the New England offense was operating in peak form yesterday, including its big play potential, which has improved greatly over the last month. In an October loss to San Diego — the acknowledged low point of the season for the offense — just nine of New England’s 68 plays from scrimmage went for 10 or more yards. Last week against the Jets, 23 of their 75 plays from scrimmage went for 10 or more yards. And yesterday, the Patriots were able to get 10-plus yards on 17 of their 70 plays from scrimmage, including 11 of their 36 plays from scrimmage in the first half.
7. The Patriots kick coverage unit is better than it’s showed over the previous two weeks. New England allowed 327 yards in kick return work the previous two weeks, including a 92-yard touchdown return by New York’s Leon Washington and a near touchdown to Buffalo’s Leodis McKelvin that went for 85 yards. Yesterday, they were facing one of the worst kick return units in the league, but they still managed to hold it in check. Ginn had eight returns for 158 yards, a paltry total of 19.8 yards per return. (In contrast, both Washington and McKelvin average a full 10 yards more each return.) Of course, Ginn did his part to help out the cause, losing almost 10 yards when he backpedaled on a fourth-quarter return that left the Dolphins starting a drive on their own one-yard line.
8. Football fights are rarely good for anyone. The fourth-quarter fight between left tackle Matt Light and linebacker Channing Crowder will likely result in a suspension for Light, which will mean New England will be without its starting left tackle for next Sunday’s game against Pittsburgh. (It wasn’t a great afternoon for the Patriots’ offensive line — they were flagged for all six of New England’s penalties.) The fisticuffs started when Light and Crowder got tangled up on a New England 30-yard field goal attempt. Crowder’s helmet came off, and Light grabbed a handful of dreadlocks, swinging at Crowder’s head. The Miami linebacker bounced away from the scrum with a big smile on his face, and both players were ejected. No matter your feelings on who won or lost the fight, it was clear the Dolphins were frustrated down the stretch, taking a series of bad fourth-quarter penalties. “We didn’t show much class at the end,” said Miami defensive lineman Vonnie Holliday. “What’s so disappointing about this loss is not only were we beaten, but the way we handled the loss, especially at the end.” Dolphins coach Tony Sparano echoed Holliday, saying, “It looked like a lack of poise. We did the things that young, immature teams do.”
9. Joey Porter may have sealed his rep as the all-time Patriots’ punch line. In the week leading up to the game, the linebacker told anyone who would listen that Miami was gonna engage in a little payback for what New England did to them last season, while the Patriots said all the right things about the linebacker. But there was plenty of eye-rolling over yesterday’s performance. It started with a pregame appearance on ESPN, where he asserted he could have had three Super Bowl rigs if it wasn’t for the Patriots, who “cheated” him out of his titles. He did have a sack yesterday, but was a large part of Miami’s self-immolation down the stretch: In the fourth, he was flagged for unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct in a span of three plays, costing the Dolphins 24 yards and setting up New England nicely for its final score of the afternoon. (As a postscript to the whole mess, reports indicate that Sparano tried to bench Porter in the wake of the penalties, but he wouldn’t come to the sidelines.) The Patriots were gleeful about Porter’s situation after the game. “He has his little dance and stuff and I just wanted to let him know we were here to play,” Wilfork told reporters. “I always look forward to seeing him on SportsCenter. I was just looking to give him a little bit of his own medicine.” Logan Mankins added his two cents: “He was just not shutting up the entire game. That’s how he plays,” Mankins told reporters. “He just kept running his mouth. He got warned. And I guess, eventually, he said something the referee didn’t like.”
10. Matt Cassel had great numbers again, but some of his best work came in small moments. Cassel had another career day, but his growth can be seen in the details. In the second quarter, he was standing in the pocket in the midst of a Miami blitz, and did a superlative job avoiding the sack and getting rid of the football on a short pass to Kevin Faulk. And in the fourth quarter, Cassel spun nicely out of a near sack by Miami defensive back Will Allen. He didn’t always make the right decision earlier this season, but he’s doing the right thing more and more as the season rolls along. “He makes good decisions,” Belichick said. “When things are covered, and the rush opens up and he has a chance to advance the ball, he can step up there and make that decision.”
Christopher Price has covered the Patriots for Boston Metro since 2001. His book, “The Blueprint: How the New England Patriots Beat the System to Create the Last Great NFL Superpower” is current available from St. Martin’s Press in paperback. He can be reached at christopher.price@metro.us.
