The Matt Cassel Report Card

Not spectacular, but very solid.

Overall, my grading drops down though. Over the course of the preseason, he’s probably closer to a 78. He does enough to get a passing grade, but you’d like to see more from him. Not quite good enough to say your comfortable with his performance, but you aren’t completely disheartened by it either.

I think that word alone kindof sums up his performance. It was encouraging, after 3 very limited and lackluster performances, even against mainly the Packer scrubs. I share the concerns over the O-line. I hope Gaither can continue to play a larger role. Richardson has had a bad camp, whether playing inside or outside. I don’t know if Albert could adjust to RT, and Gaither take over the LT spot, or vice-versa, but right now, I think I like OCallahan better than B. Rich. We also have seem to be getting more inside pressure. I hope we don’t miss Brian Waters more than alot of us thought we would.

Anyway, if I could pick an area of some concern, going into the season, it is the O-line (and stupid mistakes). Let’s see how much more actual game planning helps the O-line, as the best way to slow down a pass rush, is to pass when not expected, and to run the ball like we should be able too, if we can sustain a balanced attack. Seems like I feel some Deja Vu entering this season. We look alot like we did last season, at this time, and things seemed to turn around. They had better, as we play the “Big Boys” this year!!

And let me tell you something. I’m halfway through the 2nd quarter and BRich has been nothing but solid. That first holding penalty wasn’t his fault at all. Cassel broke the pocket and Richardson didn’t know Cassel rolled past him while he was blocking the guy, as soon as he seen Cassel coming around he let go. Not a blatant hold

Is fairly accurate. 85 is about right for his performance and I think he needs to really get the d to respect the deep ball but that comes with the o-line holding off these defenders for longer than they have.

On a somewhat side note I just went to Trader Joe’s for groceries and the guy who rang me up said he used to play baseball & football with Cassel and he is a super chill nice guy who is actually really funny.

I got through it alright this time =)

I think it could have been a 90 with a couple of good down the field passes. That is my issue altogether with Cassell. Four or five more down the field passes every game to keep the D honest and he would be getting A’s. While 85 is a decent score, I think it rare that he does better than this.

I respect the man and have been behind him the past two years.

But can anybody imagine if we had even just a slightly better quarterback how good our offense would be? We have so many weapons and it saddens me to say this, but Cassel cannot utilize it all….. :(

Coach Zorn has a positive impact on Matt’s play. Since he wasn’t brought in to “fix” the quarterback maybe he can improve his play and decision making skills. I like some of his unusual ideas and drills.

   We return to our disciplined ways. Matt Cassell has a superb TD / INT rating while still producing an average on the season of under 200 yards a game. We move the chains a lot, but we are not going to have the kind of offense that can get down the field in a hurry and score when they really need to.

I think our defense and not Matt Cassell will determine some of the bigger games for us.

puckers up

downfield passes require five step drops
five step drops require that Barry Richardson not be your right tackle

Please Jared Gaither, by all that is holy, please surpass Albert in pass blocking soon, so we can have two good to great tackles.

with Zorn around.