The Almost Comebacks

After Tom Brady went out for the 2008 season in the first drive of the first game, most people gave the Patriots little chance to have a winning season. Matt Cassel was a big surprise, however, even having two straight games of 400 plus passing yards. After last year, where Tom Brady set the record for most touchdown passes in a season, Cassel had a tough act to follow. Cassel rose to the challenge, however, ending the season with a 327 to 516, or 63.4%, completion ratio.

He passed for a total of 3693 yards, with 21 Touchdowns and 11 interceptions. His quarterback rating for the season ended up being 89.4. Although not the best stats in the league, and not even close to Brady's of last year, Cassel was able to play far better than he was expected too.

Cassel's contract is up after this year, and seeing how he played this season I am hoping the Patriots sign him again for next year. Hopefully, Brady will be back to his old self when and if he comes back next year, but if not then it would really help to have a quarterback who is already tested and used to the Patriots' play calling.

If Brady does come back and is capable, then the Patriots can always trade Cassel to another team, probably getting a good amount in return. In fact, it has been reported in the news that the Patriots are thinking of doing just that, franchising Matt Cassel.

The Patriots finished their season 11-5 beating the Buffalo Bills in week 17. They needed either the Baltimore Ravens or Miami Dolphins to lose in addition to that to make the playoffs. Baltimore ended up beating the Jacksonville Jaguars 27-7 and Miami ended up beating the New York Jets 24-17. As a result, the Patriots became the second team since the joining of the NFL and AFL, and the first since 1985, to win 11 games and still miss the playoffs.

This is while the San Diego Chargers made the playoffs at 8-8. For many, this has called into question the division set up for playoffs. Many are claiming that instead of four division leaders and two wild cards making the playoffs, each team in a conference should play every other team once, with one inter-conference game, and the six best teams would then make the playoffs.

I do not agree with this claim though. Since this is only the second time since the AFL and NFL merged that an 11 win team has not made the playoffs, I do not think that is reason enough to scrap the whole playoff system.

Two instances of this are not, in my opinion, enough evidence that the conference set up for the playoffs would be better. The division set up for the playoffs, with each team in a division playing the other teams in its division twice, creates rivalries among division opponents. I do not think this should be sacrificed for a fairer playoff scenario.

Although the Patriots will not be going to the playoffs, this season should not be chalked up as a complete loss. Bill Belichick did perhaps his best coaching since he became the head coach of the Patriots. With all the injuries that the Patriots had during the season, it is a wonder that they did as well as they did.

Injured players at certain points throughout the season included Tom Brady, LaMont Jordan, Sammy Morris, Richard Seymour, Laurence Maroney, Matt Light, Rodney Harrison, Vince Wilfork, Adalius Thomas, Ty Warren, Tedy Bruschi, and Ellis Hobbs, among others. Belichick was able to keep the Patriots fighting and in contention throughout all of that. For that reason, in my opinion Belichick had his best coaching season and should have won coach of the year.

So although the Patriots did not make the playoffs, the season was not for nothing. The season did have some positives: Cassel's performance after Brady went out for the season and Belichick's superb coaching. Hopefully the Patriots, and Patriots fans, can learn from this season and come back next year a better team than they were this year.