Patriots 2005 Season Discussion

The Patriots won their first pre-season game, 23-13 over the Bengals, but with both Tom Brady and Doug Flutie sitting out, it turned into a showcase for the third-string QB job. To that effect, Matt Cassell, the Pats' 7th round draft pick from USC, stole the show. He went 13/21 for 135 yards with no interceptions and a 96.3 passer rating. It included a 60 yard drive in which he went 6/10 and hit paydirt when Cassell threw quickly against a Bengal blitz and receiver Jason Anderson sidestepped a defender for a 20 yard score. On the bad side, however, Cassell had several passes that could've been intercepted, and was victimized by a strip-sack fumble in the fourth quarter. Cassell also had two other fumbles that were nullified on penalties. Still, it wasn't a bad performance for someone who only threw 33 passes in college while backing up Heisman Trophy winners Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart.

The Patriots will play their first game at Gillette Stadium Thursday @ 8:00 PM ET when the New Orleans Saints hit town for a contest that will be televised nationally on Fox.

 

Its a good thing that the Pats won. It sounds like the new QB did a good job although he made a few mistakes.

 

Well the bad news is the Pats lost to the Saints last night 37-27. The good news is it's only an exhibition game and the starters and 2nd string guys did a pretty good job.

Brady had a nice little night for himself considering he threw a horrendous pick on the first play of the game. He had a beauty of 45yd pass & catch to Tim Dwight on the next possession. Flutie also played well for the short time he was in there. Led the Pats to 2 TD's on his first 3 plays.

Their next game is a week from tonight in Green Bay against the Packers.

 

Flutie also had a nice throw near halftime when he hit Jason Anderson right on the hands extending into the end zone for a 29 yard score.

 

I liked how Anderson played, Flutie showed his colors, he's just got such pocket presence. Brady was good disregardiong that first pass pick off. (haha)

Cassel...hard to tell whats going to happen with him imho. He's doing well considering (as you said) his limited amount of play earlier in his career. He kinda stunk it up, but I think with time he'll gel with the team and improve. I see some potential (plus he's cute haha).

 

This weeks game against Green Bay should be a good matchup. Now we're half way through the pre-season and that means it's 2 weeks closer to the start of the 2005 season and what should be a great run for the Pats and their fans.

 

The Patriots today announced that they acquired wide receiver Andre Davis from the Cleveland Browns in exchange for an undisclosed draft pick. As Bethel Johnson is expected to be placed on the PUP list on the first cutdown date next week, today's move bolsters the depth in the receiving corps.

 

Hopefully the new reciever will do a good job with the Pats.

 

ESPN reported today on what might be a major blow to the Pats' chances of three-peating. Offensive tackle Matt Light will be out for the foreseeable future with what was reported as an unspecified leg injury. Nothing else was said about the injury except that a source said that Light was wearing a protective boot and walking on crutches.

 

Yeah, I saw that on one of the sports reports last night. I'm not worried too much about it, at least not yet anyway. While the Pats are tight-lipped about this as usual, Light's dad was quoted in one of the papers as saying it nothing major. He'll probably miss this weeks pre-season game and that's it.

Personally, I've never been a big Matt Light fan. He's done some great things in the community but as far as his talent goes, I've always felt he was way overrated. The media tends to treat him with kid gloves because he's a generally nice guy who's always available for an interview or sound byte.

 

DW

I don't see why Light would be that overrated. He's been the guy in charge of protecting Brady's blindside and has largely done a good job at that. He may be getting up there in years and he may have lost a step or two and needs help against the better speed rushers now, but let's give the man some credit.

 

He may be getting up there in years and he may have lost a step or two and needs help against the better speed rushers now and then

But other than that, he's pretty good j/k

The way I've seen it over the past few years is that it's been a combination of Brady's ability to read defenses, step up in the pocket, and get rid of the ball quickly along with a great o-line coach in Dante Scarnecchia (sp?) that has helped inflate Light's stats as a blind side blocker. I personally don't think there will be that much drop-off in performance if the Pats are forced to replace Lane for a few games with someone else like Ashworth or even Hochstein.

 

Impressive! Most impressive! You spelled the name of the assistant head coach correctly.

 

Wasn't Light faced with the task of containing Dwight Freeney during the Pats' post-season game against the Colts? Unless I've got my sides crossed, I thought he did a very good job there as he has for a few years now. Not to take anything away from the skills Brady has developed as you mentioned, but Brady has had a lot of help from his front 5.

 

If the third preseason game is the one that comes closest to regular season conditions, then the Patriots have served notice that they are ready to defend their title, as they went into Lambeau Field and smoked the Green Bay Packers, 27-3. Tom Brady was sharp (12/21, 127 yds, 1 TD on a 12 yd. strike to David Givens in the 2nd quarter) and Corey Dillon was in midseason form (14 carries, 70yds, 2 TD). However, it was the defense that showed the most improvement over last week. For starters, they picked Brett Favre twice (once by Asante Samuel and once by Randall Gay). It was the play of the inside linebackers, though, that needed the work last week, and they did the job in spades this week. Monty Beisel was in on three tackles (one for a loss), and Chad Brown was in on two more and forced Ahman Green to fumble (recovered by Willie McGuinest) on the opening play from scrimmage in the second half.

The Patriots host the New York Giants in the final game of the preseason Thursday night, 8:00 PM ET game time.

 

Only one more pre-season game left and then... our New England Patriots will be on center stage against the Raiders for the whole world to see!!! It's so close I can taste it !

 

Today is the first cutdown date in the NFL and the Pats released 3 players. Quarterback Rohan Davey, running back Cedric Cobbs and safety Dexter Reid were the unlucky players. Not surprised by any of those, but personally I'm surprised that none of the WR's were released yet. Figured guys like PK Sam and Bethel Johnson would have been the first to go.

Heading over to Gillette this Thursday for my first preseason game of the year! It will be a nice 'practice' for the season opener next week. I'll be working the rust off of my 'standing ovation'

 

Can't wait to play you guys!!! Dolphins! Dolphins! Dolphins!

 

Actually, the roster must be cut down to 65 players tomorrow, but the Patriots announced the three players you mentioned today b/c they were probably the easiest decisions to make. As for Bethel Johnson, I think he may be placed on the PUP (Physically Unable to Perform) list, which is essentially the "injured at camp" list, but players placed on that list would be eligible to come off of it after the sixth game of the regular season.

 

As promising as Davis might have looked at first, I'm not surprised about the Pats' decision to release him either. Cassell has already shown that he would make a better backup and if I had to choose one guy to cut between Flutie, Cassell, and Davis; it would definately have been Davis.

 

I here the Dolphins want the guy...Hope he is worth it...

 

Oh yeah... he's a bargain .

 

Actually I read over on si.com this morning that even though Saban coached the guy at LSU, the Dolphins have no interest in Davey.

Still no word on the Pats final 8 roster moves. BB has a press conference in a bout 30 minutes so I'm thinking we should know by then.

Stay tuned...

 

According to Mike Reiss' Patriots blog on boston.com, WR Bethel Johnson has been taken off of the PUP list (I thought he wasn't on that list yet) and has returned to practice. With the logjam at the receiver position, this last preseason game tomorrow night will become very interesting as the bubble players compete for jobs.

 

One of the game announcers said it best last night when he said, "If Coach Belichick was going to use tonights game to judge who gets the remaining spots at WR, he's not going to get a chance to see anything tonight." The offense, with the exception of a few good pass and run plays, did not look good at all last night. Flutie didn't look too bad, Cassell on the other hand either needs to bring the ball down a little bit or the Pats need to invest in WR's that have a 10' wingspan. No starters played last night so they will be fresh (and without injury) for the opener against the Raiders next week!