It’s Unlikely That Matt Cassel Will Suck As Bad This Week As Last

Here is a little Sunday morning positive spin for those who think there is too much negativity around the Vikings right now.

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Matt Cassel was so terrible last week, there is nowhere for him to go but up.

And that’s how you serve up that purple Kool Aid, fans!

But seriously, how bad was Cassel last week? His brutal Pro Football Focus breakdown says it all:

"Matt Cassell, QB, -7.0Breakdown: The Patriots pressured Cassell on 19 of his 44 dropbacks, despite blitzing only 10 times. On those 19 dropbacks under pressure, Cassell was 3-11 for 22 yards with 3 interceptions, and sacked 6 times.Signature Stat: Cassell was 0-9 with 3 interceptions on passes thrown more than 9 yards."

I guess you could make an excuse for Cassel if you wanted to. He didn’t have his security blanket Greg Jennings because Darrelle Revis took him away. Sure.

His line didn’t do a very good job blocking, wspecially his blind side “protector” Matt Kalil. Hard to argue.

Kyle Rudolph had a couple of drops. Yup.

No Adrian Peterson. Of course.

Cassel was too wound up trying to beat his old buddy Tom Brady and his old coach Bill Belichick.

Sure thing.

Excuses aside though, the truth about Cassel is that he’s just not very good. And his not-very-goodness only gets compounded when his #1 target is blanketed, his TE develops Jerome Simpson hands, he has no running game backing him up and his pass protection is less-than-strong.

The mediocrity of Cassel has been well-documented. There is no reason to go back over all that again. By now we should know what the deal is with this guy.

He’s going to play well like he did two weeks ago against the Rams. He is going to play poorly sometimes too.

Normally, he is not going to uncork a performance quite as terrible as the one we saw against the Patriots. That’s about as low as you expect the Cassel graph to dip.

Here’s what I think happens this week: Norv Turner figures out a couple things to get Cordarrelle Patterson open, Cassel finds Jennings a few times, Kyle Rudolph cleans up his drops issue and Cassel ends up having a much better game.

Even without Adrian Peterson, the Vikings offense should be able to operate against what has been a very porous Saints defense through two weeks.

Enough positivity for you?

And if you’re not buying that for some reason, just fantasize about Teddy Bridgewater. That should make the bad feelings go away.