MIAMI GARDENS - We're finished talking about Matt Cassel "managing the game," right?
It's an insult of sorts. You never heard anyone talk about Joe Namath, Dan Marino, or Johnny Unitas "managing a game."
No. "Managing the game" is a euphemism for quarterbacks who are not wildy talented. It's a polite way of saying that your QB is serviceable with no chance to be great.
Remember when you were in high school and had a mad crush on that pony-tailed girl in study hall? And when you finally got up the nerve to ask her out, she said, "I like you . . . as a friend."
That's what we're doing when we tell a quarterback that he does a good job "managing the game."
Cassel has taken his talent to a whole new level. Evolving and improving every week, he's become much more than a game manager. Yesterday the Patriots QB was so good he inspired Randy Moss to invoke some urban slang.
Asked for a comment on Cassel's play, Moss said, "He's playing some hell-i-fied football."
Exactly what I was thinking while I watched Cassel dissect the Dolphins. Hellified. Hell as an adjective. Moss on wheels.
In yesterday's crucial 48-28 victory over the Dolphins, Cassel passed for 415 yards and threw three touchdowns, all to Moss. He completed 30 of 43 attempts. His only interception came on a tipped ball.
The key number is 400. Coming on the heels of Cassel's 400-yard game against the Jets, Mr. Understudy now has twice as many career 400-yard games as Tom Brady.
There's more. Only four other quarterbacks in NFL history have had back-to-back 400-yard games and they are Dan Marino, Dan Fouts, Phil Simms (another famous "game manager") and the immortal Billy Volek.
"I had no idea," Cassel said when informed of the 400 club. "That's a pretty cool stat - a good crew to be with."
The Patriots have been on a "Stayin' Alive Tour" since Brady went down with the mangled knee in the first game of the season. Cassel hadn't started a game since high school and many fans wanted him cut at the end of the exhibition season. He was thrown into the fire, and early on there were problems with holding the ball too long and failing to see open receivers. There was no rhythm. Some of us thought he was only there because there was no one else.
Cassel took most of the snaps in the preseason and he was familiar with the system. Oh, and it looked like he was capable of "managing the game" as long as the brilliant coaching staff didn't ask him to do too much.
Translation: no checking off at the line, no deep balls, nothing but short, safe stuff. The dreaded dink and dunk.
