Grogan's Grade: Former New England Patriots quarterback Steve Grogan provides weekly insights on the progress of the Patriots during the 2008 football season. Here are some snippets from week 9:
Current game planning?: "I thought both teams played a very good football game, and actually if you look at the stats, the Patriots outplayed the Colts in most catagories. I think the big problem for the offense right now is the coaches are so conservative about letting Matt Cassel throw the ball. He's throwing the ball well but they won't take any chances with him. It's starting to drive me crazy a little bit, and then they have to settle for three field goals. Every week it seems like they're settling for field goals instead of trying to get the ball in the end zone and last night that cost them."
Cassel's improvement?: "I really think he's getting better every week and what I'm seeing from him is when he can't find that second guy, you know, when the first guy's covered and he can't find the second guy theres no hesitation, he's putting the ball away and taking off with it, and he has the ability to do that to pick up some positive yards. He's doing that a lot better and I think it helps keep drives alive."
"He's got good mechanics, he really does. He throws the ball well and again, I just think sometime they have to cut him loose and letting him fling it down the field because he's got the arm to get it down there and they've got guys that can go down the field. He threw a beautiful ball to Gaffney who dropped it. That would have been the difference in the game."
Was Home Field an Advantage?: "You want to win every week, and when you struggle a little bit like the Colts have, you know what you have to do. I don't think you get any more desperate, I think the fact they got to play at home was probably the difference in who won and who lost. I think if they had played this game in New England I think the home field advantage would have given the Patriots the win. They were just two good football teams that just battled each other hard all night and unfortunately the Patriots ran out of time to get it done."
Where was Moss?: "He didn't catch any balls in the first half, and they weren't even looking at him in the first half. I think the Colts were taking that away from them so they didn't even bother with it. In the second half when they started running the ball pretty good it got him in some single coverage out there for Moss and they were able to throw to him."
Let Cassel do more?: "He could probably say it ["hey guys just let me go let me cut it loose"], I don't know how much they're going to listen to him. I would think if one of the veteran guys like Randy Moss or Wes Welker said 'this kid's doing a heck of a job for us. Let's have him throw the ball down the field some' it would probably resonate better with the coaching staff than having him do it."
Thougths on the Buffalo Game: "I think that's a real big game. The next two against the Bills and the Jets, are both division teams. They can kind of seperate themselves in the division by winning both of those games and they're both at home so that's good."
Grogan's Grade For Week 9:
OFFENSE: B-
DEFENSE: B+
SPECIAL TEAMS: B
OVERALL: B
"Overall I give them a B. It probably would have been an A if they had won. Good effort all around but hard to earn an A when you don't win."
Note: Grogan's Grade Airs On "The Morning Buzz" every Monday at 7:30am, and appears on PatsFans.com every Tuesday Morning. Grogan played in 149 games with the Patriots from 1975-1990, and was named to the Patriots Hall of Fame in 1995.
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