MIAMI -- Here's a sure way to win $100. Walk into a bar, any bar, sit down on a stool and tell the guy next to you that Matt Cassel has more 400-yard passing days in his career than Tom Brady.
The man will look at you, bet that it can't be true and the next thing you know you're pocketing a Benjamin.
Fast fact: It is indeed true.
Cassel made that a reality Sunday with his second consecutive 400-yard game, throwing for 415 yards and three scores, to lead the New England Patriots to a 48-28 victory over the Miami Dolphins at Dolphin Stadium.
Cassel's impressive game, coming 10 days after he threw for 400 yards in a loss to the Jets, helped the Patriots get to 7-4 and stay within a game of the AFC East-leading New York Jets, but it also puts him in elite company.
Brady's not the only one to miss out on that feat. Peyton Manning, Joe Montana, John Elway and most of the other great passers in league history have never done it.
In fact, only five men have now accomplished the feat. Three of them are names that might not surprise you: Dan Marino, Dan Fouts and Phil Simms.
The other, and the last to do it before Cassel did it Sunday, is Billy Volek, who did it in 2004 with the Tennessee Titans.
Volek was an aberration, since he has never been considered much more than a backup.
Cassel is not.
Even though he didn't start a game in the NFL before this season -- and never started one in college at Southern California -- Cassel is the real thing.
He's also about to become a rich man -- a very rich man. He becomes an unrestricted free agent after the season.
"He's playing hellified ball," Patriots receiver Randy Moss said.
OK, so hellified isn't quite a word. But you get the point. That's a Moss-ism for saying that Cassel has been on fire.
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| Matt Cassel has stepped in to make the Patriots a threat down the stretch and in the playoffs. (US Presswire) |
Cassel ended the day with a passer rating of 114.0. It helps to have Moss, who went for eight catches for 125 yards and three touchdowns.
"I'm happy to go out there and have some production with him," Cassel said. "I'm amazed at what Randy can do."
It helped that the Dolphins were foolish enough to play the Patriots in man coverage, especially Moss. Isn't that like asking for it?
Moss took it as a sign of disrespect. He would, but that's OK for the Patriots. He played like an angry man.
"I don't know why coach disrespected me like that," Moss said. "I'm who I am and I love to do what I do. Anytime I feel disrespected, I'm going to go out there and make it happen. They disrespected me today by playing the single coverage."
Moss caught touchdown passes of 25, 8 and 29 yards, beating single coverage on all three. Each time, Cassel put the ball in a perfect spot. His accuracy was Brady-like.
Could anyone, even diehard Patriots fans, have expected this?
"Matt's getting in a comfort zone and at the same time he's getting in his, we're getting in ours," Moss said. "We're getting a feel for how Matt's playing."
When Brady went down in the opener, many buried this New England team. The thinking then was they would try to control the football, play good defense and win close games. Brady threw 50 touchdown passes last season, and there's no way to replace a three-time Super Bowl winner, with that kind of pedigree.
If Cassel managed the game, so be it. They wouldn't ask him to win it, right?
In 11 games, especially the past month, he has proved to be far more than a game manager. That's an insult now, just saying that. You can't call a man who has thrown for 815 yards, six touchdowns and one interception in his past two games, a manager of the game. Cassel also ran for a touchdown against the Dolphins on a quarterback draw.
"At the end of the day, the guy just kept finding people," Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said.
This looked like the Patriots' of 2007. They scored fast. They spread people out. The quarterback owned the game.
Pats coach Bill Belichick is a master at taking advantage of a team's weak spots. Instead of running into the teeth of the Miami defense, which is a strong point of that unit, he challenged them with the passing game.
He did the dictating. That takes confidence in a quarterback. It's clear that the Patriots have it in Cassel. Belichick did caution that it's more than just the quarterback by saying "it's not just a one-man band."
That's playing out with Brady, the Bruce Springsteen of this team, out with a knee injury. You think the E-Street Band would be anything without the Boss? The Patriots are still something without Brady, which is a tribute to the team and the new quarterback throwing the ball.
Cassel's magical season comes at the right time, too. With each game, the price on his new contract goes up and up and up. The Patriots won't be able to keep him, not with Brady's huge contract, so some team out there is going to get a passer who can read the field, make quick decisions and stand tough in the pocket.
"I'm going to continue to move forward and continue to try and have production with this offense," Cassel said. "And we're just trying to win games. I don't look, and I don't look to the future because anything can happen. It's pointless."
Anything can happen. Like a backup who was a possible camp cut becoming the hottest free agent on the market.
If Cassel goes for 400 or more passing next week against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cassel would become the only man in history to have three 400-pluys games in a row.
That truly would be hellified.
