Matt Cassel's first career fourth quarter comeback leads Patriots over surging Rams

October 26, 10:56 PMNew England Patriots ExaminerSean Crowe

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Matt Cassel's improving weekly

Tom Brady has engineered 28 game-winning drives to break a tie or take the lead in the fourth quarter over the course of his career. Until Sunday, Matt Cassel hadn’t engineered a fourth quarter comeback since high school.

You’ll have to forgive Patriots fans if they were a little nervous, or even a little skeptical, in the moments leading up to that perfect floater to Kevin Faulk in the corner of the end zone that sealed the game against the Rams.

If the Matt Cassel of a month ago is quarterbacking the New England Patriots, they don’t beat the St. Louis Rams. More likely, after two third quarter interceptions, things probably spiral out of control, leaving their young quarterback powerless to stop the bleeding.

Quietly, while people like your very own New England Patriots Examiner have been calling for his head, Matt Cassel has been improving.

He was terrible against the Chargers. Actually, terrible isn’t nearly a descriptive enough word. It was hard to imagine this Patriots team winning any games with Matt Cassel at quarterback.

But they came out and dominated the Denver Broncos. Lost in the great performances by the defense and the running game was a mistake-free (for the most part) performance by the quarterback.

With the loss of Sammy Morris, for better or for worse, this week was going to fall on the shoulders of Matt Cassel.

Cassel didn’t have a great game, but he made the plays when they mattered. Aided by great field position, he was able to drive his team to a game tying field goal, and a tie breaking touchdown.

The touchdown pass was, dare I say, Brady-esque.

I’m still not convinced the Patriots can win in the playoffs with Matt Cassel, but if he continues to improve the way he has over the last few weeks, anything’s possible.

Other Notes from the Patriots’ Victory

*The Patriots’ defense was aided greatly by the fact that Rams’ running back Steven Jackson was unable to play. After giving up a couple of big pass plays, they were able to adjust by keeping their safeties deep. Had Jackson been in the game, they likely wouldn’t have been able to make that adjustment without paying dearly against the run.

*The Patriots were able to get some significant pressure on Marc Bulger. Ty Warren, Richard Seymour, and Adalius Thomas seemed to spend the entire game in the Rams’ backfield.

*This was the first time in Patriots’ history that they made it through the entire game without an accepted penalty against them. A rather impressive feat, if you consider that the Cowboys have yet to make it through a 5-minute stretch this season without having a penalty called against them (or at least it seems that way).

*While Rookie BenJarvus Green-Ellis did score his second career touchdown, Kevin Faulk carried the load at running back. Running mostly out of the shotgun, he went for 60 yards on 13 carries. He also caught 4 balls for 47 yards and the game clinching touchdown.

*On the surface, it looked like Randy Moss had a pretty good day. However, he dropped two catchable (for Randy Moss, anyway) touchdown passes. Even with the two drops, he ended up with 7 receptions for 102 yards.

*The Patriots’ secondary is already missing Rodney Harrison. On Donnie Avery’s 69 yard touchdown catch in the first quarter, Ellis Hobbs was supposed to have deep help, but James Sanders jumped the wrong guy and then missed the tackle and knocked Hobbs off the play when he attempted to recover. The result was an easy touchdown for the Rams.

*Stephen Gostkowski has been nearly perfect this season, making 16 of 17 field goals and 15 of 15 extra points. Meanwhile, the guy he replaced is 5 of 8 on field goal attempts for the Colts.

*With the Bills’ loss to the Dolphins, the Patriots have a share of first place in the AFC East for the first time since week 3. Next week, the Bills play the Jets while the Patriots play the Colts. The Patriots play the Bills for the first time this season in week 10.

Sean Crowe is the New England Patriots Examiner. You can email him at scrowe@gmail.com. Check out some of his other work on his Bleacher Report page.