This is how it ends?
At the beginning of the season, I never would've thought that week 17 would see me rooting for the Jets and Brett Favre, and then agonizing when he threw yet another interception. It goes against every fiber in my being to root for the Jets at any point in time, let alone Favre. Don't get me wrong, I used to be a Favre fan, but that was before he jerked around the Packers for three years straight. Now I think he's just a selfish has-been who doesn't know when to hang 'em up. And hang 'em up he did today in a truly pathetic showing of the largest magnitude in his career with the Jets. So what if you needed help to get into the playoffs? The role of spoiler tastes mighty good as well (ask the Texans).
The Patriots played what I considered to be a great game of football earlier today, defeating Buffalo 13-0 in a game that featured 70 mph winds. To me, this game is exactly what football should be: two teams pounding it out. There's no freak plays where coverage is blown, no ridiculous long bombs that are more luck than skill, just old-fashioned, hit-the-hole running with a small amount of passes thrown in (pun intended). The Patriots really showed that they are a playoff team...except that win doesn't mean anything. They're 11-5 and not in the playoffs. A bit ironic that their record when they won the 2001 Super Bowl was 11-5 in the regular season. This is also just the second time since 2001 that they haven't made it to the playoffs.
But really, the Patriots have no one to blame but themselves. Whenever you take your fate out of your own hands, you have failed. There were several games that the Patriots should have won this year, and if they had won even one of them, they'd be in the playoffs right now. The most glaring example was the game against the Jets that went to overtime. They made a spirited effort to come from way behind to tie up the game in the last minute but then blew it in overtime with shoddy defense. If that one game had gone the other way, we'd be talking playoffs right now.
The Patriots did have a good season thanks to mostly solid play from backup quarterback Matt Cassell. He started out the year pretty slow but got some good momentum going towards the end. Now he's played himself into what surely will be a nice payday after the season is over. Most of the talk will focus around whether or not the Patriots will keep Cassell. He's now an unrestricted free agent that is sure to draw interest from quarterback-starved teams such as the Lions, Buccaneers, Chiefs...and Jets. Conventional wisdom was that the Patriots can't afford to pay Cassell millions to be a backup to the returning Tom Brady. Until otherwise noted, the Patriots are Brady's team, and they can't afford to pay two starting quarterback salaries when only one will play.
For a while, it was looking like the Patriots would either let Cassell go or franchise him in the hopes of orchestrating a trade. However, NBC Sports is reporting that Brady's rehab isn't going well, and that he may require additional surgery on his knee. Brady would likely miss a large portion of next season, if not the whole season, should another surgery be required. If that's truly the case, then the Patriots really can't afford to let Cassell go because otherwise all they have are inexperienced quarterbacks on the roster. The question then becomes how can they keep both Brady and Cassell? Would Brady take a pay cut to allow the team to sign Cassell? Perhaps more importantly, how good will Brady be if he doesn't play again until 2010?
Knowing how Belichick and the rest of the organization works, I'm sure they're already pondering these and other moves that will have to happen in the offseason so the team can regain its AFC East dominance. Until then, my only football-related actions will be rooting against the Giants and the Colts. On to the Celtics...
