The 8 minute season

So much promise ... so much excitement ... so much anticipation ... and in less than 8 minutes, so much dashed.

New England Patriots starting QB Tom Brady is out with torn ACL and MCL ligaments in his left knee, an injury suffered in the first game of the 2008-2009 season.

So, most card-carrying members of Patriot Nation (including yours truly) have a lot of questions about this season. But, I've been mulling this over all week, reading everything I could get my hands on and have come to the following conclusions:

• I'm going to reserve judgment until the Pats play half their season. If they're not at least 4-4, then there's less hope for the season ... not completely lost hope, but just less hope given their schedule.
  
• Speaking of which ... from a scheduling point of view, Brady's injury couldn't have come at a better time. The Pats were widely regarded as having the easiest schedule this season (nine of their 16 opponents this year had losing records last year). So that could bode will for them this season.
  
• At the risk of being overly optimistic, my instincts are telling me that now-starting QB Matt Cassel could surprise people this season. Yup, he looked horrible in the pre-season and hasn't started a game in his professional career, but he's been under Brady's wing for the past four years, knows the Pats' offensive game inside and out and look at what he did when he was thrust into the game last week ... he was about a yard from the very back of his own end zone and floated a 50-yard pass to Randy Moss. Talk about performing well under pressure!

  There are a lot of people getting down on Cassel, but give him a chance. In 2001 when Drew Bledsoe was knocked out for the season, no one had ever heard of Tom Brady. Can lightning strike twice? Hey, anything's possible.

  One other thing ... the Patriots organization took a lot of heat this past off season about seemingly not planning for the future when they didn't draft another quarterback or make a trade to bring in a "solid" back-up for Brady. Something tells me that those in the know in the organization (head coach Bill Belichick, VP of Player Personnel Scott Pioli, et. al.) may know more about Cassel than others.
  

• And let's not forget that this game isn't about one player, it's a team effort and no team exemplifies this more than the Patriots. The Pats have what is widely regarded as the best offensive line in the NFL and one of the best defenses, so if the O-line can give Cassel enough time to read the opposing defense and make a play and the defense can hold the other team to as few points as possible ... yeah, I know, I know ... there are a lot of "if's", but without seeing a Cassel-run offense, what else can you do but speculate?
  
• And not for nothing, but ... there is, in fact, a recent precedent for coming back from an injury like this in the NFL. Cincinnati Bengals QB Carson Palmer suffered a similar injury in 2004 and came back (his rehab was even featured in a cover story in Sports illustrated because of hard he was working). At the time, it was very doubtful he would walk normally again, let alone play professional football and yet, here is back with the team.
  
• Finally, if you think about it, the Patriots have nothing to lose now. If they tank this season, detractors and fans alike will say, "Well, what did you expect?" ... if they do well and make the playoffs and (in a perfect scenario) win the Super Bowl, then Belichick can truly be called a genius because he got his team to win without its franchise player. So in my mind, this Patriots team could be the most motivated team we've ever seen. Do you really think there guys aren't going to play this season without the "nobody believes in us, nobody's giving us a chance" mantra?
  

The bottom line here is that Patriots fans just can't give up on the season until we know how the team will react and personally I don't think you can make a real judgment until the team has played a few games with Cassel at the helm.

Here's hoping they do well because it's going to be a long season without the Pats to watch. Still, it would leave my Sundays open, and I'm sure Kell would love that!