The Cassel Pats, week one

I'm now genuinely excited to watch Matt Cassel lead the Patriots today. I hate the Jets with a passion and there's not much in life more fun that watching a team from Boston beat one from New York in anything. Here's what needs to happen today to make that happen once again:

* The Pats must win the turnover battle. Luckily, the opposing quarterback has thrown more interceptions than any player in football history. Cassel just needs to make good decisions today, and I think he can do that. I also look for him to make a couple of plays scrambling--which is something we never actively hope or root for with Tom Brady.

* The Pats need to do a better job on the ground. Last week they rushed for just over 120 yards against the Chiefs, with Laurence Maroney and Sammy Morris splitting carries and yards equally. Look for more of the same today, with slightly better results.

* The Pats defense needs to get off the field on third down. This was a huge problem last week against the Chiefs, who converted half of their 16 third down plays. That can't happen on the road against Brett Favre.

This will probably be a pretty tight game, and I'm not looking forward to the wild media overreaction no matter what happens. Either it will be "The Pats are done, end of an era, pass the torch to the Jets!" or "Cassel takes over, it's 2001 all over again!" It's neither. We just need Matt Cassel to play well enough for us to win. I think he'll do it.