NewsBot
New Member
- Messages
- 111,281
- Reaction score
- 2,947
Weeden, who turns 32 on Wednesday, has thrown for 739 yards and two touchdowns against as many interceptions in four games this season. He took over after Tony Romo suffered a broken collarbone that put him on short-term injured reserve.
While Weeden was able to hold down the fort in a Week 2 win over the Philadelphia Eagles, the Cowboys have dropped each of his games as a starter.
Accuracy hasn't been an issue—Weeden's among the NFL leaders at 72.4 percent—but his inability to stretch the field has hamstrung the Dallas offense, which has completed only one pass longer than 30 yards in the last three weeks, and allowed opposing teams to creep toward the line of scrimmage.
The New England Patriots were particularly brazen in their coverages Sunday, and Weeden turned in by far his worst performance of the season. He completed 26 of 39 passes but for only 188 yards. Dallas did not have a pass completion longer than 21 yards, and Weeden also accounted for one of the team's two turnovers in a 30-6 blowout.
Weeden, for his part, attributed some of his NFL struggles to luck, per Charean Williams of the Star-Telegram:
Norv Turner told me a long time ago when we were sitting in the [Cleveland Browns] quarterback meeting, and he said, "Brandon, I don’t know what you have done to whoever, but you’ve got the worst luck of any player I have been around." I have, ever since I was a little kid. I don’t know what I did. But it is what it is. I’m never going to lose confidence in my ability. I wouldn’t be here and put in this position if I couldn’t play this position. You’ve just got to clean it up — the little things that maybe I missed today.
Dallas acquired Cassel, 33, from the Buffalo Bills for a conditional draft pick following Romo's injury. He has served as Weeden's backup since his arrival but has not taken a snap. A 2009 Pro Bowler, Cassel will be starting for his fourth NFL team. His last two runs in Kansas City with the Chiefs and Minnesota with the Vikings saw him get benched and in some cases booed out of town, so it's unclear whether he'll be an improvement over Weeden.
ESPN's Tim MacMahon provided some logic behind the move:
It is fair to note that teammates generally play better for a quarterback they believe in. But Cassel has posted a quarterback rating of under 80 in three of the last four seasons. The Cowboys may soon find out that they're merely substituting one bastion of mediocrity for another.
Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.
Read more Dallas Cowboys news on BleacherReport.com
Continue reading...