Matt Cassel was the starting quarterback for the Vikings today, for what could be the last time.
In an underwhelming performance, Cassel completed 32 of 44 passes for 241 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. Head coach Leslie Frazier won’t say if that’s enough for Cassel to keep his starting job, but one would think after a game that saw Minnesota put up just 10 points, the position is there for Josh Freeman’s taking.
Frazier did say in his postgame press conference that Cassel “has to play better, no question about it.”
Here’s what Cassel thought of the 25-point loss, a more positive tone than Frazier’s presser a bit earlier.
“Offensively they did a great job staying on the field, on the opposite side of that, we didn’t, and we weren’t able to maintain drives.”
On the interceptions: “The one ball just sailed on me, had a little pressure up the middle, I was trying to finish through and I wasn’t able to do that. The second one, we got the coverage we wanted, obviously I just tried to throw it a little bit higher, we didn’t connect on that one.”
On the difference between this week and Pittsburgh: “We didn’t turn the ball over against Pittsburgh, collectively we played better against Pittsburgh. Carolina did a great job, can’t take anything away from them with what they were able to do offensively and defensively.”
On this week: “Same as always, I gotta get prepared, and whatever coach decides I’ll be ready to go, just like the last 3 weeks, I never know what’s going on until I’m being told by coach. We’ll see. It’s not hard to prepare not knowing, you go about your business, you get the reps you get and you go out there and get ready to play.”
On the locker room: “This team has great leadership, as disappointed as we are at being 1-4 right now, there’s a lot of football left to be played. There really is. We need some momentum, some camaraderie, come together, win a game, and hopefully build off of that.”
Will this spiral? “The focus has to be what can we do as individuals to improve. From there, we have to come together and collectively figure out what we have to do better.”
Are you the starter? “I hope I am, I’d love to be the starter and compete, at the same time, the coach makes the decision, so we’ll see.”
Here’s the full video for your perusal.
