Snowflakes don’t faze Patriots’ Cassel

FOXBOROUGH – New England Patriots fans looking for the play of the game against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday need seek no further. What Matt Cassel did on fourth down in the waning minutes of the first half pretty much symbolized the Patriots’ fearless effort.Cassel needed nine yards for a first down. The Patriots had the ball on the Arizona 29-yard line. The field at Gillette Stadium had gotten cleaned of snow before game time, but more snow, as well as rain, were coming down and every time the Pats scored a touchdown, fans threw snowballs in the air and it looked like popcorn kernels dancing around the stadium. Add to this the fact that many fans came in wearing hooded jackets and hats and gloves and Cassel was in his uniform (but at least, unlike other players, he wore long sleeves).Even though Cassel wasn’t dressed for the occasion, he rose to it. Or rather he slid to it, running and skidding 16 yards on his knees to the Cardinals’ 13. A few plays later, Wes Welker caught an 11-yard touchdown pass from Cassel and celebrated Lonie Paxton-style by making angels in the snow. But even if that fourth-down slide hadn’t eventually led to a score, and even if the Pats hadn’t blown out Arizona, 47-7, it symbolized the grit that Scott Pioli has built into this team.The conditions that greeted the players at game time – 30-degree temperatures, with a wind chill of 21 degrees – created not a cause for complaint but an opportunity for heroism. And the Patriots responded. Not only did Cassel defy the elements with his slide, he also braved the rain and snow in the first half and threw the ball. (It is an impressive performance given the recent loss of his father.) He would finish 20 of 36 for 345 yards and three touchdowns. Credit also goes to the receivers – Welker and Randy Moss and Jabar Gaffney.Credit also goes to the Cardinals. They absorbed a fair amount of derision during and after the game. But their first-string quarterback still has a Super Bowl ring and his understudy still has a Heisman Trophy. (Their third-string quarterback, of course, is Brian St. Pierre, who once set plenty of records at St. John’s Prep and Boston College.) And the Cardinals have something the Patriots dearly want: A division title. Learning to play in inclement weather is a vital lesson for any franchise seeking a championship – as the Patriots discovered in 2001. Consider this lopsided loss a valuable experience for Ken Whisenhunt’s crew.As for the Patriots: They continue to play well in cold weather. Since 1993, the year the franchise began its quest toward legitimacy, the team is 17-1 when the kickoff temperature is 30 degrees or colder. The Pats are 10-0 all-time in snowy games in Foxborough since the team moved there from Boston in 1971. If they’d played the Super Bowl in Anchorage instead of Phoenix last season, they might have had a better chance against the New York Giants. As it was, they did pretty well for themselves on Sunday.During halftime, four snowplows came out like gridiron Zambonis to clear the field. The snowfall slackened after intermission, and rain eventually replaced it. But at least the Patriots had shown, once again, their dominance on snow, symbolized by Matt Cassel’s slide.