Faceoff: Time to storm Cassel? Bulger? Bills or Browns?

CBSSports.com pro football writers Pete Prisco and Clark Judge face off weekly throughout the season.

Pete Prisco	Clark Judge
Is it too easy to blame New England's loss on Matt Cassel?
It's easy, but it's a fact. When a team hits the field knowing its star QB isn't there, it plays differently. It plays tighter. That's what the Patriots appear to be doing without Tom Brady. They know he won't be there to bail them out. They're pressing more. The defense knows the points won't be coming as they did a year ago. The more the Pats D pressed last week, the worse it got. Matt Cassel isn't close to being Tom Brady. That means everything else has to go perfectly or the Pats will be in trouble. Great QBs cure your ills. Average ones expose them. Maybe that New England defense was covered up by the offense last season. The flaws weren't as exposed as they were Sunday. If the Dolphins, with a young line and a so-so passing game, can push the New England front seven around they way they did, what can we expect from teams with good offenses? You can't pin the loss on Cassel, but not having Brady changes the way the Patriots will play.	Sure. It wasn't Matt Cassel who couldn't tackle Ronnie Brown. In the words of Joey Porter, Matt Cassel is no Tom Brady, but so what? Neither is anyone else. Cassel was good enough to beat the Jets because the New England defense held fast. But it sure looked old and tired against Miami. It also looked confused. Look, it's one game, and for one game the Patriots got their butts handed to them. But let's not get carried away here. I saw the same thing happen in 2005 when San Diego went there. There is still a lot of talent on that roster and a head coach who will take advantage of this week's bye to straighten things out. Guaranteed, tackling and the secondary are two subjects that will be addressed. Not Matt Cassel.

Was it necessary to bench Marc Bulger in St. Louis?

I say no. Bulger hasn't been the same player as he was in 2006, but a lot of that has to do with the poor offensive line play, the lack of quality receivers after Torry Holt and the constant mode of playing catch-up. Bulger has become a bit jumpy in the pocket, but who wouldn't after taking the shots he's taken the past two seasons? Is Trent Green any different? He looked gun-shy last season when he was with Miami before taking a shot to the head that knocked him out. Are the Rams forgetting he was knocked out in Kansas City, too? Bulger threw for 4,301 yards with 24 TD passes in 2006; has he regressed that much? It doesn't help that offensive coordinator Al Saunders might be the most overrated play-caller in NFL history. His playbook is as thick as the Manhattan phone book, but he seems to freeze up on game day. Sitting Bulger might seem like a bold move that was necessary, but it isn't the right decision. Desperate coaches do desperate things. Scott Linehan needs to win or he could be gone, so he has to do something rash.

No. The problem with the St. Louis Rams isn't the quarterbacking. It's everything else. The offensive line. The secondary. The coaching. You name it. Sure, they stink on third-down conversions, but that's not one guy, folks. And if you think Trent Green is the solution, think about this: He has a history of concussions, and now he gets to return behind an offensive line that allowed 11 sacks. Great. Paging Dr. Gregory House. This is a knee-jerk reaction to an offense going nowhere, and it's the desperate act of a desperate coach trying to find something, anything, to give this team a pulse. The problem isn't Marc Bulger; it's years of poor drafts prior to this year that put this team in a fix.

What is the bigger surprise: Buffalo at 3-0 or Cleveland at 0-3?

I'd have to say it's the Bills. That's because they went to Jacksonville and beat a pretty good Jaguars team. Seeing the Browns 0-3 really isn't that much of a shock to me. I didn't think this would be their year. When I saw them in camp, I thought there was talent, but I didn't like the quarterback situation. That's playing out now. Derek Anderson isn't the answer. That's why Brady Quinn is about to take over. The Browns will be good next year. Everybody was premature on anointing them this season's "it" team. Their schedule was tough from the start. They had the Dallas Cowboys, the Pittsburgh Steelers and then at Baltimore. That's brutal. Now they have another road game. The Bills at 3-0 is more surprising. I thought they would be better, but how good was dependent on Trent Edwards. He's been good so far. Can the Bills keep it up? We'll see. For now, they're a huge surprise as one of the remaining unbeaten teams.

It has to be Cleveland. There was a groundswell of preseason support for the Browns, with people everywhere picking them to win the division and make the playoffs. I didn't buy it. Not in that division. But I thought they would be respectable. GM Phil Savage made big offseason pickups to improve the team, but improvement is not what I see. In case you missed it, their offense ranks behind the Rams. So how come we're not talking about Brady Quinn here? Buffalo, however, is a club I liked the moment I set foot at their Pittsford, N.Y., training camp, and for this reason: It went 7-9 last year despite 17 players on injured reserve. Now, those guys are back. The Bills are no fluke. There is talent, depth and outstanding coaching. Plus, now there's an opening.