Cassel hopes to avoid interceptions, find rhythm without key teammates

Two games into another Vikings season, people still chart the length — or lack thereof — of forward passes that travel beyond the line of scrimmage and are caught by the correct team.

Two games into another Vikings season, the league-worst results still aren't acceptable.

Worse yet, two of the tools that quarterback Matt Cassel could have used to improve in that area disappeared indefinitely and forever in under 48 hours.

Wednesday, the team placed running back Adrian Peterson on the commissioner's exempt list while he faces an indictment on child abuse charges. Thursday, receiver Jerome Simpson was released hours after news broke that Simpson, already serving a three-game NFL suspension because of a drunken driving arrest, was cited on July 7 on charges of marijuana possession, open bottle and violating a limited driver's license.

So, to recap, in the past week, Cassel has lost an explosive running back who draws attention away from the deep part of the field, and his best deep threat, scheduled to return Monday before yet another legal setback collided with coach Mike Zimmer's first season as a head coach.

"I've got to get back to what I did all preseason and the first regular-season game," said Cassel, who posted a 103.3 preseason passer rating and a 113.8 rating in the 34-6 season-opening win at St. Louis. "Take care of the football, first and foremost. And we also have to get back to playing with some rhythm and some more tempo than we did on Sunday."

According to Pro Football Focus, Cassel is the only NFL starting quarterback not to complete a pass thrown 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Meanwhile, ESPN says he's a league-low 1-for-11 in passes thrown 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.

Throw out the Rams game when examining those numbers. The whole game plan that afternoon was designed around running the ball and throwing short, quick passes to confound the Rams' elite pass rush, which offensive coordinator Norv Turner did very well during a 28-point road victory.

However, one can't dismiss Cassel going 0-for-8 with three interceptions on passes thrown farther than 10 yards against the Patriots. With Peterson deactivated, that kind of downfield meltdown smells like a red flag for a quarterback who needs Peterson's production and presence to function efficiently down the field.

"We don't want to put more stress [on Cassel]," Turner said. "Obviously, defenses have something to do with [passing success down the field]. Obviously, the run wasn't as big of an issue for New England, so they concentrated very hard on the coverage and they did a good job on us.

"We've got to work hard to have balance and protect the football. If we're playing more of a field-position game, we have to do that."

Turner indicated that his play-calling also became a little too greedy against the Patriots.

"From a mind-set, we had success in the opening game and I think we were trying to do too much on a couple of the play calls and a couple of the decisions," he said. "There are plays you'd always like to have back, but we were just trying to do too much with things we didn't need to do. We got to be smart in terms of our decision-making and how we go about attacking teams."

Meanwhile, from a leadership standpoint, Cassel has quite an impressive story to support the NFL's age-old "next man up" cliché. It comes from the Patriots' 2008 season opener, when Tom Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury and a little-known backup was forced to start the next 15 games.

"I revert back to my own example of when Tom went down in New England," Cassel said. "It was a great opportunity for me to go out and perform. We ended up going 11-5, which nobody thought we could do."