Brady, Crane, Jericho - what's going on?

Some thoughts on the weekend:

- So the Tom Brady era is on hiatus for at least this season (torn ACL is the word). Long live... who? Matt Cassel has the inside track having been with the team for the last few years and serving as backup to some greats in his football career (Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, and Tom Brady) but is he ready to lead? He gets a passing grade this week for coming in when he had no indication he would have to and leading his team to victory (with a little help for Mr. Moss). I wouldn't say he made any extreme mistakes but there was a little something missing from the Pats offense without Brady back there. There have been many names circulated as people the Pats are looking at for a new starter/depth player. Chris Simms, Tim Rattay, and even Daunte Culpepper have all been mentioned. Stay tuned as this one could get interesting in the next few weeks especially is Cassel does not perform well next week.

- Speaking of passable, after one week where he did enough to get his team a victory, Chris Crane did enough to get his team a loss this week. The defense help Georgia Tech to only 19 points and yet still BC came away with a loss. Crane looked lost. Early on when they were running a modified option he kept things running smoothly. As the coaching staff attempt to get more passing going (Coach Jags mentioned the need for better execution in the passing game just before halftime) Crane looked exceedingly lost. His passes we wobbly, he hit his own offensive linemen in the head with passes twice, and almost every completion (including the touchdown pass) looked like it had as much chance of being an interception than a completion. For a quarterback who is supposed to have decent legs he showed a stiffness in the pocket and a surprising lack of maneuverability to avoid pressure (as shown by the safety). For the sake of the Eagles I hope that Coach Jags has some solutions up his sleeve to improve Chris Crane or it is going to be a very long season.

- (Warning WWE talk!) One thing that has me excited is the recent fresh blood that has been introduced to the WWE and the storyline they seem to have centering around the second generation stars (DiBiase Jr, Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, and now Afa Anoai Jr.). The little I was able to see from various Unforgiven feeds last night seems to have Randy being taking the lead of this band and really pulling them together. I've always thought that WWE has worked best when there are factions around (Corporation, Ministry, D-X, Nation of Domination, Evolution, etc.) or when there are two great headliners to feud (Rock v. Austin, Triple H v. Rock, Edge v. Undertaker). There has not been a successful faction for a while and this Orton led group might be ready to fill that void. With Randy not 100% to wrestle this is just what they need to get him back involved and get serious promo time without actually being in the ring. I see a bright future in this group and with people like D.H. Smith & Jimmy Snuka, Jr. around there are others to possibly add as future talent to this group. Now they just need someone to take their heat out on. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks of Raw leading up to No Mercy more than I have in quite some time. Now there just have to be no more injuries to key players and we might have something.

That's all I have for now kiddies. Stay tuned to these developing stories.

(P.S. one month & two days until the title defense begins!)