In gains, they've lost ground

Patriots lacking big-play ability

The Patriots' offense got shaky reviews Sunday, although Matt Cassel did take advantage of softer coverages late. (Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff)

SAN DIEGO - It looked familiar: The quarterback coolly flinging the ball to a tall, speedy wide receiver. The deer-in-the-headlights look in the eyes of the defensive backs as the QB cocked his arm for another big pass play.

The Patriots have seen this before, but when they were benefiting from it, not trying to defend it.

Sunday night it was the San Diego Chargers who gave the Patriots vertical vertigo - completing three passes of 40 yards or more, including a 48-yarder on the first play from scrimmage and a 59-yard touchdown - in a 30-10 New England loss. Last year, it was Tom Brady and the Patriots offense that left defenses dizzy defending the deep ball, leading the NFL with 57 passes that went for 20 yards or more.

But without Brady, the big-play passing game has been downsized - the Patriots have just eight such plays this year, tied for 26th in the league - and so has New England's margin for error. Make too many miscues, give up too many points, fall behind by more than a touchdown or so, and the Patriots are hard-pressed to come back because they don't have the same big-play capability with Matt Cassel at quarterback.

Through five games, the Patriots (3-2), who averaged 36.8 points per game last season, are averaging 17.8, 25th in the NFL. They're 22d in passing offense at 186.2 yards per game.

"With Cassel, you can tell he's never been in that predicament, trailing like that," said Chargers cornerback Antonio Cromartie, whose team led, 17-3, at the half. "You can tell the difference between him and Brady, because Brady always knew what he wanted to do. He was a lot more comfortable in the pocket."

Any team with Randy Moss at wide receiver is capable of exploiting a defense with the big play, but since Brady's season-ending knee injury, the service to Moss has been inconsistent. Against the 49ers Oct. 5, Cassel connected with Moss on a perfectly thrown 66-yarder, and his first throw after replacing Brady in the season opener was a 51-yard hookup with Moss. Those passes are the Patriots' longest of the season.

But against the Chargers, Cassel, who was 22 of 38 for 203 yards with an interception and was sacked four times, failed on four deep tries with Moss.

On New England's first possession, Moss was open down the right sideline, but Cassel underthrew him slightly and Quentin Jammer was able to bat the ball away. Trailing, 10-0, in the second quarter and facing third and 8 from the San Diego 29, Cassel hit Moss with a pass inside the 5-yard line, but Moss bobbled the ball and it was knocked away.

And while much was made of the Patriots being stopped four times from the 1 on the opening possession of the second half, earlier in the drive Cassel missed a wide-open Moss in the end zone on second and 2 from the San Diego 32.

"It was an overthrown ball; I was beat," said Cromartie, who was in one-on-one coverage because the Chargers had gone with an all-out blitz.

The Patriots tried Moss once more late in the fourth quarter, when they were already down, 30-10.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick acknowledged that the Patriots can do more with the big-play passing game.

"I think the big thing is to hit the ones that we have an opportunity to hit," said Belichick. "When the defense takes those plays away, I don't really think it's good football to throw it down there for the sake of throwing it down there. That's not something we really try to do.

"We had the opportunities to connect on them. We've just got to hit on them. We'll just keep working harder on that. That's really the time to let it go. We just have to try to hit a few more when we get that opportunity."

Belichick said the Chargers played softer coverage most of the game, ceding underneath routes to prevent the big play. He thought the Patriots did a good job taking advantage of that for the most part.

But if there is one criticism of Cassel so far, it's that he's not able to dictate to defenses what he wants to do. He's resigned to taking what they give him, and if they want to take away the deep ball at times, he doesn't have the Brady-like precision to put the team in the end zone consistently.

But Chargers coach Norv Turner, who coached Troy Aikman in Dallas, said criticism of Cassel isn't on target.

"I thought he did a lot of good things," said Turner. "Their offense is based on that quarterback making great decisions throughout an entire football game. They have a lot of weapons to get to and they spread you out. You have to make calls for protection. You have to make good decisions on the move.

"I think Matt Cassel played outstanding a week ago in San Francisco. He made a lot of good plays against us. When you've got a young guy, you should be able to create some negative plays and we were able to do that."

Christopher L. Gasper can be reached at cgasper@globe.com