Sit Cassel? Coach will pass

Some missed connections Sunday night showed Matt Cassel still doesn't have command of the offense at his fingertips. (Dennis Poroy/Associated Press)

Let there be no doubt. With Matt Cassel doing the Dow Jones - he's up, he's down - and with anxiety-filled Patriots followers riding the volatile highs and lows, Bill Belichick stepped forward yesterday with a rather strong statement.

For those media types and fans clamoring for a quarterback switch, it's not happening.

"Matt is our starting quarterback," Belichick said. "He gives our team the best chance to win."

Such a statement might be hard for some to digest, especially after watching the Patriots' 30-10 loss to the Chargers Sunday night in which Cassel was sacked four times, intercepted once, missed open tight end Benjamin Watson in the end zone on a key fourth-and-goal play from the 1, and couldn't connect with an open Randy Moss on a would-be 32-yard touchdown earlier on the same drive.

If Cassel had inspired confidence from his solid outing a week earlier in San Francisco, this one - against a better defense in just his fourth career NFL start - rekindled some of the doubts.

Yet Belichick isn't flinching, and one of the main reasons is probably this: If not Cassel, then who?

The top backup, rookie Kevin O'Connell, is a promising prospect, yet few third-round draft choices are ready to step in as a starter five games into their NFL careers. Sometimes rushing them into action can do more harm than good in the long term.

The third option, Matt Gutierrez, didn't make the cut out of training camp. And it's not as if other teams are lining up to trade away starting-caliber signal-callers. Yesterday's NFL trading deadline passed, predictably, with no quarterbacks changing teams.

So the transition period continues for the Patriots.

If having Tom Brady at quarterback meant they were in the first-class cabin, with Cassel they're flying coach. Anyone else at this point and they'd be with the stand-by crowd, potentially bumped off the plane when there's still a chance to fly with the top teams in a league with no clear-cut favorites.

So while it's fair to wonder whether the Patriots should have booked a better seat back in the offseason if their first-class option fell through, for now it's Cassel or bust.

"If you make a change now, the trickle-down effect is that it will minimize what you can do offensively," said former NFL quarterback Jim Miller, a 12-year veteran who spent the 2004 season in New England. "Let's just say the Patriots go with Kevin O'Connell. Their game plans wouldn't be the same. Because Matt has a better understanding of what you're trying to do, you can do a lot more, so I believe you're putting yourself in harm's way if you put a younger player in there."

What Miller and others clearly see in Cassel is a quarterback learning on the job, and that sometimes explains why he's struggling to find open receivers and taking too many sacks while looking uncomfortable at times in the pocket. Still, the fact that he's 2-2 as a starter - and really 3-2 if you count his three-quarter relief effort against the Chiefs - is not something to overlook.

Like Cassel himself, the Patriots as a team are still evolving after losing Brady - and Belichick made it clear yesterday when asked about Cassel that the entire club, including the coaches, needs to raise its level of performance.

Thankfully for them, it is October, which means it's the time of year when NFL teams must hang around and keep themselves in the race, with the idea of building momentum for when it truly counts in November and December.

The Patriots are indeed in the chase, and while their up-and-down play could be viewed as an early sign of trouble, a look around the NFL reveals that just about every team has been up and down.

This year, in fact, is as wide open as anyone could have imagined, with Monday night's action reinforcing the point. Just when you think the Giants will establish themselves as the NFL's No. 1 club, what happens? They get pasted, 35-14, at Cleveland.

The Cowboys? They're reeling and will be without quarterback Tony Romo (broken pinkie) for the coming weeks. And what about those red-hot Redskins in the supposedly powerful NFC East? They lost at home to the winless Rams Sunday, 19-17.

What it all means is that this isn't the time to be seeking definitive answers as to how it all will unfold, and to Belichick, it obviously means that it's no time to change course.

Asked yesterday if he still has confidence Cassel can lead the Patriots, Belichick simply responded: "Yes."

There was no need to expound.

Mike Reiss can be reached at mreiss@globe.com.