So far, a loser in sack race

Cassel looking to help out line

According to former quarterback and current analyst Trent Dilfer, Patriots QB Matt Cassel (above) is an accurate passer, has a good arm, and shows poise, but he needs to avoid sacks. (Barry Chin/Globe Staff)

FOXBOROUGH - In one week, Matt Cassel went from hearing people call for his job to being the AFC Offensive Player of the Week after throwing a career-high three touchdown passes in a 41-7 victory over the Denver Broncos Monday night.

That's the quarterback position for you - win you're a hero, lose you're a zero.

"That is part of it, I guess," said Cassel, who smiled when the juxtaposition was pointed out. "You have to take the good with the bad. As the quarterback, they are always looking at you, whether it is good or bad. This week, it obviously turned out on the plus side. Hopefully, we will continue that."

That's been the problem for Cassel since taking over for Tom Brady. He has followed effective performances (against the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers) with uninspiring ones (against the Miami Dolphins and San Diego Chargers). To carry over momentum to Sunday's game against the St. Louis Rams, Cassel will have to eliminate the part of his game that has been consistent - getting sacked.

One of the few negatives of Cassel's play against Denver (18 of 24, 185 yards, no interceptions) was that he was sacked six times. Cassel has been sacked 25 times this season; the Patriots are tied for second in the NFL in sacks allowed with 26.

"From a quarterback standpoint, I need to do a better job of throwing the ball away when I need to," said Cassel. "There are times when I'm trying to let the play develop downfield. If I'm standing in there too long, I just need to learn when that time clock goes off and just throw it away. That's an area that I can help the offensive line out with.

"Obviously, a lot of those sacks aren't on them; they're on me. Whether I'm trying to scramble around and make a play, or do something like that, that's something that I'm getting a little bit more used to as I go forward, knowing that sometimes the defense is going to have the right play called against us, and I just have to throw the ball away and take the loss and go from there."

Former Pro Bowl quarterback Trent Dilfer, an ESPN analyst, thinks Cassel has done a "tremendous job" and has improved each week. However, Dilfer said when the route or defender Cassel is keying on isn't clear, he stops surveying the field and starts feeling the rush.

"When that key read isn't clean, meaning he's getting a different look or the person he's keying doesn't do what he expects them to do, his eyes drop immediately into the line of scrimmage," said Dilfer. "He did better against Denver. He made a real effort.

"You train your eyes and feet over years and years to work together. He's missed that training. Yes, the majority of these sacks could be avoided if his eyes and feet worked in conjunction after his initial key read. He tries to find where to go instead of using his eyes to read across the board. That's the major flaw I've seen show up.

"He's an accurate passer. He has a good arm. He's showing a lot of poise outside of this one area. I can't find any major reading-defense flaws. This one flaw he needs to really improve upon the rest of the year because a good defensive coordinator can cause problems if he doesn't fix this."

Dilfer said pocket awareness is something that can be taught and developed.

Dilfer rarely threw the ball as a Wing-T quarterback in high school. Then he got to Fresno State and became one of the nation's best passers because Jeff Tedford, now the coach at Cal-Berkeley, worked with him on poise in the pocket.

Dilfer used Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young as an example. Young benefited from the tutelage of Bill Walsh and Mike Shanahan, who was the 49ers' offensive coordinator from 1992-94.

"Steve Young was a horrible pocket quarterback," said Dilfer. "If his first read was not there, his eyes dropped and he ran. Shanahan got his hands on him and trained him to be disciplined in his progression and that only after going 1, 2, 3, 4 with his reads, then he could drop his eyes and run. We call it time-clock training. You train the clock in your head."

Cassel acknowledged that pocket presence is something he's working on, but said it has to be done at game speed. A full-speed rush is difficult to duplicate in practice, so Cassel, who hadn't been a starter since high school, is honing his pocket presence through on-the-job training.

That's less than ideal, but Dilfer thinks Cassel will improve as he gains experience.

"It's going to take thousands of reps in practice and in games," said Dilfer. "Is it realistic to think he's going to have great pocket awareness by the end of the season? No. But to be decent by the end of the season? Yes. He's going to get enough reps in practice and games and enough feedback to recognize, 'This is good; this is bad. This feels right; this feels wrong.' "

Cassel will have more time to work on his pocket presence this week because Dilfer expects the Rams to come after Cassel. Interim coach Jim Haslett was a defensive coordinator for the blitz-happy Steelers. And seven of the Rams' 13 sacks have come in the last two weeks, since Haslett replaced Scott Linehan.

However, Dilfer cautioned that sacks are an overrated statistic because it doesn't take into account circumstances. Taking a sack and living to fight another play is preferable to an interception or a fumble while trying to scramble.

Those plays are killers - both for a quarterback's career and for his team's chances of victory.

"We're not expecting [Cassel] to be Tom Brady, but you don't want Ryan Leaf, either," said Dilfer. "Where does he fit in between these two extremes? I'd say he's doing a better-than-expected job considering the circumstances and he's improving each week."

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