Cassel won't read and react to losing

FOXBOROUGH - Matt Cassel isn't going to read this, so there's no need to sugarcoat it: If last week was, as Randy Moss termed it, hellified ball, yesterday was more like petrified ball.

After back-to-back 400-yard performances, Cassel came back to earth against the Steelers yesterday by completing 19 of 39 passes for 169 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions.

What's more, Cassel was sacked five times, including a pair of third-quarter strip-sacks by Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison that aided the Steelers in motoring away for a 33-10 triumph at Gillette Stadium.

Chances are no one will consider the notion of trading Tom Brady in favor of a Cassel-led squad this week. All the Patriots fans with a picture of Cassel as their screensaver are probably scrambling to replace it with one of Marc Savard and the Bruins this morning.

But Cassel knows there's nothing he can do to change yesterday's performance, so he doesn't plan to dwell on it. When a reporter asked Cassel - a free agent in the offseason - if he was worried about his stock plummeting in the wake of a shaky performance, Cassel fired back that this wasn't about him.

"To be completely honest, I'm not going to read anything you guys write," said Cassel. "We gotta go as a team and get better. That's what we gotta do. It's not about Matt Cassel, it's about 11 guys on offense trying to get better; our team trying to get better.

"It's not about one guy's performance - Matt Cassel - his stock rising or dropping. I could care less about that. I care about winning ballgames."

Cassel was the first to admit it wasn't his finest outing. He said he wanted to watch the film first before analyzing exactly what caused his troubles, but a Steelers defense that ranks at the top in the league sure made his life difficult.

Cassel will have nightmares about Harrison, who was carted off the field at halftime but seemed undeterred as he returned to force two fumbles as the wheels came off a Patriots offense that already seemed to have a flat tire from too many dropped passes and mental errors.

Matthew Slater had fumbled away a kickoff return following the Steelers' go-ahead field goal in the third quarter, leading to a touchdown that put Pittsburgh ahead, 20-10. On the Patriots' first offensive play of the ensuing drive, Harrison stripped Cassel of the ball and LaMarr Woodley recovered at the Patriots 26. That led to a Jeff Reed field goal.

Harrison got to Cassel again before the end of the quarter. On a third and 11 at the Pittsburgh 48, the linebacker bulled his way to Cassel and stripped him, allowing James Farrior to recover at the Patriots 47.

The Steelers couldn't convert that turnover into points, which limited the damage off the fumbles. But on a day the Patriots didn't help their quarterback with numerous drops (including one by Moss in the end zone during the first half), the Steelers, who also dropped more than a few passes, cashed in on the interceptions.

Troy Polamalu intercepted Cassel early in the fourth quarter, leading to another Reed field goal for a 26-10 advantage with 5:43 to go. Lawrence Timmons picked off Cassel on the ensuing drive and rumbled 89 yards the other way to set up a Gary Russell 1-yard plunge to cap the scoring.

But despite the many struggles, no one pointed a finger at Cassel. In fact, the supporters came from far and wide.

"I don't think he had a bad game," said Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. "Our defense is very good. They're ranked No. 1 for a reason. The weather wasn't easy so I don't think any of this should go on Matt's shoulders."

Patriots tackle Logan Mankins agreed, saying the offensive line didn't do a particularly good job protecting Cassel.

"He'll be all right," said Mankins. "He knows what happened. He knows what went wrong and how to correct it."

Even Moss cautioned jumping off the Cassel bandwagon.

"Any given Sunday, anything can happen," said Moss. "I think the last couple weeks, from an offensive standpoint, people - the media, the fans - have seen what Matt Cassel has done with the offense and, from a certain stance, people think we're riding high. But football is football. Once we came out in the second half, a couple bad things happened and it trickled on down.

"Part of being a professional is being able to play through adversity and let the bad go and make something positive out of it."

Cassel won't read this, but he probably should. Even after one of his worst outings, he's still got plenty of believers.