SANTA CLARA – When Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe was injured two weeks into the 2001 season, New England was forced to turn to a little-known and seldom-used backup who had had trouble cracking the starting lineup in college.
The result: Tom Brady led the Patriots to a Super Bowl victory that season, and New England has been a league power ever since.
The question this year is whether the Patriots can work similar magic with a similar story line.
Brady tore two ligaments in his left knee in Week 1 and was lost for the season. In stepped Matt Cassel, who to that point had not started an NFL game.
In fact, as was Brady's predicament at Michigan, the 6-foot-4 Cassel played behind bigger-name players at USC – Heisman Trophy winners Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart – and threw only 33 passes for the Trojans.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick, however, noted Cassel wasn't entirely raw when he entered the spotlight. He received most of the snaps this offseason while Brady nursed a sore right foot.
"I would say that was something that we've been kind of working with all the way through training camp and in the preseason games so it wasn't a big, 'Well, all of a sudden Matt's in there,' " Belichick said. "Matt's been in there a majority of the time, and in all the preseason games this year anyway, so it really, as much as we didn't want it to happen, wasn't that big of a transition."
Still, Cassel's debut has been modest.
He and the Patriots eked out wins over Kansas City and the New York Jets to start the season, but they couldn't keep pace with 2007's worst team, Miami, and lost 38-13, their biggest margin of defeat since 2003.
Cassel has completed 48 of 72 passes for 448 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. The New England offense, which scored 38 points in each of its first three games last year, has been far tamer this year. The passing attack is averaging 168.3 yards, 24th in the league.
The Patriots, however, are coming off a bye, and there is a sense the week off couldn't have come at a better time for Cassel.
"Yeah, there is no doubt," Cassel said. "The bye week was a good week to go in and re-evaluate where we were as a team, not only myself but also offensively and I'm sure defensively and special teams and kind of just regroup. Work on those things we need to work on and build on those things that we've done well."
No one on the 49ers seems to be taking Cassel and the Patriots lightly, either, especially given that Belichick has had two weeks to prepare. Under Belichick, the Patriots are 6-2 in the week following the bye.
"Week to week, you can get different looks," 49ers coach Mike Nolan said of the Patriots. "So, there is no telling with two weeks to prepare for us what they might do. One thing is for certain: They have good players, and they've done the things they've done for a long time."
Read Matthew Barrows' 49ers blog at www.sacbee.com/ninersblog.
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