PATRIOTS BEAT

FOXBORO - If you squinted at the TV on Sunday, it wasn't hard to turn Matt Cassel's No. 16 into a 12. For four quarters against the Miami Dolphins , Cassel looked every bit like the man he supposedly had no shot of replacing, submitting a performance to make Tom Brady proud. The Patriots spread the field. Cassel looked for the open man. And he delivered the ball with authority on pretty much every throw imaginable - deep comebacks, crosses, fades, sidearm flings on the run, it didn't matter. Cassel zipped them all in there en route to his second straight 400-yard game, joining Dan Marino, Dan Fouts, Phil Simms and Billy Volek as the only quarterbacks in NFL history to pull off that feat. Cassel now has one more 400-yard game than Brady himself, the No. 12 he's starting to resemble more and more every week. ``You can't say enough about how good Matt's playing right now,'' Pats left guard Logan Mankins said after Cassel was 30-for-43 for 415 yards and three touchdowns in the 48-28 win against Miami. ``He's putting the ball on the money. Some of his best throws have been dropped. (The Dolphins) couldn't stop us. I'm not sure there's another quarterback in the league I'd rather have right now.'' That's not hyperbole. Name a quarterback in the NFL playing better than Cassel at the moment. He has thrown for 815 yards and six touchdowns in the past two weeks with just one interception, and that one hit Randy Moss in the hands before being broken up by a nice defensive play. He also has rushed for a touchdown and led the Pats to 79 points in that span, which is positively 2007ish. Add the fact that the performances have come against teams with 14 combined victories, and it's hard not to be excited by what Cassel is doing, seemingly against all odds. It certainly has lessened the sting of a battered defense that has been unable to stop anyone. Leave it to Patriots coach Bill Belichick, though, to splash cold water on the festivities. ``Whenever the quarterback has a lot of yards passing then everybody wants to put the quarterback in the Hall of Fame,'' Belichick said. ``And whenever the team doesn't have a lot of yards passing, then everybody wants to change quarterbacks.'' Belichick went on to explain that offensive success is about 11 players, not one, a point he has probably made half a million times since becoming head coach in 2000. But even that explanation illustrated how far Cassel has come in such a short time. Early in his starting tenure, Belichick went out of his way to pump up Cassel even after mediocre games. ``Matt is our starting quarterback,'' he said after a 30-10 blowout loss to the Chargers. ``He gives our team the best chance to win.'' It appears a tipping point has been crossed, however, because now Belichick is managing expectations. Still, there's no question the Cassel of today is infinitely better than the one of September and early October. ``I don't think it's oversimplifying that a player that has played 11 games like Matt has is further along this year than he was when he played his third, fourth or fifth game or whatever it was earlier in the season,'' Belichick said. ``I don't think that's oversimplifying at all. It doesn't matter what it is: spread offense, red area, third down, play action, blitz, max coverage, max blitz, all the stuff in between. ``I think there is progress in every area, more experience, more comfort, better decision-making and better timing by the quarterback and all the other players on the field.'' It's beyond obvious that Cassel has improved. While no one's saying he's Brady, it's nonetheless saying something that he has come to resemble him. That 16 is really starting to look like a 12. A couple of more games like the past two, and it won't even require a squint to see. - jtomase@bostonherald.com BOX: ALL-TIME Patriots 400-YARD PASSING GAMES: PLAYER DATE OPP. YARDS A-C-TD-INT Drew Bledsoe 11/13/94* MIN 426 70-45-3-0 Drew Bledsoe 11/23/98 MIA 423 54-28-2-2 Drew Bledsoe 09/04/94 at MIA 421 51-32-4-2 Drew Bledsoe 11/03/96 MIA 419 41-30-3-2 Matt Cassel 11/23/08 at MIA 415 43-30-3-1 Tony Eason 09/21/86 SEA 414 45-26-3-0 Tom Brady 09/22/02* KC 410 54-39-4-1 Tom Ramsey 11/29/87* PHI 402 53-34-3-2 Steve Grogan 10/12/86 NYJ 401 42-23-3-0 Matt Cassel 11/13/08* NYJ 400 51-30-3-0