The Patriots’ Randy Moss makes his diving, last-second catch for the touchdown that forced overtime against the Jets.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osumdson

It had been folly to expect Matt Cassel to be Tom Brady on the football field. But against the Jets on Thursday night, particularly on the overtime-forcing drive, Cassel was positively Brady-like, evoking memories of the drives Brady had led in past Super Bowls.

After Wes Welker’s 10-yard punt return, New England took over at its own 38-yard line with 64 seconds to play and no timeouts.

Cassel completed a 9-yard pass to Benjamin Watson on first down, an 11-yard pass to Watson on second down, then spiked the ball to stop the clock with 36 seconds left.

A catch-and-run by Welker on second down yielded 17 yards, and then the Pats had to kill the clock again. A false-start penalty against center Dan Koppen set the offense back five yards, making it second-and-15 with 23 seconds remaining. Cassel’s pass to Welker came up a yard short of the first down, and took 15 ticks off the clock.

After another spike, New England was looking at fourth-and-1 with eight seconds left. There may have been time to throw a quick-out route, pick up the first down and get out of bounds to stop the clock, but that’s not how it unfolded.

From the shotgun, as he did throughout the drive, Cassel took a few steps back, eluded one defender, and then rolled to his right.

Randy Moss, jammed at the line and with extra safety help on his side of the field all night, saw Ty Law back off him before the snap, giving him a large cushion. Moss ran right into the end zone, tangled with Law a bit, then boxed him out as Cassel released the ball.

In a full stretch, he kept his size-14 custom-made Pony cleats inbounds as he made the catch, dragging his right foot just long enough.

Moss landed on his back out of -bounds, both arms above his head, holding the ball aloft.

Unfortunately for the Patriots, they didn’t get the ball back in overtime as the Jets pulled out a 34-31 victory.

In the second half alone, Cassel was 19-for-30 for 226 yards, which, heretofore, had been a usual game for him. But combined with his first-half numbers, the fourth-year rising star was 30-for-51 for 400 yards and three touchdowns.

Yesterday, Bill Belichick was asked to reflect on Cassel’s effort.

“It was a tough situation with no timeouts and having to go over half the football field,” Belichick said. “The offensive team did an outstanding job of really putting ourselves in position to where we could be throwing for the end zone on that last play, even through it was fourth down, which made it a little bit more challenging. Had it been third down with eight seconds, we probably would have had time for two plays.

“But it was a good throw, good catch. [Cassel] was scrambling around, running out of the pocket. It was a good play.”

Though he has insisted all along that Cassel has been asked to make all the plays in the Patriots’ playbook, the perception persists that he’s been working from a CliffsNotes version. Belichick shot the notion down again yesterday.

“I think it’s been very open. We’ve been doing what we do all year, whether Tom was in there or not in the preseason. As Matt has taken the regular-season snaps, we’ve been running our offense all year,” Belichick said. “We game-plan each week for how we feel the best way to attack our opponent is, and those are the plays that we put in and run. That’s the way it’s been all year. I don’t really see that changing.

“I think we have confidence in Matt passing on all downs in all situations.”

Belichick and Cassel’s teammates have declared their confidence in him throughout the season, and Thursday night he rewarded their confidence with a bigtime performance.

smanza@projo.com