SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Patriots’ offense showed improvement in last week’s win over San Francisco, reflective of the extra time the unit had to practice in the bye week.

The highlight for many during the game with the 49ers was Matt Cassel’s 66-yard touchdown throw to Randy Moss. The play was one not seen in a while, inasmuch as New England had played a fairly vanilla offense during the first few games with Cassel under center.

Cassel has tried to downplay the down-field looks he took in Game Four saying he does just what the game plan says. But offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said yesterday that the game plan called for him to attack the Niners’ defense.

“Every week we try to attack on all three levels,” short, intermediate and long, McDaniels said. “Some weeks we end up throwing more down the field than others, but that’s a product of the defense. If the defense gives us the opportunity to attack that third level down the field, then that’s what we would instruct our quarterbacks to do.”

McDaniels said Cassel was coached to take the big play if it was there, and if not, look back to the second-level receivers or the running backs on check-down routes.

“We always try to have enough of those in the game plan; it just so happened that last week we had a few of them,” McDaniels said.

On the long touchdown to Moss, McDaniels disputed the suggestion that Moss was being double-covered and therefore it may have been risky for Cassel to throw the pass.

“It was a blitz-zone situation, and Matt did a really good job of stepping away from where it came from on…. The safety happened to not get as much depth as I’m sure they probably would have liked, Randy ran a really good route, and Matt saw him at the right time,” McDaniels explained.

Cassel acknowledged that it’s important to get the ball to a team’s playmakers, and that Moss is one of the league’s best. He reiterated, however, that he is following the plan as it is laid out to him.

“I’ve told people this before: I rely heavily on the coaches from a play-calling standpoint, and I just try to go out there and execute it. I can try to force the ball downfield, but for me I’m just going to go through my progressions.”

McDaniels defends Maroney

McDaniels was asked about the play of Laurence Maroney against the 49ers. After a strong finish to last season, there were high hopes that Maroney would continue to build on his success. But because of the Pats’ running back by committee and a shoulder injury, the third-year back hasn’t put up big numbers.

As to the idea that Maroney was tentative on some carries, McDaniels defended his player: “I think there were some situations in the game where there wasn’t much there on a few plays. And then there were some plays, not just singling out Laurence, that there were more yards. There is always that in the running game.”

Injury report

Yesterday, there were four players not spotted during the media-access portion of practice: WR Kelley Washington (ankle), RB LaMont Jordan (calf), LB Eric Alexander (hamstring) and TE David Thomas (flu). Thomas is a new addition to the list. Those four players did not participate, while Stephen Gostkowski (right thigh), Maroney (shoulder) and CB Lewis Sanders (hamstring) were limited. Safety/receiver Ray Ventrone may be adding another slash before his name: yesterday he was doing drills with the running backs.

The Chargers continue to list some key players on the injured list: receivers Chris Chambers (ankle) and Vincent Jackson (knee) as well as LB Jyles Tucker (hamstring) did not participate; RB LaDainian Tomlinson (toe) and CB Antonio Cromartie (hip) were limited.

smanza@projo.com