Tom E. Curran • E-mail

FOXBORO, Mass. - The Matt Cassel Monorail To Superstardom went off the rails just a bit Sunday. It may have taken the Patriots playoff hopes with it.

In a sleet-soaked 33-10 loss to the Steelers, New England committed turnovers on five consecutive second-half possessions — a difficult feat even if you’re trying to give it away.

Four of them came via Cassel, the standup stand-in for Tom Brady. Two came on strip sacks by Steelers outside linebacker James Harrison. Two others came on interceptions thrown by Cassel. The other turnover — which came with 5:39 left in the third and Pittsburgh leading 13-10, started it all. It was a muffed kickoff return by rookie Matthew Slater. In all, the Steelers turned the New England turnovers into 20 points and, with the win, improved to 9-3.

Cassel’s played remarkably well for most of his 11-plus game tenure, but in New England’s past two he went berserk, throwing for a total of 815 yards and six touchdowns.

Which prompted — and I do not lie — hypothetical talk-radio conversations about what the Patriots could get in a trade for Brady.

A terse Cassel was asked where the loss leaves New England.

“7-5 is where it leaves us,” he said. “We have four games left and we need to go out and play well in all of them. Five games aren’t going to knock us out of the playoffs right now but we have to go out and play better than we did today.”

Cassel, who’ll be a free agent at the end of the season, also dismissed the persistent conjecture about how his stock is being evaluated each week.

“To be completely honest, I’m not going to read what you guys write,” he said. “We’ve got to go as a team and get better. It’s not about Matt Cassel. It’s about 11 guys on offense and 11 guys on defense trying to get better. This isn’t about one guy’s performance, Matt Cassel and his stock rising and falling. I care about our teams’ performance and obviously we lost so tonight I’m upset.”

New England is now 7-5, trailing the 8-4 Jets in the AFC East and the 8-4 Colts and Ravens in the race for the Wild Card.

It’s unfamiliar territory. The Patriots have finished tied or alone in first in the AFC East every season since 2001. They could win each of their remaining games — at Seattle and Oakland, hosting Arizona and at Buffalo — and still wind up missing the playoffs because their fate now relies on the generosity of other teams.

They’ve given it a game fight without Brady and key defenders like Adalius Thomas and Rodney Harrison, but they are in trouble.

“That’s their problem,” said Steelers receiver Hines Ward, who caught five passes for 37 yards including an 11-yard touchdown. “Every team in this league’s had to deal with injuries. They just made more mistakes than we did.”

Pittsburgh had lost six of seven to the Patriots coming into this game including a 34-13 loss at Gillette Stadium last year.

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