All hands on deck in secondary

FOXBOROUGH - Bill Belichick watched four Rams wide receivers trot on to the field as another of his defensive backs hobbled off of it. This, he knew, was a problem. At the moment the Patriots most needed stout pass defense - leading by a touchdown, barely more than three minutes remaining - their secondary descended closer toward depletion.

Already, in their first game without safety Rodney Harrison, the Patriots had lost both starting cornerbacks, Deltha O'Neal to a head injury in the first quarter and Ellis Hobbs to a shoulder injury in the fourth. Now Mike Richardson, a backup, had been lost covering the game's final kickoff.

Belichick called timeout. He was "trying to find bodies to put out there at that point," he said. "We were scrambling."

Defensive backs huddled around Belichick, the coach who once turned Troy Brown into a nickelback, and waited for instructions. Belichick pulled O'Neal off the sideline and sent him in. He moved Brandon Meriweather, who had replaced Harrison at safety, to cornerback. Backups would pepper the defensive backfield. Antwain Spann became the final layer of defense.

"When guys go down, a lot of things happen," said safety James Sanders, the only starting defensive back remaining by game's end. "Bill, he's the king at moving things around."

The Rams embarked on their final drive facing a secondary cobbled from scratch. Five of the six defensive backs were 25 or younger and two, cornerbacks Jonathan Wilhite and Terrence Wheatley, were rookies.

Eleven plays later, Rams quarterback Marc Bulger lofted a pass deep down the right side toward Keenan Burton. O'Neal, who had sat on the sideline since the first quarter, ran with him. The ball sailed over Burton's head and settled into O'Neal's waiting arms. The secondary, deterred by neither injuries nor previous missteps, had sealed the game, a 23-16 Patriots victory at Gillette Stadium.

"The thing I like about the secondary, it's a 'whatever' attitude," Wilhite said. "It's nothing for a safety to come down and play corner. Losing Rodney and those guys, that's a big contributor towards our defense. You can't stop the season when somebody gets hurt. You've got to keep stringing it along."

Hobbs left the game for good in the fourth quarter after crashing to the ground on his left shoulder "kind of funny," he said. "Too funny, actually." Hobbs declined to elaborate on his injury. "I'm fine," he repeated afterward, allowing that he expects to play at Indianapolis.

So at least that's one defensive back available to the Patriots. They began the game knowing they'd be without Lewis Sanders, who aggravated his thigh injury Monday night, and Harrison, the unit's most experienced player, who is out for the season with a torn quadriceps.

"Of course, you're missing your leader out there," Spann said.

The attrition mounted early. O'Neal, who did not speak with reporters after the game, left the field during the first drive with a head injury, lasting only eight plays. Without O'Neal, Rams wideout Donnie Avery burned Hobbs and Sanders for a 69-yard touchdown. After that play, Bulger said, the Patriots gave both cornerbacks safety help, "loading up" on the receivers.

The machinations of the secondary became more difficult once Hobbs went out and the Rams' final drive began. Several players, though, said they communicated with ease, helped by preparation and closeness.

"I practice with these guys every day, so I know how they play," Spann said. "We've been with each other since the summertime. It's not like we don't have confidence in each other. We've done it before. It's not the first time that it's happened. It's just never showed up in a game situation."

Said Wilhite: "The biggest thing, we have to stick together. Being young, we have to talk more than other secondaries do."

One older player joined that conversation. O'Neal, 31, snared Bulger's final meaningful pass and danced across the field, advancing the ball 47 yards to the St. Louis 37 before falling, face first. He laid there for a moment, chest on the grass, and pumped his fist. Hours earlier, he had assumed the same position, unable to continue.

O'Neal had found a way back into the game, and the Patriots had found a way to salvage their secondary.

"That was a big play," Spann said. "Being out the whole game, being cold, to come in and clinch the game, that was real big. We're a young group. It gives us confidence.

"Of course we're going to go through our bad plays, because we're young. But when we get the opportunities to make plays, most of the time we do."