There weren’t too many others.

With 9:39 left and the Patriots trailing the New York Giants by a 19-0 score, Kevin O’Connell and Chad Jackson proved that they have been paying attention in their position meetings. At the line of scrimmage, the Giants’ 16, O’Connell looked over the Giants’ defense and saw the indications that an all-out blitz was coming.

He quickly broke his cadence and signaled to his teammates that a new play was coming. Upon taking the snap, Jackson broke into a sprint down the left sideline and caught New York cornerback Darren Barnett momentarily flat-footed. O’Connell’s pass was true and it caught Jackson in stride in the end zone, putting the Patriots’ first points on the scoreboard.

For both the rookie quarterback and the third-year receiver whose career has been held back by injuries, it was the sort of moment for which the Patriots have been searching throughout a dreadful preseason.

“It was just like I’ve been trying to do since I got out here, to go out there and do what I’ve been coached to do,” said O’Connell, the third-round draft pick from San Diego State. “We made the check and Chad made a great catch. The line picked up an all-out blitz ... it’s pretty fun when it goes as planned like that.”

“It felt really good,” said Jackson, a second-rounder out of Florida. “We were down and trying to make a comeback with the second-team offense in. We were pushing up and down the field, and it was a good touchdown drive … (O’Connell) saw a different coverage at the line of scrimmage and changed the play, and I went up and made the play.”

Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick was duly impressed by the execution of the two youngsters. These are the sorts of situations he likes to see develop in preseason games, where the players are put into positions where they have to execute the lessons they learned in classrooms and practiced on a daily basis during training camp.

“We had an option on the play based on a look that they gave us,” Belichick said, “and Kevin did a nice job on that. He made a good throw and Chad ran a good route. He stacked the corner and Kevin threw it up there to give him a chance to get it.

“We could use a few more like that,” he added.

“It’s not something I could have done probably three weeks ago,” said O’Connell, who completed three of four passes for 22 yards in his second-half stint.

O’Connell was behind center for both of the Patriots’ touchdowns, and he produced one of them personally -- running in from 5 yards out with 4:50 left on a designed quarterback draw.

But it’s not something he wants to do on a regular basis.

“Throwing,” he said when asked which sort of score he prefers. “Any time the defense is trying to get you, they have an all-out blitz called, you get the check like that and your wideout makes a great play in the corner of the end zone, that’s a pretty good feeling.

“They’re both exciting just to get points on the board,” he added. “That’s my main goal going in there.”

Jackson hoped the execution he showed on that play would help his evaluation -- and perhaps help the coaches forget that he fell in the end zone just before the end of the first half, allowing the Giants’ R.W. McQuarters to intercept a pass that could have cut the deficit at the time to 13-7.

But he knows Belichick has everything in a file -- and that will determine whether he has done enough to keep his spot on the final 53-man roster, which will be set Saturday.

“He’s a hard coach, he’s a hard-working coach,” Jackson said. “Enough might not be enough. So we’ll see what happens over the next couple of days.”