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FOXBORO - How puzzling was the coverage Wes Welker faced against the New Orleans Saints on Monday night?

So puzzling, the diminutive wide receiver of the Patriots apparently can't settle upon whether he's seen it before or not.

Asked Wednesday in the locker room if the Saints employed something new to limit him to six catches and just 32 yards, and teammate Randy Moss to three catches and 67 yards, Welker first said, "That was new. That was a new little twist that I saw last week. The Dolphins haven't showed it yet. We'll see what happens and how the game plays out."

But later in his brief conversation with reporters, Welker said it wasn't all that new after all.

"We've seen it before," he said. "The way they executed it, they did a really good job. We've just got to move on from that and make sure we're taking care of business in Miami." Which is true? You can be the judge of that. But there's little doubt that if there was anything in the game film that indicates a way to take the Patriots' top two receivers out of a game, the Dolphins will study it and try to implement it Sunday at Land Shark Stadium (1 p.m.; Ch. 4, 12).

"That was a great learning experience for us," he said. "At least it better be, or we're in for a long season. So we need to make sure that we take care of business this week and learn from our mistakes last week."

Welker was surprisingly frank when one reporter asked if he was surprised or dismayed that a lot of pundits seem to be writing off the 7-4 Patriots as a legitimate contender in the wake of losses to the unbeaten Colts and Saints inside three weeks.

"No, I'm not surprised at all, not with the way we've been playing," he said. "We've got a lot of things that we need to take care of. That's the bottom line and we realize that and we've just got to move forward from it."

Participation report

There were 22 names on the first participation report, and 18 of them in the "limited" category - even though the Patriots staged only a walkthrough inside the Dana-Farber Field House.

Ready? Here we go:

Sam Aiken (hip), Eric Alexander (groin), Chris Baker (shoulder), Tully Banta-Cain (shoulder), Ron Brace (ankle), Pat Chung (head), Julian Edelman (forearm), Jarvis Green (knee), Nick Kaczur (ankle), Dan Koppen (knee), Matt Light (knee), Bret Lockett (groin), Sammy Morris (knee), Stephen Neal (ankle), Rob Ninkovich (knee), Sebastian Vollmer (head), Ty Warren (ankle) and Pierre Woods (groin).

Whew!

Tom Brady (shoulder), Shawn Springs (knee) and Benjamin Watson (knee) walked better than their injured teammates, while Fred Taylor (ankle) did not walk at all.