FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — It was Kevin O’Connell’s turn Thursday to audition for a job the Patriots now know is pretty important: Tom Brady’s backup.

A year ago, it hardly seemed to matter who New England chose as its No. 2 quarterback, not with Brady having started 127 consecutive games.

But when the team’s most important player injured his knee in the 2008 season opener and was out for the year, a nearly unnoticed decision to make Matt Cassel his backup suddenly loomed large.

Cassel emerged to lead the team to an 11-5 record before earning the franchise tag during the offseason and subsequently being traded to the Kansas City Chiefs.

With the backup role to Brady open again, it was O’Connell who took over for rookie Brian Hoyer on Thursday night. The Patriots were deep in their own territory, out of timeouts and needed to drive about 60 yards to attempt a game-winning field goal.

“It was a very good situation,” coach Bill Belichick said during a conference call Friday afternoon. “As the backup quarterback, you never know when the call’s going to come. It could come in the first quarter. It could come in the last drive. Those guys have to be ready. It was a great situation. It was a tough one in that we didn’t have any timeouts and we needed quite a bit of yardage to get into field goal range.”

O’Connell moved the team to near midfield before he was forced out of the pocket, scrambled up the middle and was brought down as time ran out. New England lost to the Cincinnati Bengals, 7-6.

“I thought we kind of did what we wanted to do from an execution standpoint,” Belichick said. “But we had pressure, we had sacks and had to scramble out of there. It wasn’t the drive we were looking for, but it was a good situation for all of us to learn from.”

O’Connell, a third-round draft choice out of San Diego State in 2008, served as Cassel’s backup last year, briefly getting into two games.

Cassel played very well for the Patriots last season. In his first regular action since high school, he completed 349 of 555 passes for 3,949 yards with 23 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

When Cassel became too expensive to be Brady’s backup and had to be dealt, it was expected O’Connell would become the No. 2 quarterback. That is, until the Patriots signed Andrew Walter on Aug. 3 after he was released by Oakland.

In Thursday’s game, O’Connell was 9 for 16 for 90 yards after replacing Hoyer. Last week in Philadelphia, Walter was 5 for 9 for 62 yards in a backup role.

O’Connell knows his chance is now.

“All I can talk about is me personally, and I would love to play more consistent,” OConnell said after Thursday’s game. “I’d like to go out there and do my job on every play. That’s what I’ve been doing all training camp, and I’m going to continue to try and help the team.”