Rodney Harrison and Tedy Bruschi celebrate Harrison's third-quarter interception.

The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl

SAN FRANCISCO -- It's been a long two weeks for the New England Patriots. And this coming week on the West Coast might've seemed like a month if they hadn't beaten the 49ers, 30-21, Sunday afternoon at Candlestick Park.

"It's nice to get back on track," Pats linebacker Tedy Bruschi said. "You always want to get right back on track after a loss, and we've had to wait two weeks."

It was two weeks ago that the Dolphins, losers of 20 of their previous 21 games, came to Foxboro and put an emphatic end to the Patriots' NFL-record 21-game regular-season winning streak.

That surprising setback raised all sorts of questions. How could the proud Patriots defense be shredded for 38 points and 361 yards by the likes of Chad Pennington and the Dolphins? Was the New England offense, which scored an NFL-record 589 points last season with Tom Brady at quarterback, doomed to mediocrity with Matt Cassel calling signals?

Because of an early bye week, the Patriots had extra time to prepare a game plan that would provide answers to those questions.

The difference in Sunday's game was time of possession. The Patriots had the ball a long time, which made for a long afternoon for the Niners.

"I think we had it a lot today," center Dan Koppen said.

They had it for almost 40 minutes -- 39:52, to be exact. Meanwhile, most of the time 49ers quarterback J.T. Sullivan had on the field was spent scrambling away from a pesky Patriots pass rush.

"The time of possession was good for us," coach Bill Belichick said. "Defensively, it's always good when you don't have to play."

It wasn't a dominating defensive performance by the well-rested Pats, who allowed the well-traveled O'Sullivan -- he'd been with seven teams (including a month on New England's practice squad two years ago) before finally landing a starting job in San Francisco -- to throw for three touchdowns.

But they also intercepted him three times, sacked him once, and chased him out of the pocket too many times to count.

Although Cassel threw two interceptions and was sacked five times, he finally connected with big-play wide receiver Randy Moss on a long scoring pass (66 yards for a touchdown, midway through the first quarter), completed 22 of 32 for 259 yards, and, as Belichick likes to say, did a decent job of "managing the game."

The Niners, on the other hand, couldn't manage to stay on the field offensively, or get off it defensively.

"We had too many three-and-outs," O'Sullivan said.

The San Francisco defense didn't force enough of those.

"You want to get off the field," said linebacker Tully Banta-Cain, who played four seasons for the Patriots before signing with the 49ers last year as a free agent.

Although the Pats had the ball twice as long as the Niners, they didn't dominate the game the way they did the time of possession.

They trailed twice in the first half, 7-0 and 14-7. They led only 17-14 until veteran running back Kevin Faulk, who's best known for his ability to catch the ball coming out of the backfield, took a direct snap from center on fourth and goal at the 2-yard line five minutes into the third quarter and darted into the end zone for his second rushing touchdown of the game. And the Pats still were clinging to a tenous six-point lead with less than five minutes to play when kicker Stephen Gostkowski clinched the win with a clutch 49-yard field goal.

"That was a good win for our football team," Belichick said. "We didn't get off to a great start. We fell behind a couple of times here on the road. I was proud of the way our guys fought back and kept making plays. In the end, we made enough to win."

Good thing.

The Patriots, who came out to the West Coast on Friday, didn't fly home after the game. With a game Sunday night at San Diego, they didn't want to go back-and-forth across the country twice in a span of 10 days. Instead of going home to Foxboro, they'll spend this week in California, practicing at San Jose State.

Can you imagine what the week would have been like for the Pats if they'd followed a defeat at the hands of the Dolphins with another setback in San Francisco?

"Regardless of where you're at," Koppen said, "when you get a win, things are always better during the week."

jdonalds@projo.com