New England’s Heath Evans stretches for a touchdown as Carolina’s Thomas Davis (58) and Adam Seward (59) defend in the third quarter Friday night. Evans also had a 43-yard run in the second half.

AP / Chuck Burton

When football teams go for it on fourth down, it is both a vote of confidence for the offense but also a challenge to all 11 players on the field — everyone has to execute their job for the play to be successful.

That’s generally true on every play, in every phase of the game, but when a team wants to try and convert from their own 24-yard line, as the New England Patriots did Friday night against the Carolina Panthers, the stakes are a little higher.

Failure means the defense will be almost immediately put in the red zone, and the intangible but all-important momentum could swing to the opposing sideline.

“When you’re deep in your own territory and you go for it on fourth down, you’re counting on everybody to come through there — the guys who are blocking, the guys who are carrying the ball, the guys who are faking, guys who are cutting off on the back side away from the play,” Bill Belichick said yesterday in his day-after conference call. “It’s something that everybody has to do.”

Against the Panthers, New England had fourth-and-one midway through the first quarter, and called a timeout to discuss its options.

When the Pats came back on the field, Sammy Morris was given the ball, and he followed fullback Heath Evans through the hole created by right tackle Nick Kaczur and tight end Marcellus Rivers. Morris fell forward for a five-yard pickup.

“There’s going to be situations during the year where we are going to have to gain a yard and it’s going to be a tough yard,” Belichick said. “[Friday] night, we were in that situation and fortunately we were able to convert it. So I hope that we’ll be able to do that at some point during the year, when we need a tough yard we’ll be able to pick it up. That’s part of football. Defensively there’s going to be times where we are going to need to stop somebody from getting a yard. Hopefully we’ll be able to do that.”

Perhaps not coincidentally, with Laurence Maroney playing for the first time this preseason after shedding his red non-contact jersey last week, Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels put an emphasis on the ground game for the tilt with the Panthers.

The first nine offensive plays (over two series) for New England were run plays, with all but one of those going to Maroney. Belichick said that was “absolutely” the way it was scripted.

After gaining 160 rushing yards total in its first two exhibition games, New England had 148 yards on 36 carries against the Panthers, a healthy 4.1 yards per carry average that was helped a bit by Evans’ 43-yard burst in the second half.

Maroney had 15 carries for 58 yards (3.9 YPC) before heading to the bench.

“It was obviously a much better effort running the ball than what we’ve had in the first couple of games,” Belichick said.

Part of the improvement may simply have been the addition of the talented Maroney, who admitted to being rusty in New England’s first series and nervous to see how his surgically-repaired shoulder would hold up. It also could have been the improved play of the offensive line, which had taken its lumps after a less-than-stellar showing against Tennessee in exhibition game two.

“I think that we showed some improvement from the previous week and I think we still have a way to go,” Belichick said. “But we ran the ball with more consistency and that helped the passing game, like it usually does, when you create some kind of balance in your offense. It kept some of the third-down situations shorter and more manageable. I just thought overall we had a better balance and more consistency on offense and certainly the line deserves credit for that, the receivers, the tight ends, the backs. It was a solid effort offensively.”

While some featured backs, like San Diego’s LaDainian Tomlinson, have taken minimal or no carries this exhibition season to preserve their legs, Belichick and his staff have not yet determined how much, or if, Maroney will play Thursday against the Giants. Typically, the Patriots’ final exhibition game features the reserves and players trying to secure a spot on the 53-man roster.

smanza@projo.com