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ST. LOUIS -- It was about as frenetic a finish as the NFL might witness this season, with three lead changes in the fourth quarter, including two in the final 1:44 of the game. But in reality, it was actually an old the-tortoise-wins-most-of-the-races virtue that allowed the Seattle Seahawks to prevail over the St. Louis Rams on Sunday.

Patience.

Oh, sure, plenty of second-half playmaking and the powerful foot of kicker Josh Brown -- who rocketed home a 54-yard field goal on the final play to culminate the last two minutes and lift the Seahawks over the Rams 30-28 -- were indisputable keys to the Seattle comeback.

There was, however, no bigger commodity for the Seahawks than the incredible patience demonstrated by the mature Seattle players and coach Mike Holmgren's veteran staff in overcoming a 21-7 halftime deficit. And if the defending NFC champions suddenly get on the kind of roll they're capable of, especially when tailback and reigning most valuable player Shaun Alexander returns from a broken foot, what transpired here in the second half may well be recalled as the galvanizing event.

Second(s) Chance Points

ST. LOUIS -- It took the booming voice of muscle-bound referee Ed Hochuli to end the premature celebration that had broken out on the St. Louis sideline here Sunday afternoon in the final seconds of the Rams' bitter 30-28 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. On a third-and-nine play from the St. Louis 31-yard line, with Seattle out of timeouts, quarterback Matt Hasselbeck spiked the ball to kill the clock and provide kicker Josh Brown a shot at the game-winning field goal with only four seconds remaining. But on the play, the Seahawks were flagged for illegal formation, a penalty Rams players believed resulted in a 10-second runoff on the game clock. Had the Rams been correct, the game would have been over, albeit on a rather esoteric call. Unfortunately, for St. Louis, the illegal formation penalty is not one of the fouls that mandates a 10-second runoff. After the five-yard penalty, Brown drilled a 54-yard, game-winning field goal with plenty of room to spare. "There are limited penalties that (require) a 10-second runoff, and this is not one of those on the list," Hochuli explained in a pool report. "The team (Seattle) was all set. They were set for a full second. They were just in an illegal formation." The nature of the illegal formation: The receiver flanked widest to the right was actually aligned in the backfield, and not up at the line of scrimmage. That meant just six players, one shy of the minimum, on the line of scrimmage. So there was a penalty, but no clock runoff. Hochuli's explanation was the final word, but it might not be the end of the controversy. St. Louis defensive end Leonard Little said after the game that, when the flag was tossed, he heard Hochuli tell one of the other game officials that there were two penalties on the play, the illegal formation and also a false start on a Seattle offensive lineman. A false start penalty is one of the fouls that requires a 10-second runoff on the game clock. -- Len Pasquarelli

"No panic, and doing the things we're supposed to do, that was the biggest thing [in the second half]," said wide receiver Deion Branch, who started in place of Nate Burleson and registered six catches for 76 yards and two touchdowns. "A lot of teams, they get down two touchdowns, and just get away from their game. They try to become something they're not. We know what we are. We know who we are. Granted, we've been struggling to find ourselves the last few weeks, but today, I think we did."

The road to self-discovery, which seemed to travel a perilous and pock-marked detour in the first half, actually began on Saturday night in the Seahawks' team meeting at their downtown hotel. During the meeting, Holmgren reminded his team of how poorly it had responded to early deficits in the first four outings of the season. He drove home the point that in Seattle's last outing, a lopsided loss at Chicago on Oct. 1, the Seahawks folded the tents a little too casually.

At halftime Sunday afternoon, Holmgren was forced to revisit that point of emphasis, but in far stronger terms, he conceded. Basically, he confronted their toughness, their gumption and, yeah, their manhood. Almost as essential as Holmgren's challenge to his charges, though, was the lack of philosophical change in approaching a two-touchdown deficit.

The Seahawks win, with or without Alexander, by running the football. It is the surest measure of any team's tenacity, especially when trying to come from behind, and in his halftime address, Holmgren told his team to gear up to run the football at the Rams in the final 30 minutes.

"I told them, 'Let's see what we're made of, let's see what we've got.' And they responded pretty well," Holmgren said 15 minutes after the hairy finish to an intensely contested game.

The statistics reflect the offensive transformation of the Seahawks after intermission.

In the first two quarters, Seattle managed an anemic five first downs and 74 yards on 22 plays, an average of 3.4 yards per snap. The Seahawks scored on just one of four possessions, on Branch's 14-yard grab, and punted on their three other series. Tailback Maurice Morris, the replacement for Alexander, carried five times for four yards. And quarterback Matt Hasselbeck completed eight of 14 passes for 91 yards and one touchdown, and was sacked three times.

The second half, with the Seahawks getting back to their up-tempo style, was a polar opposite. Forty-four snaps for 290 yards, or 6.6 yards per play, and 15 first downs. Twenty-three rushes for 120 yards, with Morris carrying 18 times for 70 yards. Hasselbeck was 11-for-20 for 177 yards, with two scoring passes and was sacked only once. Seattle scored on five of eight possessions and punted just once. The other two series ended in a missed field goal and a Morris fumble at the St. Louis seven-yard line.

That fumble, which came when the Seahawks were poised to put the game away, nearly proved costly. Six plays after Morris' giveaway, Rams quarterback threw deep down the middle to Torry Holt, who beat free safety Ken Hamlin to make a circus catch for an improbable 67-yard scoring play that gave St. Louis the lead, 28-27, with under two minutes remaining.

Hasselbeck then piloted the Seahawks 47 yards to set up Brown's game-winning kick, which came after some confusion over whether Seattle should have been penalized a 10-second runoff on the game clock for an illegal formation penalty. The runoff would have ended the game but, according to the rulebook, such a procedural penalty does not call for the runoff. After referee Ed Hochuli clarified the obtuse rule, Brown calmly drilled the long field goal.

Still, the late heroics notwithstanding, it was Seattle's patience that put them in a position to escape here with an unlikely victory.

Said Holmgren: "I thought our team showed a lot of guts. I told them (at halftime) that if we execute, we have a chance to move the football. And if we don't, we won't move (the ball)."

The most meaningful measure of the Seahawks' collective calm in the second half might not have been the statistical superiority they rang up, but rather the manner in which they approached the task. That might have been reflected more than anywhere else in the formations from which the Seahawks operated.

Despite the two-touchdown hole, the Seahawks didn't come out and spread the field with a lot of three- and four-wide receiver formations. The Seahawks ran as many third-down plays from a conventional set, with two backs and two wideouts, as they did from three-wide receiver formations. They frequently passed on running down and ran in what normally would be considered passing situations. Their play-call breakdown in the second half: Twenty-one running plays (two of the 23 rushes came on Hasselbeck scrambles on pass plays) and 23 pass calls.

There were big plays, such as Hasselbeck's exquisitely lobbed 42-yard touchdown pass to Darrell Jackson, who made the catch among three St. Louis defenders in the middle of the end zone. But mostly there were a lot of small- and medium-sized plays that added up to a huge win. The touchdown catch by Jackson turned the momentum of the contest, but the pendulum was kept swinging by the overall steadiness and relentless nature of a Seattle offense that never abdicated its game plan.

"That second half, it was more a glimpse of who were are when we're clicking," said Pro Bowl fullback Mack Strong. "It's probably the most complete stretch we've played all year, in every facet."

Indeed, not to be overlooked is a Seahawks defense that sacked Bulger six times, including two takedowns by strongside linebacker Julian Peterson, and picked off the Rams' star passer one time. The interception by middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu in the fourth quarter snapped a Bulger streak of 248 consecutive passes without an interception. And despite surrendering three touchdown catches to the remarkable Holt, the defense played tougher than the numbers might indicate.

Still, it was the patient and measured response of the Seattle offense in the second half that is the primary reason the Seahawks, who came here floundering a bit, got their feet back under them.

"I mean, (Holmgren) wasn't exactly calm at halftime when we came in, but he basically told us that we were going to play our game and rely on the stuff we do best," center Robbie Tobeck said. "There was some feeling that we laid down a little at Chicago and didn't show much fight. But today, we showed what we can do. And when we're doing it like this, well, we're pretty good."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer at ESPN.com.