Bledsoe's Shown Improvement So Far This Season

FOXBOROUGH — Remember when this used to be a weak spot for Drew Bledsoe?

Three guys in his face. Pocket collapses. Bledsoe panics. Tries to pretend he’s Brett Favre. Throws a watermelon that gets picked off. Or he holds the ball too long and fumbles.

At times earlier in his career, Bledsoe looked a lot like Steve Grogan. Grogan, the far superior runner of the two, had a knack for throwing the stupid pick at the wrong time. These mistakes add up, and a case could be made that Grogan blundered the Pats out of a playoff berth in 1980. That was the year that you needed 11 wins to make the playoffs and the Pats got only 10.

Bledsoe would do much the same thing. The fumble in the 1996 AFC title game against Jacksonville. The horrid pass to Kevin Henry. The pick last year against the Jets.

Before he broke his finger last year, Bledsoe seemed to turn the corner as far as reading defenses better and being a better field leader rather than a kid with a howitzer. The Miami and Buffalo comeback wins certified his warrior status, but his season soon ended before he could really let everyone know what he now knew.

We know now.

What you see today is a Bledsoe who has become a consummate field leader, and not just a great passer. Bledsoe has cut way down on his bad play decisions. But he has also shown a much better knack for reading defenses and reacting to them fantastically.

Bledsoe beat Indianapolis’ zone blitz last week with quick slant checkoffs. Tonight, against a “back-to-normal” Giant defense, he needed to be just as wily before the snap.

The only negative you could throw out here is that it takes Bledsoe some time to figure out what is going on before he begins to parry and thrust. This would explain the need for come-from-behind jobs in the first two weeks, and especially last week against the Colts.

In the first quarter, Bledsoe misfired on the first two possessions, both of which can be blamed on Giant pressure from the front seven. Bledsoe underthrew Terry Glenn in the left flat on the opening drive, then overthrew Ben Coates on 3rd and 6 to kill the following drive.

In the second quarter, Bledsoe began to find the empty spots in the Giant defense. Shawn Jefferson caught a key 11-yard pass on 3rd and 3, a quick slant right with the blitz coming. The next play, Bledsoe saw the Giants guess run, and threw a great play-action bomb to Glenn for 44 yards. This set up the Patriots’ only touchdown of the night, a one-yard plunge by Terry Allen.

In the third quarter, Bledsoe was faced with 3rd and 8 at his own 47. The Giants sent in the Red Dog again, but Bledsoe fired a bang-bang dart to Troy Brown on a right slant, and Brown took it for 24 yards. This led to Adam Vinatieri’s first field goal, and it was the key play of the drive.

On their next possession, Bledsoe found Glenn for 12 yards on the first play. It was the exact same play as Brown’s, and even the likes of Jason Sehorn could not get to Glenn quickly enough to defend. Bledsoe later found Ben Coates for 14 yards on 2nd and 10 with three guys draped all over him, but pass and receiver were as exact as usual. Two plays later, Bledsoe called for and executed a brilliant bootleg and found Brown at the far sideline for 10 yards.

This exceptional drive netted only a field goal because Pete Carroll declined to go for the touchdown on 4th and goal at the 1. But it was clear that Bledsoe had found the right avenues to defeat the Giants’ pressing and suffocating defensive pressure.

The Patriots put together one last field goal drive. And naturally, it was punctuated by a key pass off a blitz hot read.

Facing 3rd and 10 at the Giant 39, the Giants again sent in a blitz. Bledsoe threw a quick slant left to Glenn, who raced by Sehorn and ran for 18 yards. Four plays later, Vinatieri kicked the game-icer, making it 16-7 with three minutes left and the Giants down to only one timeout.

This ability for Bledsoe to smell blitz and find the hot read is becoming so efficient and precise that is simply amazing. But what is even more amazing is that it is being done with still no running game at all.

Terry Allen was pretty much manhandled tonight. He was held to 50 yards on 20 carries, many of them end runs which linebacker Jessie Armstead defensed brilliantly with his speed. Tony Carter actually broke off a 10-yard run in the third quarter, but he had no gain in his only other carry. The Pats averaged a measly 2.3 yards per rush as a team.

It thus fell on Bledsoe’s shoulders to deliver offensively, and deliver he did. While the defense took care of an inept Giant offense (the Giants averaged 2.2 yards per rush), Bledsoe did just enough for his team to win the ball game.

Bledsoe’s final numbers were 20 of 28 for 233 yards. Kent Graham did throw for two touchdowns to Bledsoe’s zero. But Bledsoe walks out of Foxborough Stadium a winner and Graham doesn’t. All Bledsoe did tonight was beat the Giants.

With each game he is able to do this, his confidence just grows and grows. With the Pats in the middle of the soft part of their schedule (their next two games are against Cleveland and Kansas City before a huge showdown against Miami), Bledsoe will need top maintain his trademark poise to avoid getting caught in trap games. If he can do that, the Browns and Chiefs will have their hands absolutely full.

Let’s hope that the Dolphins will also.