Rearming THE Patriots : Quarterback Drew Bledsoe Has Impressed Everyone Except New England’s Coach, but He Is Also Coming Around

He was a phenom at Washington’s Walla Walla High, where he threw 25 touchdown passes as a senior. He was a star at Washington State, where he threw for 476 yards in a single game. He was the NFL’s No. 1 draft choice in 1993.

He has size. He has poise. He has a great arm. He has a $14.5-million contract. And, in only his second year with the New England Patriots, Drew Bledsoe is putting up some impressive statistics.

What more could a 22-year-old guy like Bledsoe want? A little praise from his coach would be nice.

Don’t hold your breath, Drew.

Nobody ever envisioned Bill Parcells as a teacher in a charm school. Least of all Bill Parcells. As coach of the Patriots, just as was the case when he was coach of the New York Giants, Parcells is tough, gruff and demanding.

His style won him two Super Bowls in New York and he’s not about to change now. Not when he can see the potential in a Patriot team that is rising again eight years after reaching the Super Bowl and six years after posting its last winning record. Not when Parcells can see the potential in a quarterback who suddenly has heads all over the NFL turning in the direction of Foxboro, Mass., for a change.

Heading into Sunday’s game at Foxboro against the Raiders, Bledsoe has thrown 11 touchdown passes in five games, second in the NFL to Dan Marino’s 14; has league-leading totals in passes with 229, completions with 138 and yardage with 1,751, and has connected on 60.3% of his passes.

Pretty good, eh Bill?

“The main difference between this year and last year is at least now, he knows he doesn’t know,” Parcells said. “Last year, he didn’t even know he didn’t know.”

Last season, Parcells took a look at his 6-foot-5, 233-pounder and told the Boston Globe, “How far is he from where he should be? Well, he’s in Rhode Island and he should be in Chicago.”

When Bledsoe had the inevitable bad day that all rookies have, throwing five interceptions against the Pittsburgh Steelers and failing on a quarterback sneak from the one-foot line as time ran out in a game New England lost, 17-14, Parcells asked reporters afterward, “How can a guy 6-5 not gain a yard?”

In the privacy of the locker room, he told Bledsoe, “You’d better get your butt going because Heath Shuler’s coming out in the draft. If you don’t, you’re just going to be another guy who got picked high who wasn’t doing very good.”

Well, it hasn’t worked out quite that way. Bledsoe has:

--Passed for 421 yards in a single game, the season opener.

--Already produced four 300-yard games, tying the club record set by Steve Grogan in 1976, and the season isn’t even one-third over.

--A passing yardage total that is more than double the total of eight other teams.

--A sixth-place standing on the Patriots’ all-time passing list after only 18 games.

Now all that has to impress Parcells.

“He’s matured,” the coach said. “He’s making better decisions. He’s more confident. He’s managing the game a little bit better and he has a little more firepower around him to work with than he did last year. All of those things contribute. But he’s only played (18) games, so there’s a lot of room for improvement. But he’s working at it.”

Don’t let Parcells fool you. Underneath the stern-taskmaster exterior is a man filled with pride at what Bledsoe has accomplished in such a short time. Proof of that can be found in the mere fact that the Patriots spend so much time in the air these days. They are averaging 342.2 yards passing a game, highest in the NFL. This under Parcells, a man known to favor ball control.

“It’s been kind of funny,” Bledsoe said. “When I was drafted last year, one of the questions I was asked most often was, ‘How do you feel? You’re going to come in here and hand the ball off 35-40 times a game and not be able to throw it anymore.’ Ever since I’ve been here, we’ve been throwing the ball a bunch.”

What a coincidence.

“One thing I look for in a quarterback is that he can’t be sensitive,” Parcells said. “If they’re thin-skinned, then they can’t play here.”

And how has Bledsoe’s skin held up under Parcells?

“It definitely wasn’t comfortable when I first came in,” Bledsoe said. “He’s an intimidating type of guy. He has a very strong personality. He’s loud and all that. When you first come in, he can be pretty intimidating, but I think we’re starting to develop a good working relationship. We’re able to communicate pretty well now. I think the reason is because my level of play has stepped up. I’ve been able to work and play at a level closer to what he expects from me.

“He told me a couple of times I looked like a high school quarterback. It’s one of the ways he tries to motivate you. He’ll get down on you and say all kinds of things to see how you come back, to see if you come back fighting. I take his comments seriously, but I also try to focus on the message and not the delivery. I try to take everything positively.”

Bledsoe has even been spotted answering his coach back on the sidelines.

“When I think he’s wrong, I say something,” Bledsoe said. “The problem is, he’s not wrong very often.”

Last weekend, Bledsoe gave one of the most dramatic demonstrations of his growth as a quarterback. Against the Green Bay Packers, he drove his team 45 yards in 11 plays, enabling Matt Bahr to kick the game-winning 33-yard field goal with four seconds to play.

“Drew told us what was going to happen when we were in the huddle,” offensive lineman Bob Kratch said. “He said, ‘OK, let’s play ball. We move the ball down the field and then we kick the field goal.’ And we did it just like that. For a young kid like that to take charge, you have to take your hat off to him.”

Even if you’re Bill Parcells.