Patience, Bledsoe Pay Off for Patriots : Interconference: Quarterback’s late touchdown pass wraps up 13-3 victory over Bears. Both teams make playoffs.

All the Raiders wanted for Christmas was Drew Bledsoe’s two front teeth. For more than three quarters Saturday, the Chicago Bears obliged, forcing the New England Patriot quarterback to duck from thundering linemen, a blistering wind and his own head coach.

But then something happened. Just as something has happened in each of the previous seven magical games that could make the Patriots the most dangerous team this January.

Some call it luck. Others credit the wiles of youth.

Patriot Coach Bill Parcells had a different word for it after his team defeated the Bears, 13-3, to clinch its first playoff berth in eight years.

“Integrity,” Parcells said. “It happens once in a while. And it doesn’t happen by accident.”

It happens when a kid quarterback can forget his balks and wild pitches and never stop believing his next pass will be his best.

It happens when the rest of his team has the mindless, endless patience to wait for that kid.

It all happened during about one minute in the fourth quarter Saturday against a Bear team that also qualified for the playoffs because of losses by other contenders.

The difference is, the Patriots have won seven consecutive games with a defense that has not given up a second-half touchdown in five consecutive games.

The Bears have lost three of their last four games and scored only three touchdowns in the last three weeks.

“It’s a good feeling, but it’s a kind of crazy feeling. . . . You really don’t know how to feel,” said Bear defensive end Alonzo Spellman, whose team reached the playoffs for the first time in the post-Mike Ditka era.

The only losers here were the Raiders, who were hoping to witness a Bear victory that would assure them a playoff berth without needing a victory over Kansas City.

And even after a Bear field-goal attempt was blocked and another was missed Saturday, that possibility still existed.

But there was that integrity thing again.

“I’d like to think that there isn’t too much on the football field that’s really going to rattle me,” Bledsoe said, shortly after proving it.

His team holding a 6-3 lead with three minutes remaining in the game, Bledsoe calmly held the ball while receiver Vincent Brisby broke a chokehold from Donnell Woolford.

The instant Brisby was free, Bledsoe lofted a 31-yard pass that hit Brisby in the hands, moving the ball to the nine-yard line.

Two plays later, Bledsoe found Leroy Thompson between two flying, colliding linebackers for a three-yard touchdown pass that sent the kid quarterback dancing into the arms of tackle Bruce Armstrong.

It was a dance not merely of happiness, but relief.

Relief for a team that thought it had clinched a playoff berth last week before Seattle’s John Kasay missed that 43-yard field-goal try against the Raiders.

And relief for a 22-year-old quarterback who earlier set the NFL record for most passing attempts in a season . . . shortly before he threw an interception that gave the Bears the ball with five minutes left.

“It’s kind of amazing to be on a team coached by Bill Parcells and set the record for pass attempts,” Bledsoe said after ending the season with 691 passes, breaking a record held by Warren Moon.

But, of course, he qualified that amazement.

“I guess if I’m going to set the attempts record, I gotta set the completions record too,” he said.

Shortly before his game-clinching throw, he had a pass picked off by Bear safety Mark Carrier on the Chicago 11-yard line. It was Bledsoe’s first interception of the game, but this is a player who has thrown two more interceptions this season (27) than touchdown passes (25).

When Parcells stalked him on the sideline immediately afterward, Bledsoe held out his hand and gestured animatedly at his angry mentor as if to say, “Get out of my face.”

Too late for that.

“Drew played fine,” Parcells said with a wince and a smile. “Just don’t put him in Canton yet.”

That does not appear a likely destination for Bear quarterback Steve Walsh, who completed less than half of his attempts (17 for 38) and nothing longer than 21 yards.

In the one instance where he led the team on a long drive, a 72-yarder early in the fourth quarter, Walsh chose Raymont Harris as the receiver on a third-down pass that required 11 yards for a first down. Harris was only six yards deep, and the drive was turned over to kicker Kevin Butler.

In the third quarter, rookie Troy Barnett had blocked Butler’s potential game-tying, 38-yard field-goal attempt. This time, the Patriot defense watched Butler hook his 36-yard attempt wide left with eight minutes remaining.

It was the second time in four games that Butler’s miss cost the Bears dearly. During a Thursday night game against Minnesota on Dec. 1, Butler’s miss in overtime was followed by a long touchdown pass from Moon to Cris Carter.

The Patriots smiled and joked as they passed the solemn Bears out of Soldier Field. Once a team mired at 3-5, they now believe that all the problems belong to somebody else.

“There is going to be a sleeper team in the playoffs, there always is,” Patriot linebacker Chris Slade said.

Somebody get him a mirror.