Another Moving Experience

The New England Patriots are on their way to Hartford, Conn., but until the final second fell off the clock in Monday night’s important AFC East game with the Miami Dolphins, there was no reason to believe that Coach Pete Carroll would be joining them.

Like Bill Belichick, who lost his head coaching job after his lame-duck Cleveland Browns lost seven of their last eight games under the distraction of moving to Baltimore, it was Carroll’s assignment to save the Patriots’ season following the uproar over owner Robert Kraft’s announcement he would abandon the Boston area for a $350 million stadium in Hartford.

Not an easy task for someone already considered a poor man’s Bill Parcells, in charge of a team that had lost four of its last five, and taking the field at Foxboro Stadium Monday night with placards posted by angry fans like this: “Thanks for nothing--RIP in Hartford.”

Carroll, while looking befuddled much of the time on the sideline and ignored by his own team while calling for a last-minute timeout, somehow, some way, had the Patriots climb back into the AFC East championship race with a pulsating come-from-behind 26-23 victory.

Quarterback Drew Bledsoe, who considered pulling himself from the game in the final minutes because of a fractured index finger--in two places--on his throwing hand, beat a Miami blitz and connected with an uncovered Shawn Jefferson for a 25-yard touchdown pass with 29 seconds to play for the Patriots (6-5).

Miami (7-4), running one second short of potentially a miracle attempt to tie the game, advanced the ball from its four-yard line to the New England 37 before referee Ed Hochuli announced after Dan Marino’s pass completion to Oronde Gadsden that the game was over, negating a 54-yard field goal attempt with favorable winds.

“I thought we had it won,” Miami Coach Jimmy Johnson said. “But you know, you don’t have it won until it’s over with.”

On the final drive, the Patriots faced situations of third-and-11, third-and-10, fourth-and-10 and fourth-and-seven. Bledsoe, who passed for 423 yards, called two timeouts with the clock already stopped to go to the sideline for treatment of his injured finger.

“If there was any way to stay in the game,” said Bledsoe, unaware until after the game that he had a broken finger, “I was going to stay in there, because I was going to be damned if I was going to let Zo [backup quarterback Scott Zolak] throw the winning touchdown pass.

“The dilemma was I didn’t know if I was helping or hurting the team because I couldn’t feel the ball. It was really a tough decision, but I stayed in.”

Bledsoe will see a hand specialist today, but he managed to throw seven passes after jamming his finger into the shoulder pads of an onrushing Dolphin. One of those, a 14-yard completion to Jefferson, came on fourth and 10 from the New England 46 with 1:48 to play. The game-winner came after Jefferson made a diving reception for a 12-yard gain on fourth and seven.

“I don’t know how you can have much more fun than that on Monday night,” Carroll said. “It was an incredible night for the fans. I love the way they responded because there was some doubt how they would react. We needed them.”

The Patriots estimate that close to 60% of the present season-ticket holder will not follow the team to Hartford, a city of 140,000, located approximately 100 miles from Boston.

But while some expected a night of raucous behavior, including an expectation that many of the fans might turn on the hometown team and cheer for the Dolphins, they responded in tame fashion.

“At first, we were wondering where the fans were, they were so quiet,” said defensive back Ty Law. “But once we started getting things going, they were the same old New England Patriots fans.”

In Hartford, the insurance capital of the world, Kraft has been promised the richest deal in NFL history, a $350 million stadium as part of a $1 billion city-front overhaul and $17.5 million in guaranteed luxury suites and club seat sales a year for 10 seasons beginning with the stadium’s opening in 2001.

In return he will have to deliver a successful team, an order that will have to be filled by Carroll, who failed to receive an endorsement from Kraft in a recent national interview.

“We needed this one desperately,” Carroll said. “We won a game in dramatic fashion, but it’s just one win and it’s a tough haul ahead of us.”

The Dolphins, as dull as any team in the league with an offense designed to keep Marino from passing the ball, had a 14-7 lead, a 17-13 advantage and a 23-19 lead in the fourth quarter before faltering.

“We really needed this game,” said Miami defensive back Sam Madison. “We could have been sitting on top [of the AFC East] very pretty, but they kept coming and they didn’t stop. We just let it slip through out hands.”

And Jefferson, who dropped a fourth down pass against Buffalo last week leading to a 13-10 New England loss, didn’t let that happen with his game-winning catch.

“Same down, same route,” said Carroll, “and this time he makes the catch.”

If he doesn’t, maybe the irritated fans tear down Foxboro Stadium, and the Patriots are off to Hartford two years earlier than expected.

* UP IN ARMS: The Patriots’ proposed move from Foxboro, Mass., to Hartford, Conn., has Boston area in an uproar. A5

* WEEK 12 REWIND: Page 5