Maybe Elway’s Not Too Good at Goodbyes

The very worst news for the New England Patriots came just minutes after losing a 10th consecutive time to John Elway and 11th in a row to the Denver Broncos, this time 27-21 on Monday night before 74,745 in Mile High Stadium.

Just say it ain’t so, John.

“The chances are I’m not coming back,” said Elway, and had he stopped there, the Patriots could have returned home, a loser this year, but traveling with hope in their collective heart.

But then Elway took a breath, and delivered a complete reversal from remarks he had made earlier about his future in the National Football League.

“I’m not totally closing the door,” he said. “If I go out and throw for 40 touchdowns and 4,000 yards, win another Super Bowl, I might give you guys [media] another chance to shoot at me. We’ll see.”

For diehard Broncos fans, that means only 39 more touchdown passes and 3,743 yards to go.

And the way the Broncos played Monday night against the Patriots--one of the three or four teams it will most likely have to beat to get to the Super Bowl--well . . .

“Hopefully he’ll come back for two or three more years,” said Denver tight end Shannon Sharpe.

How discouraging for Patriot quarterback Drew Bledsoe, one of the so-called next John Elways, whose team has been outscored by Elway & Co., 132-45, in the last four meetings.

“Forget how old he is,” said Pete Carroll, New England’s defensive-minded coach, who kept coming at Elway with the blitz. “The guy was all over the place.”

Elway, who accepted his supporting role behind running back Terrell Davis a year ago, completed 22 of 34 passes for 257 yards with a 12-yard touchdown dart to Sharpe. Vintage Elway, like the days when he was still a kid instead of someone now saddled with 38 birthdays.

“We had run so well against them in our last three games, I knew they had to worry about it,” Elway said. “I thought about this in the preseason--that teams were going to try and stop Terrell, but then that opens the passing game.”

Davis, who ran 22 times for 75 yards and two touchdown, said he couldn’t imagine trying to run without Elway.

“They were lining up eight or nine players in the box [line of scrimmage],” he said. “If Elway’s not there, they’d probably have a dozen.”

Across the way there was only the Bledsoe lament. “We had our chances to win,” he said after completing 20 of 32 for 289 yards with two touchdowns.

It comes with being a projected superstar like Bledsoe, defining moments in a maturing career that paint a player a fraud or make them a Jay Leno guest.

It’s how a nation of football fans have come to respect Elway, catapulting him ahead of Miami’s Dan Marino in recent years with 45 comebacks, “The Drive” and culminating last season with a hero’s ride on his teammates shoulders after a Super Bowl XXXII victory over Green Bay.

Six years into his budding career, and the best Bledsoe can hope for so far is a Jerry Springer invite: “Games I Blew or Could Have Won.”

With the world watching Bledsoe versus Elway, and given the chance to upstage the master of comebacks, Bledsoe could not bring his Patriots back.

Some will say he just ran out of time against Denver. But more significantly, the Patriots’ field commander ran out of timeouts, expending all three with more than six minutes remaining in the third quarter.

“I think we learned that if we could put pressure up in his face, it forced him to make some bad throws, some mistakes,” said Denver linebacker Bill Romanowski.

After falling behind 17-0, Bledsoe led the Patriots on a touchdown drive in the second quarter and had a touchdown pass in the third, but then when New England needed him most, he faltered, the Patriots punting to start the fourth quarter. As a result, the Broncos regained steam and scored the next 10 points, then bending on defense to let Bledsoe go 90 yards in 11 plays for a score.

But there was only 1:59 left and no timeouts, and after Denver recovered an onside kick, this was another defining moment in Bledsoe’s good, but not great career.

“I remember playing against John Elway in the fourth quarter,” said Neil Smith, former Kansas City Chiefs’ defensive end now with Denver. “I remember being scared, very scared. Bledsoe’s good, but we had him rattled.”

And now this dilemma confronts Bledsoe: If Elway continues his Farewell Tour into the sunset and the two teams do not meet in the playoffs, Bledsoe will never be able to tell his grandchildren that he beat the great one.

If Elway comes back--he’ll probably have to say the same thing.