Pat Hand Belongs to Bledsoe in Second Half

Drew Bledsoe stayed calm despite a 21-point deficit.

He then threw three of his four touchdown passes as the Patriots pulled out of a 28-7 halftime hole and stunned the Indianapolis Colts, 31-28, Sunday.

“The only way this team is going to be out of a game is if we panic,” said Bledsoe, who completed 27 of 45 passes for 299 yards to lead the Patriots (2-0) to a second consecutive game-winning field goal by Adam Vinatieri in the final minute.

And the defense, victimized in the first half by three touchdown passes from Peyton Manning to Marvin Harrison, also kept cool. No stirring halftime speeches were needed.

“No speech in the world was going to get us 21 points,” defensive end Willie McGinest said. “We had to do it out on the field.”

The Patriot defense did that by allowing only 79 yards in the second half after giving up 265 in the first.

“We let it slip out of our hands,” said Manning, who completed 18 of 30 passes for 223 yards. “They put on a football clinic in the second half.”

Bledsoe threw an eight-yard touchdown pass to Terry Allen in the third quarter and had scoring passes of three and 10 yards to Ben Coates in the fourth to tie the score, 28-28.

The Colts (1-1) were driving when rookie running back Edgerrin James, who had 118 yards and a touchdown in 32 carries, fumbled with 2:32 left. Defensive end Brandon Mitchell recovered the ball at the Colt 37 and five plays later, Vinatieri made his decisive 26-yard field goal with 35 seconds left.

Last Sunday, the Patriots capitalized on another turnover--an interception by Chris Slade--and beat the New York Jets 30-28 on Vinatieri’s 23-yard field goal with three seconds left.