Drew Bledsoe did plenty to earn the New England Patriots quarterback job. Now he just has to get coach Bill Parcells' blessing.
The NFL's top draft pick threw for 245 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winning 17-yard pass to Mike Farr with 4:58 left, in the Patriots' 21-17 exhibition victory Friday night over the Green Bay Packers."A lot of people are going to draw some conclusions," Parcells said, "but it could be erroneous to do that."
Bledsoe played the entire game with poise and precision, completing 19 of 29 passes with no interceptions.
"He helped his chances tonight," Parcells said after his first win as Patriots coach, "but I think he's going to have to play a couple of more games before we put him in Canton, OK."
The Hall of Fame isn't in Bledsoe's immediate sights. Starting for the team that had the NFL's worst record last year and has no incumbent starting quarterback is a far more attainable goal.
"I expect to play that well every game," Bledsoe said. "There are obviously some things I'm going to have to correct."
New England improved to 1-2.
Green Bay (0-4) also got good quarterback play from Brett Favre and Ty Detmer, the 1990 Heisman Trophy winner at BYU who is fighting for a backup spot. Favre started and completed 17 of 21 passes for 152 yards. Detmer was 8-for-13 for 94 yards.
Favre completed his last 11 passes. Detmer, who entered the game on Green Bay's second series of the third quarter, connected on his first five.
"The thing that we hurt ourselves on was third-down conversions," Favre said. "Overall, I thought me and Ty passed the ball really well."
Colts 18, Raiders 7
At Indianapolis, Don Majkowski, hoping to push Jeff George even lower on touchdown to rookie Sean Dawkins Friday night in an 18-7 exhibition victory over the Los Angeles Raiders.
Broncos 34, Dolphins 24
At Denver, John Elway threw three touchdown passes, directing Denver to four scores in a span of nine minutes, and the Broncos beat the Miami Dolphins.
Denver (2-1) rallied from a 7-0 deficit to take a 24-10 lead with the scoring flurry late in the second quarter and early in the third.
Elway completed touchdown passes of 12 yards to Shannon Sharpe, 35 yards to Arthur Marshall and 23 yards to rookie Glyn Milburn.
Miami (2-1) trailed 31-17 after Denver's Tommy Maddox connected with rookie Tony Kimbrough on a 39-yard scoring pass early in the final quarter. The Dolphins made it close at the finish thanks to backup quarterback Scott Mitchell, who had two second-half TD passes. Mitchell, a former star at Utah, had the Dolphins in position for another score with two minutes remaining, but he threw incomplete on a fourth-down pass into the end zone.
Lions 30, Bengals 7
At Pontiac, Mich., the Detroit Lions remained unbeaten in preseason play as Rodney Peete threw for 137 yards and one touchdown and Jason Hanson kicked three field goals in a victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.
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(Additional story)
George ends holdout
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)
Jeff George, the Indianapolis Colts' disgruntled quarterback, finally will report for work and will pay $144,000 in fines for missing practice, the team said Friday.
"The most important thing is to win," coach Ted Marchibroda said. "If we can do that, I think most of this will be forgotten."
George will get paid for Friday night's game, a check worth $111,000, but will still owe the $144,000 in fines accumulated in the month he's been out of camp.
George was at the Colts complex but did not attend the news conference this afternoon. He issued a statement afterward:
"I am back to play football and to help the team in any possible way," the quarterback said. "The next several weeks will take intense concentration to prepare for the upcoming season."