Big-Play Patriots Use Defense, 20-6

FOXBORO, Mass. —  It couldn’t have been any louder if Bobby Orr had a hockey stick back in his hands, Larry Bird had a basketball back on his fingertips or Bill Buckner had that elusive ground ball in his glove.

That wasn’t merely the 30-mph wind roaring through Foxboro Stadium on Sunday night. It was the championship-starved fans of New England, roaring with delight that their long-suffering pro football team is finally taking its place back in the national spotlight.

For the first time in 11 years, the New England Patriots are going to the Super Bowl by virtue of their 20-6 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars in Sunday’s AFC game.

Never mind that the Patriots will be heavy underdogs to the Green Bay Packers. Never mind that an AFC team hasn’t won pro football’s biggest game since 1984. Never mind that the Patriots’ offense was stalled in neutral much of Sunday, its victory coming courtesy of an often overlooked defense.

All those concerns can wait for another day.

Sunday was a day to savor. And nobody savored it more than owner Bob Kraft. With about 25 seconds to play Sunday night, tears began to well in Kraft’s eyes.

Tears that had been building for 25 years.

He bought his first season ticket in 1972. He agonized over the Patriots’ crushing 46-10 loss to the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX. He has spent lavishly to build a winner since purchasing the team in 1994, has lobbied heavily to get his team a new stadium, and has argued forcefully to keep Coach Bill Parcells, who may leave after the season for another job.

Sunday, the tears were from joy.

“I still have goose bumps,” Kraft said some 30 minutes after the game. “I was not sure it would ever happen.”

Until the closing minutes Sunday, no one in the crowd of 60,190 could be sure it would happen this time.

Playing the most unlikely of opponents, the second-year Jaguars, a team that had already upset the Bills in Buffalo and the Broncos in Denver in the postseason, a team that had won seven consecutive games, a team that hadn’t lost since November, the Patriots struggled offensively.

“I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it,” New England quarterback Drew Bledsoe said. “Who would have thought we’d be in the Super Bowl?”

Ill-advised passes were thrown by the Patriots, balls were dropped, blocks were slipped and assignments were missed.

Yet the Jaguars, the team with scrambling quarterback Mark Brunell and overpowering runner Natrone Means, were even more ineffective against a Patriot defense that has not given up a touchdown in its two postseason games, having given up a total of only nine points.

The New England defensive front was led by former USC linebacker Willie McGinest and linebacker Chris Slade. Free safety Willie Clay came up with a crucial interception, cornerback Otis Smith went 47 yards to score on a fumble recovery, Larry Whigham made a huge tackle on special teams and linebackers Ted Johnson and Todd Collins applied pressure all afternoon.

Against a Patriot team that defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, 28-3, last week, Jacksonville threw a pair of interceptions, lost two fumbles and had a bad snap on a punt attempt.

It was the bad snap that got the Jaguars off to a bad start from which they never recovered.

After the Jaguars’ first possession, punter Bryan Barker prepared to kick.

A high snap from center Rich Griffith left Barker trying to get away from an onrushing Whigham, who hauled Barker down at the four. From there it took the New England offense, as bad as it was Sunday, two plays to score, Curtis Martin going over from the one.

Mike Hollis put Jacksonville on the scoreboard in the second quarter with a 32-yard field goal.

Then came another Jaguar turnover that led to more points for the Patriots.

When the next New England drive stalled, the Patriots’ Tom Tupa punted, only to have Jacksonville’s Chris Hudson fumble the return. Mike Bartrum recovered for the Patriots, who turned the play into a 29-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri.

At the close of the half, Bledsoe, for one of the few times all afternoon, was able to put together a successful drive. His 38-yard pass to Shawn Jefferson set up Vinatieri’s 20-yard field goal as time expired in the half.

While New England was at least able to take advantage of turnovers, Jacksonville’s recent weapons were blunted. Means, who had gained 315 yards rushing the past two weeks, sprained his right ankle in the second quarter. He returned, but finished with 43 yards in 19 carries for a 2.3-yard average.

Brunell, whose scrambling ability has caused him to be compared to Steve Young in recent weeks, didn’t have time to do much scrambling Sunday, forced instead to frantically dump the ball off because of the constant presence of McGinest and company in the Jacksonville backfield.

“All week long, we had heard how great [Jaguar tackle Tony Boselli] was against [Buffalo’s] Bruce Smith and [Denver’s] Alfred Williams,” Slade said. “We didn’t know if we should even bother to show up.”

McGinest said years of facing Boselli in USC practices proved invaluable.

“I knew what he had and he knew what I had,” McGinest said.

Yet for all their difficulties, the Jaguars were still in the game in the fourth quarter after Hollis’ 28-yard field goal had narrowed the margin to 13-6 in the third quarter.

After the Jaguars finally got moving, Brunell was looking at the Patriot end zone, only five yards from a possible tie. He looked at tight end Derek Brown, but Brunell never saw Clay, who picked off the pass with 3:43 to play.

Jacksonville held, but on the Jaguars’ next possession, Slade knocked the ball loose from James Stewart, Smith grabbed it and raced to the clinching touchdown with 2:24 to play.

“I still think,” Jacksonville Coach Tom Coughlin said later, “that we are a pretty good football team.”

But not good enough to get to the Super Bowl. That will take a little more suffering. Compared to the Patriots, the Jaguars have no idea what real suffering is.

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SUPER BOWL XXXI

GREEN BAY vs. NEW ENGLAND

Sun., Jan. 26 at New Orleans

3:15 p.m., Ch. 11

Sunday’s Conference Championships

NFC: Green Bay 30, Carolina 13

AFC: New England 20, Jacksonville 6