Put the fricking kid in two-minute!: Drew Bledsoes 70-attempt game that changed the course -

Twenty-five years later, head coach Bill Parcells still remembers the score at halftime. He remembers the speech he gave to his downtrodden New England Patriots. He even recalls the play call — Zero Weak Route 134 F Wheel — for the winning touchdown.

Defensive coordinator Al Groh still has the shovel that motivated those 1994 Patriots to keep digging, the shovel nose tackle Tim Goad jammed into the sideline dirt during a seven-game winning streak that saved the season and steadied the franchise under first-year owner Robert Kraft.

Quarterback Drew Bledsoe remembers the ridiculous number of passes he threw around Foxboro Stadium that afternoon — 53 after halftime alone — and how his offensive line prevented a fearsome Minnesota Vikings defense from collecting a single sack, despite Bledsoe setting an NFL record that still stands a quarter century later: 70 attempts.

Kraft points to this game 25 years ago as “truly a watershed moment” and a turning point in his family’s ownership of the Patriots. So much so, in fact, that when New England fell behind the Atlanta Falcons 28-3 in Super Bowl 51, Kraft’s mind returned to this sunny afternoon decades earlier when his Patriots pulled off the impossible.

It was on this day, November 13, 1994, that the Patriots decided they weren’t going to be losers any longer. It was the day New England started digging a foundation for the future and burying a painful past. A franchise that had lost 59 of its previous 76 games mounted a comeback for the ages against a 7-2 Vikings squad loaded with future Hall of Famers: Warren Moon, Cris Carter, Randall McDaniel and John Randle. Dennis Green led a coaching staff featuring Hall of Famer Tony Dungy, Brian Billick, Monte Kiffin and Tyrone Willingham. Big names, every one.

Moon had won 16 of his previous 18 starts. He was coming off a 420-yard, three-touchdown performance against New Orleans. Bledsoe entered this Week 11 game leading the NFL in passing yards, but he also had thrown a league-high 18 interceptions, including seven without a touchdown pass over the previous two weeks. New England had lost four in a row. Minnesota had won four straight.

“Today’s game looms as a mismatch,” an Associated Press game preview warned.

“A complete package coming to Patriots’ doorstep today,” a Boston Globe headline read.

Bledsoe completed only 8 of 17 passes for 72 yards in the first half against the Vikings, leading Fox play-by-play announcer Kevin Harlan to tell analyst Jerry Glanville that he “feels for the young second-year player.”

By the time the Patriots had come back from a 20-0 deficit to score a shocking 26-20 overtime victory, Parcells and offensive coordinator Ray Perkins had let their 22-year-old quarterback pass on 34 consecutive plays. But this was more than just a passing victory for a Patriots franchise that was on its fourth owner in seven seasons. New England reached the Super Bowl two years later, and as Kraft reflects upon the past 26 seasons, the fourth victory he experienced from the owners box still occupies a special place.

Terry Allen and the Vikings jumped to a 20-0 lead in the first half. (Simon Bruty / Alls via Getty Images)

‘Put the fricking kid in two-minute!’

A Boston Globe game preview suggested New England had zero intention of adopting the very plan Parcells used to win. “Bill Parcells says he can’t ask Bledsoe to throw 50 times against the Vikings,” the Globe wrote. “Actually, 30 would be too much.”

Parcells: We threw it 34 in a row? Fifty-three after halftime? I must have gone crazy.

Bledsoe: The story on the game was that we were 3-6 coming in, life wasn’t looking very good. The first half really didn’t go very well.

Minnesota raced to a 20-0 lead in the first half. Terry Allen’s 2-yard scoring run capped an 80-yard opening drive. Qadry Ismail, nicknamed “The Missile” for his track-certified speed, added a 65-yard touchdown against a Patriots blitz on third-and-11. The Vikings possessed the ball for 21 of the first 29 minutes before New England took possession at its 32-yard line with 58 seconds left in the half.

Patriots running back LeRoy Thompson: We got down fast. Warren Moon was slinging it all over the place to Jake Reed and Cris Carter, that whole crew. Terry Allen was running the ball up and down the field on us. Early on, we couldn’t get any drives of any significance.

Vikings quarterback Warren Moon: We had a good team and that was one of the reasons I wanted to go to Minnesota. Believe it or not, I wanted to go there because they were a little more balanced than what I was used to coming out of the run-and-shoot, but I wind up going to Minnesota and throwing the ball more there than I did in Houston.

Defensive coordinator Al Groh: Going into the game, we didn’t think we were going to stand up against that offensive line, their offensive personnel or cover their guys all day long, so we thought we were just going to have to try to make some plays on defense. We were going to bring some pressure. Obviously, down 20-0, we weren’t getting much production out of that. In fact, the long touchdown pass to Ismail was a blitz that they had blocked up.

Vikings receiver Qadry Ismail: Normally, Cris Carter is in the slot. That play actually had me motioning into the slot. When I released off the line, I read the coverage as the middle of the field is closed and I’m going to cut across the safety’s face and sit behind the linebacker. But when I went to settle down, the safety made a beeline toward me. It turned into a quasi-double move and the next thing, Warren is looking at me like, oh, boom, the ball is up in the air.

Groh: The second half, we weren’t going to pressure any more.

Patriots linebacker Vincent Brown: I remember looking into the stands and seeing the fans leaving, right before halftime, like, this game is about to be a rout. Literally leaving the game.

Bledsoe: We got down, but right before halftime, we went two-minute drill and went right down the field and kicked a field goal. Scott Zolak still claims that it was his idea — which, whatever — that he went to Parcells and said, ‘Hey, why don’t you turn the kid loose? Give him the two-minute offense and just let go of the reins for a little bit and see what he can do.’

Backup quarterback Scott Zolak: Like, yeah, I’m going to supercede Bill Parcells, right? Bill is this ominous figure. You never wanted to step on his toes. I was sort of that buffer for Drew to keep him sane because they were starting to feed him with a lot of stuff, but I knew one thing, that he was most comfortable when he was in two-minute.

Parcells: Actually, I might have been talking to Zolak on the sideline about, ‘Look, they are just playing this (coverage) in this two-minute situation. That is all they are playing.’ They had a good pass rush and they relied on that a great deal, but that pass rush can get tired and it did.

Zolak: The big thing about halftime adjustments in the National Football League, you run in, you got time to take a piss, you got oranges and it’s literally 10 minutes because it’s a 12-minute half. You make one or two adjustments and that is it. It really may be a protection thing or personnel grouping.

They would all huddle together as coaches for that 10 minutes at halftime and think, ‘Well, we gotta do this, that or the other.’ And I’m like, here is the kid showing you, ‘I’m most comfortable in two-minute.’ Put the fricking kid in two-minute! That’s when I went in and I said, ‘Did you see what we just did?’

I remember Parcells turning and looking at me. He goes, ‘You want to coach the team?’ I’m like, ‘No, sir, absolutely not.’ Then I remember him rehuddling with Ray Perkins and they come back, ‘All right, guys, listen up, here’s what we’re going to go do. Drew, we’re going no-huddle!’

Parcells: I remember telling my coaches at halftime, ‘Look, we are going to start the second half with the two-minute drill because of what I’d seen at the end of the first half.’ On that two-minute drive, I noticed that the Vikings were pretty standard on their defense in terms of, they were not showing us a couple of things we had seen earlier in the game.

Bledsoe: At that point, when you are 3-6 and down 20-3, it is kind of like, ‘Well, shit, we gotta try something. Might as well just give Bledsoe enough room to hang himself and see what happens.’

Receiver Ray Crittenden: Let me tell you, Bill was so pissed at halftime of that game because we knew — I’m looking at the talent, they have Qadry Ismail, Cris Carter, great talent out there on the Vikings — but we knew we could play, too. The two-minute offense we had, we knew Drew, with his arm, could pick them apart, but we were still running Marion Butts to death and Sam Gash. We were like, ‘Man, we need to play fast, attack!’

Zolak: Oh my God. Parcells was so in love with Marion Butts and I don’t blame him because when Marion Butts was in San Diego, he would blow up people and run through walls. He would literally run right into the back of our guard every single running play. And I remember the receivers — (Michael) Timpson and those guys, Crittenden, (Vincent) Brisby — saying, ‘Yeah, man, let’s go no-huddle.’ We would all be in the bathroom hitting the head at the same time and I’m like, ‘Why don’t we fucking go no-huddle?’

Tight end Ben Coates: For the coaches to make that decision to go out and say, ‘Hey, we are going to do two-minute the whole second half,’ it was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ And it was kind of like, ‘Holy crap, they still believe in us and we still believe in ourselves, so why not? We can do it.’ We took our young quarterback in his second year and the skill guys that we had and we just put everything to the test with our offensive line.

‘Just call yourself a sparring partner’

LeRoy Thompson would go on to help the comeback effort with a touchdown in the fourth quarter. (Photo courtesy of New England Patriots)

The Boston Globe punctuated its prediction of a 24-10 Vikings victory with comments reflecting how low the Patriots’ franchise had sunk. “One thing that could help New England is overconfidence on the part of the Vikings,” the Globe wrote. “The Patriots traditionally bring that out in their opponents.”

Kraft: Going into that season, do you know what the record was for the previous five years? It was 19 wins and 61 losses. It was .238, less than 25 percent winning. Which meant that they averaged less than four wins a year. That is why my wife really thought I was crazy (for buying the team).

Parcells: When you read those scores from our early games that season (39-35 loss to Miami, 38-35 loss to Buffalo), being a defensive coach, I must have been ready to cut my throat. We had 70 points in the first two games and we don’t have a win.

Running back LeRoy Thompson: The morale was pretty down at that particular time because we knew we had great talent, great quarterback, good defense, but we weren’t putting it all together.

Linebacker Vincent Brown: I had four different head coaches and four different owners in eight years (1988-95). It was a really rough time, but coming out of that ’93 season, I felt like we were going to be better, and we just weren’t to start the year.

Cornerback Maurice Hurst: We are down 20-3 at the half against Minnesota. Your head is down, you are 3-6, you are saying, ‘This is it.’ Really, in your mind, you are saying, ‘Maybe this is not the year.’

Parcells: At halftime, I can remember vividly what I told the team. I said, ‘How long exactly are you guys going to sit around and take this kind of stuff?’

This was my second year there and we won five games my first year and four of them were the last four games of the season, so we were 1-11 to start. The Patriots had been like 9-39 in the three years before that.

I didn’t go through all that, but that was the impetus for me to say what I said, which is, ‘You know, you guys come in here, you guys work hard, we don’t have a lot of problems on the team, you take a beating and you go home. How long are you going to just keep doing that? How long is that going to be good enough for you? Because don’t call yourself a pro football player then. Just call yourself a sparring partner.’

Hurst: It was unbelievable. One of the greatest halftime speeches I’ve ever heard. I wish someone could have filmed it for NFL Films. We came into the locker room and you know how the coaches do adjustments? Out of nowhere, Bill Parcells comes out of his office in the locker room screaming, ‘Put up all the boards, put away all the markers, there are no halftime adjustments! There is going to be no talking. We have coached you for two years. You know what to do, but until you want to win, you’re not going to win!’

No adjustments were made except for they sped up the offense. And I promise you, that team drew together.

Receiver Vincent Brisby: Parcells is somebody you leave it all on the field for. When we lost, you really didn’t want to see how he looked — like, it would just break him down so much that you were like, ‘Man, we can’t lose no more games. We have to win.’ You just give it your all.

‘We came storming back’

Down 20-3 at halftime, Bledsoe passed five times during a six-play, 68-yard scoring drive to open the third quarter. His 31-yard scoring pass to receiver Ray Crittenden closed the deficit to 20-10. Crittenden, running outside the numbers on the right side of the field, was looking for the ball over his left shoulder. It wasn’t there. Crittenden spun to his left, catching the ball over his right shoulder as he neared the goal line.

After scoring, Crittenden slapped hands with fans in the front row of Foxboro Stadium near a homemade banner that read, ‘Time to get out of this rut and kick some butt.’ The team mascot, Pat Patriot, slapped Crittenden on the back.

Crittenden: After halftime, we went out with our three-receiver set and that’s when I come in. Most quarterbacks, well, I used to always tell Zolak, ‘Your balls float in the air forever — man, I could go take a shower and come back and catch your balls.’ But Drew? Drew’s ball, you could be in the next state and it’s coming on a line drive. So you gotta be ready.

Patriots linebacker Vincent Brown: I had a sense that something special was going to happen after Drew threw the first touchdown to Ray Crittenden.

Tight end Ben Coates: We came storming back. Next time we looked up, defense was playing great, we got another stop, boom, offense back on the field.

Just crank it up and let ‘er go!

Fox color commentator Jerry Glanville could not contain himself as the pass plays piled up in the third quarter. “We may see a whole half without a huddle!” Glanville bellowed to viewers. “I love it! Just crank it up and let ‘er go!”

Kevin Harlan, Fox play-by-play man at the time: They would be concerned in Los Angeles that Jerry was getting too excited. We had guys that would come up at halftime from the truck, like a producer or director, and say, ‘Jerry, now, settle down just a little bit, now.’ And Jerry would get all upset that Los Angeles would be criticizing what he was saying about the team.

It was like a circus with that guy. The glasses, the black outfits, the big belt buckles and everything else. He had a bowl of jellybeans that he kept by his notes. He was brilliant with football. He knew so much, he knew all the details and certainly knew where all the bodies were buried all over the league, so he would tell us stories. He would see something happen in a game and he would get so excited about the replay coming up, and he’d get all ticked off if they didn’t have the right angle. But he could see the game so well. He was brilliant, football brilliant.

Kraft: The excitement that he created, I think we had him do our preseason games after that. I just found him to be quite a colorful character and he brought some sizzle to the whole thing.

Harlan: Fox just did the NFC and so we rarely got to see New England, but the Packers played in Foxboro that year. Jerry and I did that game, because Bob Kraft loved Jerry Glanville. He would call Fox and request us to do games.

Kraft: It’s true. He had a way of expressing himself that was pretty special and unique.

Patriots force OT; Del Rio upset

Matt Bahr sent the game into overtime for the Patriots. (Photo courtesy of New England Patriots)

The Vikings’ 20-10 lead held deep into the fourth quarter. Bledsoe had already passed on the Patriots’ previous seven plays when New England began an 11-play TD drive — all of them passes — with 5:05 left in regulation.

Second-and-goal from the 5. Bledsoe scrambled right, away from Vikings defensive tackle John Randle.

“What a show of the quarterback,” Glanville said as Bledsoe took the snap from center Mike Arthur. “This young kid, never lose your own confidence. You’re too good —”

Glanville suddenly switched gears as Bledsoe ran from trouble.

“Randle is chasing him!” Glanville hollered. “There’s the two guys! He’s after him! Touchdown!”

Bledsoe had found running back LeRoy Thompson in the end zone for the score that reduced the gap to 20-17 with 2:27 left in the fourth quarter. Parcells still had all three timeouts. This was still doable.

Thompson: That was a broken play. Drew did something he was not necessarily comfortable with, and that’s roll out of the pocket to his right. I was designed to be only 5 yards, but it was no sense to me being so close to the goal line. I just went ahead and snuck behind the goal line so I could be open, and if I was open, it was going to be a touchdown.

Soon after, Patriots cornerback Maurice Hurst broke up Warren Moon’s third-and-2 pass to Qadry Ismail, giving New England the ball with 1:51 to play, needing just a field goal to tie. The Boston Globe reported that Hurst “mugged” Ismail with his left arm “out of view of the officials” while breaking up the pass.

Defensive coordinator Al Groh: I think maybe the only blitz we called the whole second half was on the third-and-2 play, where if they make the first down, they probably run the clock out. They tried to throw a slant, which Maurice Hurst broke up.

Hurst: The play before that (second-and-4), Terry Allen had gotten outside and he was going to get the first down. They had us outflanked. I was in man coverage. The receiver was blocking me. I threw him off, beat him to the ball, got the tackle, made Allen short of the first down, and then, the play after that, came right back and made the play on the slant. I came off the field, Parcells looked at me and said, ‘Son, that’s two of the best plays I’ve seen.’ That is the highlight of my … I get goosebumps about it to this day.

The Vikings forced Bledsoe into three hurried incompletions by blitzing him to open the Patriots’ final drive of regulation. On second down, Vikings linebacker Ed McDaniel launched his body through the air and smashed a forearm across Bledsoe’s helmet as he tried to block the pass. Bledsoe went down hard.

“Wow, Ed McDaniel cracked him!” Kevin Harlan said on the broadcast.

That sequence brought up fourth-and-10 from the New England 39 with 1:38 remaining. This time, Minnesota did not blitz. The 6-foot-5 Bledsoe crouched under center, took a five-step drop, hopped twice and arced the ball over leaping Vikings linebacker Jack Del Rio to receiver Vincent Brisby for a 25-yard gain to the Minnesota 36.

Del Rio was so distraught after the game, he sat on the stool in front of his locker for 20 minutes, still in full uniform, right elbow on right knee, four fingers pressed to his forehead, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Del Rio after the game: I personally could have made a difference by making a play on that fourth down. I’m going to make sure I ain’t ever the reason again.

Mike Eayrs, then the Vikings’ director of research and development: We were sitting on the bus and Jack Del Rio lamented that he tried to intercept the ball rather than knock it down. For years, I used to tell everybody, ‘Do you want to know the difference between winning and losing? It is basically moving one of your hands about six inches.’ Because if I remember right, he jumped and the ball actually goes between his hands. He might tip it a little bit.

Jack was a great player, great leader. If you are going to bring up the New England game, make sure you bring up the Chicago game (in 1993) when Jack intercepted the pass in the same coverage on Monday Night Football to win the game. We were the last wild card in ’93. If he doesn’t make that interception, we are looking at a very different scenario for the ’94 season.

Matt Bahr’s 23-yard field goal with 18 seconds remaining forced overtime.

The bizarre overtime coin toss

Referee Jerry Markbreit did not flinch during an OT coin toss straight out of WWE. Cris Carter and Jack Del Rio represented the Vikings. Linebacker Vincent Brown represented the Patriots. Carter was supposed to call heads or tails, but the coin hit the ground without Carter making a call.

“He didn’t call it!” Markbreit announced as he reached down to retrieve the coin. “We’ll do it again.”

Brown, now coaching at William & Mary, was a sculpted 245-pound inside linebacker nicknamed “The Undertaker” for the way he buried ball carriers. Brown protested the re-flip with all his might. He shouted. He pointed. He nearly lost it. Markbreit persisted, and order was restored when the Patriots won the do-over.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported at the time that “Carter was trying to sneak a peek at the coin” during the toss. Carter, an NFL analyst for Fox until recently, said through a spokesperson that he didn’t remember the game well enough to contribute thoughts (the NFL has required players to call heads or tails before the flip since 2000, when Steelers fullback Jerome Bettis called ‘hea-tails’ against Detroit).

Patriots linebacker Vincent Brown: When the official did the flip, Cris waited until the coin hit the ground before he made his call and I’m like, ‘Oh, hell no!’ And I was upset because I thought we should have gotten the choice, like, ‘What do you want?’ Because he didn’t call it properly. It was unbelievable. And that probably made the win all the more sweeter, these little quirky things that happen during the course of the game that literally can change the momentum and the game.

Markbreit, the only four-time Super Bowl referee: Way back in the beginning, Norm Schachter (NFL referee from 1954-75) befriended me and we used to visit a lot on the telephone. Norm told me that one of the most difficult situations to encounter as a referee is the toss of a coin, and I laughed. I said, ‘Now, that can’t be.’

Well, I had the famous toss of the coin in Super Bowl 17 where I misspoke. There have been myriad of mistakes and faux pas involving coin tosses. And I remember Norman saying, ‘If you ever flip the coin up in the air and nobody calls it, no matter what anybody says, pick the coin up and re-flip it.’ And when that happened, I thought about Norm Schachter, who I loved, and I did exactly that.

The winning drive

Kevin Turner scored the winning touchdown in overtime. (Photo courtesy of New England Patriots)

Bledsoe completed his 65th, 66th, 67th, 68th and 69th attempts to open the Patriots’ winning drive. New England shifted out of two-minute mode once LeRoy Thompson’s 12-yard catch-and-run moved New England into easier field-goal range at the 25. An 8-yard Marion Butts run from the I-formation ended Bledsoe’s streak of passing at 34 consecutive plays.

Instead of settling for a field goal in the sudden-death period, Bledsoe struck for the end zone on first-and-10 from the 14, finding fullback Kevin Turner in the back-left corner against Vikings strong-side linebacker Carlos Jenkins. Turner, who later became a lead plaintiff against the NFL in concussion litigation, died from ALS in 2016. He was 46.

Cornerback Maurice Hurst: I remember that play to Kevin Turner because we were on the sideline and I’m like, ‘We got the field goal.’ I was standing right there and we are about to win this game.

Someone said, ‘Bill, just run it in there and get it a little closer for Matt (Bahr).’ And Bill said, ‘No, no, they are going to try to blitz us. Give me Turner in the flat and up on the linebacker.’ Everybody is like, ‘Huh?’ Bill said, ‘Let’s end it right now’ and everybody is like, ‘Uh-oh.’

When I saw that pass and that catch, man, I said, ‘This man (Parcells) is real. This man knows football. He is ahead of people. He already knew what they were going to do and he said, ‘Let’s get out of here now. We’ll get a chance to kick it next down anyway.’ It was unbelievable.

Tight end Ben Coates: I was 100 percent sure Drew was going to throw it to me. I had two guys on me. Kevin was singled and Kevin beat his guy and all I can remember was Kevin catching the ball, getting in the back of the end zone and me and him celebrating and then we wind up at the bottom of the pile.

Parcells: I remember the play. It was Zero Weak Route 134 F Wheel and it went to Kevin Turner, back corner of the end zone.

Crittenden: Yep, a wheel route by the fullback. Pretty simple. We are not rocket scientists, as Parcells used to say. But man, there is a confidence when Drew calls that play that we know it’s a game-winner.

That final pass gave Bledsoe the single-game NFL record for pass attempts with 70. His 45 completions remain a record matched just once, by Jared Goff against Tampa Bay earlier this season. According to Elias Sports Bureau, Bledsoe’s Patriots are one of five teams to pass on 34 or more consecutive plays within a single game since at least 1978, when rules changes ushered in the current passing era. Those Patriots were the only team to do it without a sack or turnover along the way.

Bledsoe: Somebody will probably throw it over 70 times at some point, but of those 70 attempts, 53 of them were after halftime. And that obviously included some overtime, but I don’t know if that record will ever fall. I had to tip my cap to my offensive line that day (Bruce Armstrong, Bob Kratch, Mike Arthur, Todd Rucci, Pat Harlow). They took 70 pass sets against John Randle and Henry Thomas and Jack Del Rio and all these guys. That record may never go down: 70 pass attempts, zero sacks. Think about that.

Moon: Just to have that many plays! Typically, you have 65-70, that is a good game for you. And they had 53 passes after halftime. I have never been involved in a game like that, not even in Canada. I’d be the one who would be throwing the ball 70 times in a ballgame if it was going to happen.

Behold, The Magic Shovel

Al Groh still has the magic shovel from 1994. (Courtesy of Al Groh)

The Patriots won the Minnesota game to begin a seven-game winning streak that vaulted them into the playoffs with a 10-6 record. The role defensive coordinator Al Groh’s shovel played in the fast finish remains part of Patriots lore. The shovel was featured in NFL Films’ 1994 Patriots Yearbook video.

Linebacker Vincent Brown: At some point during that season, there was a construction worker or somebody on the sideline that was shoveling snow. Coach Groh reaches over and grabs the shovel and says to the defense, ‘Look, everybody just get to damn work, just like the guys that are shoveling the snow. Just get to work.’

Groh: We had the four losses in a row before we beat Minnesota. Bill (Parcells) told the players, ‘We got a long ways to go,’ and he told the story that you can go out and watch some people who are working and some who are standing under the tree leaning on their shovels. Some people come to work and they are using that shovel to dig as deep as they can to get the job done. That was very much his message.

I went home after the Saturday morning walkthrough. As I was getting ready to leave to drive down to have our team meetings that night, I was thinking, ‘How can I pick up on Bill’s message to the team?’ I thought, ‘You know, I got this shovel in the garage and I’m going to bring it down and I’m going to put it behind the podium and when the defense all comes into the defensive meeting room, I’m going to tell them, ‘Look, fellas, we all heard Coach Parcells’ message today and we know we gotta dig ourselves out of here.’

I took the shovel out and I’m holding it up and I said, ‘Tomorrow, I plan on coming here and doing my part to dig ourselves out of this, and I would suggest to any of you guys who have a shovel with you or just have that mentality, that you come ready to do the same thing.’

Nose tackle Tim Goad: I remember one day looking over and here was Coach Groh coming out with this shovel. I looked at him and said, ‘What the hell you doing?’ He says, ‘I’m trying to get everybody motivated. We gotta dig deep if we want to make the playoffs.’ I’m like, ‘Hmm, that’s a good idea. If you don’t mind, I’ll take it from here.’

Groh: I brought the shovel out, jammed it in the ground right in front of the defensive players’ bench and we won the game. The next weekend, we were playing the Colts in the old dome in Indianapolis and the players came up to me like, ‘Coach, you’re bringing the shovel, aren’t you?’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’ But it was artificial turf, you know? So I had to go down to the maintenance shop and say, ‘Hey, fellas, look, here’s the deal, we are going to Indianapolis, I can’t stick this in the turf. Can you build me a little stand for it?’

Sure enough, they built me a stand, and we had a player who had been there before us, Tim Goad, and Timmy was a real warrior type of guy. Tough, competitive. I had known him since he was a high school recruit and just when things were getting good, Tim broke his leg.

Goad: I kind of equate playing nose tackle to this. You are under a manhole cover with an 18-wheeler parked on top of it. It’s a thankless job, but it’s a key cog in the 50-front defense.

The one thing I remember about that year, 1994, was Dec. 4 when I got my leg broke against the Jets. (Running back) Brad Baxter, he didn’t do it on purpose. He was holding onto a crashing defensive end and got whipped around and the back of his heel hit me in my right lower leg and broke by tibia.

Groh: Tim was really downcast. He’d been through all the lean years there. I said, ‘Tim, I got a really important job for you. You are in charge of getting the shovel to the stadium and getting it into the ground.’ Tim became the keeper of the shovel.

We continued to win. We won seven in a row. Somebody made up T-shirts with a depiction of the shovel with the words ‘Dig Deep’ on the back of it and the depiction of a shovel digging into the ground, and the shovel laid out on the side on the front of the T-shirt.

The magic shovel was a reminder for the Patriots to dig deep. (Courtesy of Al Groh)

Brown: It was a pivotal moment for us because we started playing better defensively and we made that run. Literally, I think to this day, Coach Groh still has this shovel.

Groh: We go out for the first round of the playoffs, we lose to Cleveland, we are cleaning out all the stuff from the season and the shovel is in my locker where it spent every week. So, I’m taking the shovel home on like Wednesday night. I stop and get gas, I give the guy my credit card and this guy is looking at the credit card and I can tell what he’s thinking. I look at the name on my credit card and I finally said to him, ‘Yep, I’m the guy.’

He says, ‘Coach, um, now, tell me about the shovel.’

I said, ‘You want to see it? It’s in the trunk.’

‘Can I see it?’

‘Sure.’

We are in the gas station. I go back, open up the trunk. There it is, lining the trunk.

He says, ‘Can I hold it?’

‘Yeah, man, you can hold it.’

Reach in, the guy is holding the shovel, and probably for the rest of his life, he can say, ‘Hey, guys, I held the shovel.’

Look, the seven-game winning streak didn’t have anything to do with coaching strategy or player execution. It was all about the magic shovel. That was in 1994. On this very day, that shovel still sits in our garage in Hingham, Massachusetts.

Kraft: We should put the shovel in the (Patriots) Hall of Fame.

‘We crossed the threshold’

Seventy pass attempts. Forty-five completions. A comeback victory that allowed a franchise under new ownership to break from its troubled past. Kraft, whose Patriots have won an NFL-best 70 percent of their games since he purchased the team, gets last word on what beating the Vikings in 1994 really meant.

Kraft: To go back on this, it brought back the excitement of me having the privilege of owning the team. We got control of the land (around Foxboro Stadium) in ’85 with a 10-year option and then bought the stadium against (former team owner Victor) Kiam in ’88 and spent $25 million for a stadium that cost $6 million and then bought the team for the highest price paid for any sports franchise anywhere in the world, and I paid 50 percent more than I told my wonderful wife, and she thought I was a lunatic. We got the stadium out of bankruptcy. The team was moving to St. Louis.

The only reason I am saying it is, I was so excited in that first year. I had stardust in my eyes. I had a Hall of Fame coach, like a kid in a candy story. I dreamt for years about hopefully owning the team.

We started going and at the time of the Viking game, we were, what, 3-6? When we won the Super Bowl against Atlanta, we were down 28-3 with two minutes to go in the third quarter. I thought back to this Minnesota game. We were down 20-0. You felt the passion. We wanted to win so badly and I had been sitting in the stands for the five years before. To come back and win that game the way we did, it was pretty, pretty cool.

It was a threshold win for the culture of the team. Here we are playing Minnesota. Their record was like 7-2 and they were a powerhouse and no one expected us to be able to come back and win. I really think it was sort of like a turning point in the evolution of changing the culture in our ownership sphere. The passion I and my family had to win and trying to put everything in place. Initially, we were supporting Coach Parcells. We were doing everything he wanted to try to allow us to win and be great.

Think about it, Drew performed at a level and did things in that game that still stand today with 70 passes and 45 completions, for over 400 yards and three touchdowns. So it was truly a watershed moment. We crossed the threshold. I think it gave Drew a sense of confidence, it gave it to the locker room and going on that win streak.

I always remember Al Groh that week telling the team to dig deep, and part of it was, I don’t know, finding a place to bury all the bad stuff.

(Top photo: Jim Davis / Boston Globe)

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