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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Coach Leaves His Mark Browns, Patriots Employ Styles That Are Parcells For The Course

Associated Press

The television industry refers to them as spinoffs. “Gomer Pyle,” for example, spun off from “The Andy Griffith Show.” “Laverne & Shirley” spun off from “Happy Days.”

Today’s AFC wild card game between the New England Patriots (10-6) and Cleveland Browns (11-5) is little more than a spinoff from the 1990 New York Giants.

“That team was looked at publicly as a team that overachieved, and I think just to the contrary,” Patriots coach Bill Parcells said. “I think that was one of the very best teams.”

The imprint of the ‘90 Giants, who went 13-3 during the regular season and won the Super Bowl, is all over today’s game.

Parcells, the head coach of that New York team, brought many of his Giants assistants with him when he took on the task of rebuilding the Patriots in 1993.

One of the few assistants who couldn’t come along was Bill Belichick, who two years earlier had accepted the job of rebuilding the Browns.

The Giants’ influence also is evident on the rosters of both teams. Linebackers Pepper Johnson and Carl Banks, two mainstays of Parcells’ defenses in New York, now anchor Cleveland’s defense. Matt Stover, a former New York draft pick, is Cleveland’s kicker. Former Giants safety Myron Guyton started 16 games for New England this year.

“In my estimation,” Parcells said, “that Giants team was and continues to be vastly underrated because of the way it played, which was grind-it-out, methodical. But it was a tremendously solid team that was capable of beating any team in a lot of years.

“It beat a team that was viewed as maybe the best team in history, the San Francisco 49ers (New York won 15-13 in the NFC championship game). Then we were able to beat the team with the offense of the ‘90s (Buffalo), that was scoring 34 or 35 points.”

There’s little methodical about Parcells’ offense now. Having chosen quarterback Drew Bledsoe with the first overall pick in the 1993 draft, Parcells has managed to turn the Patriots around quickly by turning Bledsoe loose. This year, Bledsoe set NFL records for pass attempts in a season (691), pass attempts in a game (70) and completions in a game (45).

At age 22, he became the youngest player chosen to the Pro Bowl.

“It’s a remarkable situation when you have a Bill Parcells-coached team that’s set a record for pass attempts in a season,” Bledsoe said. “That’s not something you would expect. But he’s going to go with what works. If we have to throw the ball to win, we’ll throw.”

“He might have gritted his teeth when he did it, but I’m sure he was smiling when he saw 40 points go up on the board,” Belichick said.

The change in Parcells’ philosophy hasn’t surprised Banks.

“They still have a very effective running game,” Banks said. “It just so happens that he’s blessed with a very gifted quarterback that he doesn’t want to rot just handing off the ball. Because they are a team built to wear you down with the running game, they can do so much with their play-action passing game.”

To be sure, the Browns might have a somewhat skewed picture of New England’s offense. When the teams met Nov. 6 at Cleveland, a 40 mph wind played havoc with Bledsoe’s passing - he was intercepted four times - and Parcells used a comparatively conservative game plan.

Cleveland won 13-6, sending the Patriots to their fourth straight loss.

They haven’t lost since. They take a seven-game winning streak into Cleveland Stadium today, hoping the momentum will offset their almost total lack of playoff experience.