Just minutes after throwing his fourth interception, Drew Bledsoe’s face showed his disappointment.

Bledsoe, the black smears still under his eyes, tugged at his sweat-soaked jersey and talked softly about the frustration he felt with his inability to win the biggest game of his career.

“I knew I was going to have to play at a very high level to be able to win,” Bledsoe said. “The bottom line is, the four interceptions hurt us. Anytime you turn over the ball, you hurt your chances.”

Green Bay’s three TD plays of more than 50 yards and Bledsoe’s interceptions were enough to give the Packers a 35-21 Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots.

Bledsoe completed 25 of 48 passes for 253 yards and two touchdowns. “He tried to force some things, tried to make something happen,” said quarterback coach Chris Palmer, given the job during the offseason to work with Bledsoe. “We had come to the point in the game where we had to try to come back, and he wanted to make that happen.”

Even before the Super Bowl loss, Bledsoe was tagged with a “can’t-win-the-big-one” label.

In his first playoff game, a 1994 first-round loss to the Cleveland Browns in Bledsoe’s second season, he was 21-for-50 for 235 yards, and fans started to question his ability.

It didn’t help that he took several steps backward in 1995, when he was the lowest-rated passer in the AFC at least partly because of a shoulder injury in Week 3.

Going into this season, the 24-year-old Bledsoe had never thrown more touchdown passes in a season than interceptions, with 53 TDs and had 58 interceptions in all. This season, he had 27 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.

“I imagine people will question my play in this game,” Bledsoe said. “But I’m not going to let this game or any game shake my confidence in my ability. I’m going to be a quarterback in this league for a long time.”