Of course, the match wasn’t just Bledsoe’s debut. It was the introduction of Bill Parcells as head coach of the Patriots. The usually sarcastic Parcells was in Fatherly Tuna mode before the game, telling his QB son, “Hey, this isn’t that hard. You can do this. “I have confidence in you, otherwise I wouldn’t have put you in this situation.”

The Globe Sports headline the next morning was not as encouraging: “Patriots: New era, same mistakes.” But columnist Michael Madden saw Bledsoe’s performance, even with the disappointing overall statistics, as a ray of hope amid the thick fog of a complete rebuild after the two-win 1992 season.

“Rookie mistakes?” he wrote. “Yes, there were several, but there were more than several moments where Bledsoe moved the Patriots with poise, poise and an arm.”

Does this sound like someone else you know? Or has it become known?

No, this visit to Way Back Machine is not strictly for the usual nostalgic purposes. It’s because some (not all, but some) of what Drake Maye has done in his first four starts for a 2024 Patriots team desperate for its own beacon in the fog reminds me of when Bledsoe first arrived on the scene with a right arm loaded with hope 31. . . an absurdly long time ago.

Maye, the third overall pick in April’s draft, is not a direct descendant of Bledsoe at quarterback.

Both debuted absurdly young: Maye, who turned 22 on Aug. 30, is the youngest quarterback in the NFL. Bledsoe was actually younger and played the entire 1993 season at age 21. But there are significant stylistic differences.

Maye has an excellent arm and throws a beautiful deep ball, but Bledsoe’s laser rocket arm was a little stronger and yet strangely erratic on deep throws.

Maye is an exciting runner who has already gained 209 yards on the ground. Bledsoe had the mobility of one of those retro, vibrant electronic football games that never worked the way you wanted; did not exceed 209 rushing yards in his career until Week 7 of 1997, its fourth season.

It should be pretty obvious what they have most in common: the ability to make three or four “wows!” play a game, the kind that promises a bright future even on the most depressing Sunday afternoons.

Watching Maye lunge Sunday and dart a DeMario Douglas with a defensive back covering him was reminiscent of how Bledsoe could dunk the ball to Coates no matter how many defenders were hanging on to his limbs.

And Maye’s improvised tying touchdown pass on the final play of regulation, when he ran for nearly 12 seconds before throwing an answered prayer to Rhamondre Stevenson? Bledsoe, for all his talent, had nothing like it in his repertoire.

Those ’93 Patriots – like the current edition – often got in their own way. They didn’t win until Week 5, a 23-21 road win over the Cardinals. They lost 10 of their first 11 games, eight by six points or less.

And then, suddenly, the fog lifted. The Patriots won four straight games to end the 1993 season, all individually memorable, exciting or just plain strange:

¤ A 7-2 win over the Bengals (I think Bledsoe went 2-for-4 with four RBIs, I’ll double check).

¤ A 20-17 victory over the Browns (Cleveland coach Bill Belichick, who had cut beloved quarterback Bernie Kosar in November, needed a police escort off the field).

¤ A 38-0 rout of the Colts in which the Patriots rushed for 256 yards and Bledsoe had a perfect QB rating of 158.3 on 11 pass attempts).

¤ And the real moment of hope: a 33-27 overtime victory over the Dolphins that ended the season in which Bledsoe went 27 of 43 for 329 yards and 4 touchdowns, including a 36-yard game-winner for Michael Timpson on a slant-and-go. 4:44 in overtime. (“This kid can pitch,” Parcells said later. “There’s no doubt about it. He’ll have them all scared in a year.”)

Now, I would suggest that the whole scene was the perfect way to start the offseason, but the fear, as longtime Patriots fans will remember, was that the franchise was headed elsewhere: to St. Louis. We weren’t safe there I would be another year.

Bledsoe said: “Hopefully we can play here next year. If the players and fans had something to say about it, we would stay. Unfortunately, we don’t. This area deserves a winning soccer team. It’s been a while since they had one and I think we’re going to be one.”

He was right, though in the grand scope of how the Patriots became not only a winning football team, but the greatest dynasty the NFL has ever seen. . . Well, that probably didn’t turn out how I had imagined.

And here we are now, a dynasty two decades in the past, and Maye is here now as the singular symbol of better days to come.

Perhaps the most illustrative aspect of Bledsoe’s rookie season is the level of support he had, from Parcells to talents like Coates, Andre Tippett (who had the 100th and final sack of his career in that Miami game), Bruce Armstrong and Vincent Brown, in comparison. which Maye must now navigate.

Maye’s relative success, given the degree of difficulty posed by the utter lack of talent surrounding him in the previous meeting, is notable. Their offensive line is porous. Stevenson has 82 yards on his last 37 carries. Some of the receivers are better at using their hands to write cryptic complaints on social media than they are at catching the ball.

Ultimately, the ’24 Patriots are not going to emulate the ’93 Patriots. This team has not won four in a row to close out the season. I may not win four, period. But that’s okay.

What they need to do (this is imperative, Eliot Wolf) is match the Patriots’ ability to identify, draft and develop legitimate talent early in the Bledsoe Era, from Willie McGinest in 1994 to Ty Law, Curtis Martin and Ted Johnson. in 1995, and then Terry Glenn (yes, against Parcells’ will), Lawyer Milloy and Tedy Bruschi in 1996.

This Patriots team needs a lot. They are already asking too much of Maye. But just like in 1993, at least they have the quarterback, and there is no more important piece than that.

Get him help and he’ll scare them all. . . Well, let’s call it a couple of years.

You can contact Chad Finn at [email protected]. follow him @GlobeChadFinn.