For most of Sunday night, Brett Favre played like the player he has been all season.
He took what the Bears’ defense gave him, avoided silly throws and threw passes with deft accuracy.
But for one moment, he reverted to the old Favre, the one coach Mike McCarthy had been able to repress for a month.
With 4 minutes 35 seconds left in the third quarter and the Packers leading by 10, Favre made his only significant mistake of the 2007 season to date. With his primary receiver run out of bounds, Favre tried to force a pass to James Jones on a crossing route in tight coverage. Brian Urlacher reached to his left side and came up with the ball. One play later, Brian Griese hit Greg Olsen for a 19-yard touchdown, and the game never again was in Favre’s control.
“I should have thrown it away,” Favre said. “If we would have completed it, we would have gained a yard or two. That play was dead from the start. I was trying to make something out of nothing.”
Packers fans have seen many plays like it from Favre. The pass was vintage Favre, circa 1993. But he hasn’t had any plays like it recently.
Favre had completed 142 straight passes without an interception before the ball Urlacher caught.
“Bad decision on my part,” Favre said. “I had been making good decisions. That was a bad decision.”
Favre’s streak without an interception was the rough equivalent of Barry Bonds going 142 straight at-bats without a strikeout–a remarkable achievement for any player, but an especially remarkable achievement for the legend in question. The streak is the third longest of Favre’s career. He went 163 passes without an interception in 1995-96 and 148 passes without a pick in 2001-02.
Favre has been a great quarterback for a long time, but in his 16th season, he finally has been playing like a mature quarterback. Don’t confuse that with playing like an old quarterback, however.
Last week he talked about how he still gets goose bumps when he hears his name announced. And he still gives the Bears the sweats.
Favre’s interception was part of a second-half cool-off. He threw only one incompletion in the first half if you take away two spikes and was pretty much unstoppable. But in the second half the entire Packers’ offense was less effective–especially the running game.
The Packers came into the game with the worst rushing game in the league, averaging 2.7 yards per carry and 54.2 yards per game. In the first half the Pack ran the ball better than they had all season, averaging 7.8 yards per carry and tallying 102 yards.
But in the second half the Packers averaged 2.1 yards per carry and had only 19 rushing yards.
“We got out of our rhythm,” Favre said. “It just wasn’t clicking in the second half. They went to more Cover-2 pretty much every time we lined up whether it was first down or third down. We tried to run the ball against it, which we had some success against in the first half. That did work. The pass didn’t work. So their adjustments were better than ours.”
Favre threw another interception on the final play, a desperation throw in the end zone that landed in the arms of Bears safety Brandon McGowan. That one only hurt Favre’s statistics, however.
The interception tied Favre with George Blanda for most interceptions in an NFL career. Favre now has thrown 277 balls that have been caught by the opponent.
For most of Sunday night, as well as all season, Favre has excelled at giving his receivers the ball in positions where they can gain yards after the catch. Donald Driver gained about 20 yards on a 26-yard gain after Favre hit him on a tight slant in the first quarter. It was a play that typified the Packers’ passing game this year.
Favre also has read the field well and made passes with excellent accuracy. When Greg Jennings got on top of Danieal Manning in the second quarter, Favre saw it quickly and dropped a perfect pass in Jennings’ hands. Result: 41-yard touchdown.
Favre and his receivers have developed chemistry, the kind that has been mostly absent between Bears quarterbacks and their receivers.
Jennings, Driver, Jones and Donald Lee didn’t appear to be a great group of targets for Favre before the season, but they have been playing like one of the league’s best receiving groups. Some of that, at the very least, has to be attributed to Favre’s play–the way he’s checked into the right plays at the line of scrimmage, the way he’s found the open man and the way he’s thrown catchable balls.
Before Sunday, the Packers’ running game, in effect, has been Favre’s short passing game. Example: On third-and- 4 on the Packers’ second possession, Favre threw a pass just over the line of scrimmage to Lee. The tight end turned it into a 7-yard gain and a first down with a nice run after the catch.
Favre’s greatest failure Sunday was not being able to atone for the mistakes of his teammates. Jones fumbled twice and Charles Woodson fumbled on a punt return.
“We can’t keep winning like this,” Favre said of the 4-1 Packers. “We’re not a bad football team. But we’re not great either.”
For everything Favre and the Packers offense did well Sunday, one pass made all of it rather forgettable.
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dpompei@tribune.com
