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Favre's first game as a Packer

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One of our better posters over at Zbud's posted this story from the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel. An account of Brett's first substantial playing time after the Pack picked Jerry Glanville's pocket in Atlanta. Thought you guys might get a good read out of this...particularly the last few paragraphs:

Hipp
Pro Bowler
posted 11-01-2002 12:44 PM
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Birth of a Legend
The J/S is running some old articles from Packer history in Packer Insider. I realize posting the entire article is probably in violation of their rules but the J/S ought to be paying me for all the promoting I do of Packer Insider here. (They are not, at least, not yet. ) Here is the game story from Favre's first game in 1992. I got a kick out of reading it and thought some of you might too. As a bit of background, this was the third game of the year and the Packers 0-2, coming off a 23-20 loss to the Vikes and 31-3 hammering by the Bucs



quote:
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You can talk about passing touch, command of a system and mobility all you want when it comes to evaluating quarterbacks.

But when the game is on the line and you need to push the ball downfield, as the Green Bay Packers had to before a crowd of 57,272 Sunday at Lambeau Field, there is no substitute for a quarterback with a cannon arm.

Defensive coordinator Ron Lynn appeared to make a fatal by misjudging Brett Favre's arm. It sent the Cincinnati Bengals reeling to a 24-23 defeat while injecting some hope into a Green Bay Packers season that had appeared almost hopeless.

"It's just a tremendous load off our shoulders," linebacker Brian Noble said after the thrilling victory, the first for coach Mike Holmgren after a respectable loss against Minnesota and the debacle last week in Tampa.

The Packers lost quarterback Don Majkowski for one to four weeks with ligament damage to his left ankle on their sixth play from scrimmage, they lost three of their seven fumbles and kicker Chris Jacke missed field-goal attempts of 32 and 47 yards.

Then with 1 minute 7 seconds remaining rookie Robert Brooks fielded a kickoff one step from the sideline rather then let it carom out of bounds. Instead of starting from the 35, Brooks' gaffe left the Packers at their eight and trailing by six points without a timeout left.

"I wouldn't have wanted to have been in their situation," Bengals coach Dave Shula said.

On first down, there was a smattering of boos when fullback Harry Sydney gained four yards on a swing pass before stepping out. But as meaningless as the play was, it had served an important purpose.

Now Holmgren could see what Lynn would do on defense. The Bengals (2-1) would rush only their front four players on the last five snaps, dropping a second tier of five players into zone coverage across the field. That left safeties Fernandus Vinson and Darryl Williams in the third tier, each with responsibility for covering half of the field from the middle to their sideline.

It's a simple coverage, often referred to as "Cover 2" in the National Football League.

The vulnerable sector of the defense is the deep outside, where the cornerback is instructed to bump the wide receiver at the line and then, if the receiver runs up the sideline, to stay with him as far as possible until the safety is able to sprint over and break up the pass.

Some quarterbacks don't have enough arm strength to gun the ball on a line beyond the drifting cornerback and before the safety gets over. Favre not only did it once, he did it twice in truly heroic fashion.

His first bull's-eye came on the second play and covered 42 yards to Sterling Sharpe in front of the Bengals' coaching staff. The ball was thrown high and hard, but Sharpe adjusted his body and made an awkward but tremendous reception. When Sharpe sprawled to the grass at the Cincinnati 46, he suffered what Holmgren later described as separated ribs, an injury that he didn't regard as particularly serious.

Vinson, a seventh-round draft choice from North Carolina State in 1991, was almost 10 yards from Sharpe when the ball arrived. He is a big hitter who runs 40 yards in 4.7 seconds, slow for a safety and considerably slower than Rickey Dixon, the starting free safety who was just coming off a long holdout and was withheld from the lineup.

"I played against Brett in a bowl game in Birmingham, Alabama and the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama," Vinson said, referring first to the All-American Bowl. "He keeps throwing it and he keeps throwing it hard."

The third play, a circle pass to Vince Workman out of the backfield gained 11 yards to the 35. By the time Favre reassembled the team and threw into the ground to stop the clock, just 19 seconds remained. Appearing to be in pain, Sharpe left and was replaced by Kitrick Taylor, a Plan B refugee from San Diego who hadn't scored a touchdown in his six-year pro career.

Taylor was joined on the right side for the fifth play by Jackie Harris who was lined up tight. Brooks and Sanjay Beach were wide left. All four receivers went straight up the field putting the onus on the offensive line to protect Favre on a seven-step drop.

Ken Ruettgers neutralized Alfred Williams, Rich Moran stopped Alonzo Mitz, Tootie Robbins tied up Danny Stubbs, Tim Krumrie bull rushed Ron Hallstrom back almost into Favre, but the quarterback still was able to step up and hurl the exact same pass he had just completed to Sharpe.

Rod Jones, the cornerback across from Taylor, inexplicably let Taylor release off the line without contact. Favre had time to pump fake to Harris down the middle, freezing Vinson just long enough so he was unable to interrupt the pass to the sideline.

Jones, who has good speed, again misread the perilous situation. By the time he turned to chase after Taylor, it was too late. Favre had unleashed a 40-yard-strike that hit Taylor in stride as he crossed into the end zone with 13 seconds remaining.

"If he had laid it up for a few more seconds, I could have got there," Jones said. "But he didn't."

Said center James Campen: "I saw the whole thing. It was just like a missile."

Terrell Buckley, whose 58-yard punt return for a touchdown with 12:43 left cut the Packers' 17-3 deficit to 17-10, said he couldn't believe how the Bengals had played in the secondary. Shula refused to second guess Lynn, and Favre chose not to speculate whether the Bengals' vanilla defense suggested ignorance of his arm strength.

"They may have," Favre said. "I doubt they'll do it again".

The completions to Sharpe and Taylor were longer than the longest gain by the Packers in any game under Holmgren.

"If you can pass protect in that situation you've got a chance to move the ball," Holmgren said. "I've been fortunate to be associated with some great teams in San Fransisco, but this [victory] is obviously the happiest in my life."

The Packers trailed, 20-10, midway in the fourth quarter, and had gained just 165 yards in their first 10 possessions. At that point, Favre had completed 13 of 28 passes for 130 yards, fumbled four times, was sacked five times and committed a multitude of mistakes.

"But the guys kept hanging with me," Favre said. "They could have been saying 'this sucker's killing us, get him out of here.'"

Favre got them into the end zone in less than 4 minutes, covering 88 yards in eight plays. The Bengals ground out two first downs, then got the ball back again when Buckley fumbled away a punt at the Green Bay 35. Five consecutive rushes by Derrick Fenner produced one first down and Jim Breech's 41-yard field goal, but with Favre on fire it was one point to little.

Each team had three turnovers and countless blown opportunities.

"If we would have won, it would have been the ugliest victory in 20 years in the NFL," said quarterback Boomer Esiason. "They're not the Packers of the '60's, know what I'm saying?"

No, but at least the Packers have a pulse.

"It's a wonderful, wonderful win," Holmgren said. "I think this will really help."
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Guns aren't toys. They're for keeping the king of England out of your face.---Herschel Krustofsky


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