Packers Become 32nd NFL Team To Get 'Favred'

Brett Favre threw three touchdown passes and had a passer rating of 135.3 Monday night. He was nearly perfect on third down, completing five of six passes.

But the Packers lost. Because this time they were on the opposite sideline. For the first time ever, the Packers got Favred.

In a game so hyped and so anticipated that it set a TV ratings recordfor cable, many wondered which Favre would show up. The one who won 40 games after trailing in the 4th quarter or overtime, or the one who looked like a half-wit third string quarterback in his first game against former coach and mentor Mike Holmgren on a Monday night in 1999.

We didn't have to wait long to find out. The Packers defense had no problem containing Adrian Peterson, holding him to just 55 yards. It was Favre, just six days shy of his 40th birthday, who carved up the Green Bay secondary for 271 yards, making Packers fans nauseous.

For 16 years, the words "Vintage Favre" were synonymous with a Packer win and a celebratory state of Wisconsin. This time, however, they made stomachs turn. It was almost a surreal sight to see Packers linebacker Aaron Kampman knock Favre to the turf, one of the few times he was pressured all night.

On the other side of the field the Packers continued to make the same mistakes they'd made in the first three games. Dropped passes, penalties, lack of pass rush, a porous offensive line, and mental breakdowns on defense plagued Green Bay all night.

On the road, against a superior opponent with a quarterback on a mission to prove the Packers made a mistake in dumping him a year ago, the Packers needed to play a near flawless game. Instead they looked like the 6-10 team from last year. Unable to correct their mistakes and make enough plays to win the game.

The final score, 30-23, was much closer than the game itself. The Packers trailed by 14 for much of the 4th quarter. They let a golden opportunity slip away when they failed to score on 4th-and-goal from the one yard line when Donald Lee dropped a sure touchdown pass.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers was sacked eight times, once in his own endzone for a safety. The Packers offense was able to engineer some long drives, but Rodgers turned the ball over twice deep in Vikings territory, one on an interception and one on a fumble. Add in the goalline stand and the end result was another loss.

Besides the turnovers, Rodgers played decent, passing for a career high 384 yards and a 110.6 passer rating. But this night, like so many others, belonged to Favre. Like so many other quarterbacks who have competed against Favre, Rodgers was good but not good enough. It was clear which quarterback is a future hall-of-famer and which one is still trying to earn his stripes.

Despite resembling swiss cheese for much of the game, the Packers defense did come up with a huge turnoverwhen Linebacker Clay Matthews literally took the ball out of Peterson's hands and returned it for a touchdown. But in the end, Green Bay just couldn't overcome their own turnovers, sacks and penalties.

The Packers will have an extra week to think about the loss and fix some mistakes with their bye coming next week. Top priority will surely be the offensive line which has been nothing short of awful all season.

"And eight sacks, my goodness. I mean how many games do you win when you give up eight sacks? When you have those types of plays, we need to look at them and make sure we fix them. It's an issue that's gone on now for four weeks," Head Coach Mike McCarthy said.

But as we found out last season, saying you're going to fix the mistakes and actually fixing them are two different things.