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John Childress -> RE: RE:The Packers (1/21/2008 6:19:40 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: djskillz
Oh, P.S. I too am happy to see Favre come back as a Vikings fan. Good for us.
Though I'm not a believer in Rodgers at all, so either way I think I'll be happy in the next couple years.
I like Rodgers but if he ISN'T the one then they are putting themselves back even further.
It is great to agree with you for a change!
quote:
Rich Hofmann: Ice aged: Favre looks old & cold
Philadelphia Daily News
GREEN BAY - Oh, to be the winner on a night like this: to stand on the great, frozen stage and to raise your arms in triumph, in overtime triumph, over your opponent and over nature at its most brutal; to be compared to the greatest because you conquered conditions there were as icily inhuman as they were unforgettable.
But the pain in the alternative is obvious enough. The defeated will tell tales of frostbitten fingertips that tingled for days, and other indignities. Make no mistake: No disappointment could be any colder or darker than last night's was for Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. When you lose, there is no majesty in the snot freezing on your face.
And Favre could only say, sadly, thoughtfully, "I didn't rise up to the occasion as I have in the past."
This was going to be his night. It was. In the second-coldest game ever played in Green Bay, second only to the NFL Championship Game in 1967, the famous Ice Bowl, Favre seemed destined to have another moment, another trip to the Super Bowl. Even as the New York Giants slugged and then slugged some more, it just seemed right. The fumbles and the field goals and the officials' flags and then the overtime coin toss all fell Green Bay's way, as the thermometer fell from 1 below zero at kickoff to 4 below at the end.
The end: when Favre threw the bad interception on the first drive of overtime, a sailing pass picked off by the Giants cornerback Corey Webster, setting up kicker Lawrence Tynes for the 47-yard field goal that won it.
The end: when experience, the greatest teacher, was mute.
And Favre said, "I expect more out of myself. I know it's part of the game, but it's very disappointing."
We spent the season in his thrall, again. It was as if the gray hair and the gray beard were meaningless, as if the 38 years were nothing. Backed by a potent running game in the second half of the season, Favre rode this incredible, out-of-nowhere wave. But last night, with the running game shockingly evaporated, with the conditions brutal, it was on him - and he looked his age.
And now, the annual game will begin. Will Favre be back for another season? And will this crushing disappointment have any effect on the decision?
"Had we won the game and gone to the Super Bowl, and whatever happens in that game, I was going to go home and just think about where I want to go from there," Favre said. "I don't think that's going to change because we didn't make it."
He said the decision would "probably be much quicker" this season than some of the past, prolonged struggles that he has had deciding. He said, "I'm not going to let this game sway my decision, one way or the other."
It had been such an awful night, with wind chills worse than 20 below zero throughout. It was terrible walking 5 minutes in the parking lot at 2 p.m. The idea of spending more than 3 1/2 hours playing a football game in it must have been beyond painful.
But there they all were. The assumption going in was that the conditions would favor the Packers. Few people here wanted to consider the possibility that these wretched conditions might take their toll on the 38-year-old quarterback most of all.
Favre would deny it, of course. He, too, talked about the running game, wondering at one point, "I just have to assume [the problem] was the lack of a running game . . . and maybe I missed on some passes, some reads."
But it is fair to wonder if the cold somehow cost Favre the focus that had ruled his season, causing him to make a couple of those throws - known worldwide by Green Bay fans as Those Throws. You know, those balls that are just too dangerous, just too predicated on hope over reason - especially in Ice Station Lambeau.
There was one early in the fourth quarter, one of those Favre Moments, one of those blots that speckle his Hall of Fame resumé. He threw up a ball downfield, threw it up for grabs, and one of the Giants grabbed it - R.W. McQuarters.
But, just as quickly, the Packers' Ryan Grant knocked the ball loose and teammate Mark Tauscher fell on it. Four plays later, Green Bay's Mason Crosby kicked a 37-yard field goal that tied the score at 20-20. That is when it seemed fated. If they could survive such a ridiculous throw, the Packers could survive anything.
After that, the Giants would have one touchdown called back on a bogus holding penalty and would see quarterback Eli Manning sacked on a key play despite Packers defensive end Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila clearly being offside. They would have Tynes miss two field goals, including a 36-yarder at the end of regulation. Then the coin toss went the Packers' way, too.
It was going to happen. Despite all of the frigid slapstick, it was going to happen for Brett Favre again. But . . . but . . .
And he said, "The last pass I threw in this game was intercepted and gave them a chance to win, so . . . "
But the thought remained unfinished, frozen in time. *
Send e-mail to hofmanr@phillynews.com.
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