| | | | | | | |  Tuesday, December 4, 2001
Frozen Moment: Always bet on Favre
By Marc Connolly
ABC Sports Online
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It's one thing for the Jaguars to have the gall to paint a Santa hat on their logo at midfield (Vince Lombardi would roll over in his grave if that happened at Lambeau), but it's another thing altogether to punt the ball away with 2:11 left in a tie game when it means Brett Favre is going to have a chance to weave his magic down the field.
|  | | Brett Favre's TD run was just another in a career filled with big plays. |
Especially when it's a Monday night.
It's like leaving a flank steak on the table before bed and not expecting the dog to devour it; or turning down your star baseball player's contract demands and not foreseeing George Steinbrenner's cell number to pop up on his Caller ID.
So, as expected, the Green Bay Packers were fully confident that they were going to march 56 yards in 2:03 to break open a 21-21 deadlock and put the Jaguars out of their misery -- which was precisely what they did in a come-from-behind 28-21 victory at Alltel Stadium.
"You know you got a guy whose going to lead us down there," said Ahman Green after rushing for 31 yards and hauling in five catches for 74 yards and a touchdown. "He's not going to do anything to put us in a detrimental spot. He's going to put you in a position to win."
"It's very comforting having him in there," said receiver Corey Bradford, who caught two passes for 16 yards. "We love two minutes, so our confidence level was really high. We're looking at Brett and he was all fired up, so that got us all fired up. We had chills running through us. We knew we were going to score."
Favre entered that huddle flapping his gums with a bounce in his step and a gleam in his eye like that brash kid who led Southern Miss to an upset over Florida State on this same field 12 years ago.
"He kept saying, "Fight, fight, fight, because we're going to find a way to win," Bradford said.
From the shotgun, Favre went to work by hitting Donald Driver for a quick 10 yards to get to Jacksonville's side of the field and the two-minute warning. Then came a perfectly timed screen pass to Green, who went all the way down to the Jaguars' 4. After a two-yard loss up the middle for the NFC's rushing leader, the Jags called a timeout. It gave Favre time to put in his two cents on what play the Pack should run.
Pleading on the sideline to run a pass play to catch the Jags off guard, he convinced them to allow him to run a bootleg when he promised that if no one was open he'd take a sack to allow the clock to keep running. At worst, Ryan Longwell could come in and end the contest with his right foot.
"I just felt like in that situation they figured we were going to run the football," said Favre, who went 24-of-42 for 362 yards and three TDs, "and were going to play for the field goal, which is the right way to look at it."
The Pack came out in a tight set, with two backs next to Favre and two tight ends on the field. After taking the snap, the 11-year veteran turned quickly around and faked a handoff to Green up the gut.
"It was a full run sell to Ahman," he said. "If I'm on defense, I'm going to pay a lot of attention to him."
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The way he hung in there and made throws and actually scored a touchdown with his legs, a man with an old back like he has, I thought it was an extraordinary effort and I thought he had an extraordinary game. ” |
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— Packers head coach Mike Sherman |
They did. But at the same time, the coverage by the linebackers, watching the whereabouts of red-zone touchdown machine Bubba Franks, as well as the corners, was tight enough to make Favre keep the ball as he rolled to the left.
"In that situation," said Favre, "the only way I was going to throw it was if the guy was absolutely wide open."
As Tony Brackens came storming at him from the right end, Favre continued to drift to toward the left sideline with his eyes glued on the end zone. Once Brackens' dive resulted in a pat on No. 4 's jersey, defensive end Rob Meier was the only person between Favre and the goal line.
"The last person they were probably worried about running it was me," he said.
Knowing the best option for the score was to keep it himself, he tucked his head down, stashed the pigskin in his left arm, and took off toward the left pylon. When Meier missed him by inches around the 10-yard line, he was home free, as he scrambled in untouched.
"Brett, at his old age, showed some speed coming around the corner," said Antonio Freeman, who had 104 yards receiving on just three receptions. "Hey, he got in the end zone. I'm just glad he didn't run out (of bounds)."
Though he didn't expect to run the ball -- at all -- when he called for the play moments earlier, Favre took exactly what the defense gave him, and ran for his first touchdown since Oct. 25, 1998, to put the Pack ahead for good with only 25 seconds left.
"It's kind of like leap year," said the three-time NFL MVP, who said that the win ranked as one of the best he's ever been a part. "They come around every four years."
Players like Favre don't, though. He's now 7-0 in games where his team is tied going into the fourth quarter, and has orchestrated an Elway-esque 20 game-winning drives in what has been a storybook career. Monday night's victory, highlighted by his, ahem, nimble legs, was just one of the better chapters.
"The way he hung in there and made throws and actually scored a touchdown with his legs, a man with an old back like he has," marveled Sherman after the win that moved Green Bay to 8-3 on the year. "I thought it was an extraordinary effort and I thought he had an extraordinary game."
"Things like that," said Green, "are the reason why he's going to be where's he's going to be when he retires -- in Canton."
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online. He can be reached at marc.connolly@abc.com.
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Brett Favre looks to duplicate the effort from Monday's second half next week against Chicago.