A couple issues ago there was an article that compared the physical youth of Aaron Rodgers against the seasoned veteran of Brett Favre. Well after twelve games for both quarterbacks, it is time to revisit the debate and see which one is winning out.

Green Bay Packer’s Head Coach Mike McCarthy has been under intense scrutiny this whole season. He has been mocked by NFL fans at sports bars and ESPN Pundits alike. No, it is not because of a losing record or awful play calling. In fact many people forget that the Packers were 7-4 going into Monday night’s game against the Ravens and in the thick of the wildcard race. No, Mike McCarthy has been blasted this season because of Brett Favre’s performance with the Vikings. Football fans across the country this season have wondered how the Packers let this quarterback get away from them after being deemed as “too old to play”.
Well in reality, Coach McCarthy never said that about Brett Favre and really never made the decision to not have Favre on his team. Brett made that decision when he retired…the first time. With Brett Favre’s performance in Minnesota, NFL fans have almost forgotten that Green Bay already has a younger Pro Bowl bound quarterback in Aaron Rodgers. McCarthy may not have expected Brett Favre to have an incredible and drama-filled career after his departure from Green Bay, but its time people get off of his case because he made the right decision.

Okay. Right now everyone has to be wondering how I can say the Packers would not be playing better without Brett Favre on their team. In all honesty, if you look at the stats, it might look like the old gunslinger might have thrived in Mike McCarthy’s offense. Through week 13, he has thrown for 3149 yards with 26 touchdowns, only five interceptions and a passer rating of 108.5.

One stat that people forget to look at though is the number of times he has been taken to the ground by opposing defenders. Over the past 13 weeks, Favre has only been hit 57 times, while Aaron Rodgers has been hit 72 times through 11 games. Even though Rodgers has played behind a far inferior offensive line in comparison to Minnesota’s line lead by All Pro Steve Hutchinson, he still is on pace to out pass Favre’s 2007 stats. That is the same year they went to the NFC Championship Game.

More importantly, you cannot believe that a 40 year old man coming off of arthroscopic surgery to complete a tear in his throwing arm would survive an entire season with the Packer’s line. Favre would reinjure himself one way and the Packers would be in the same situation they are in today except Aaron Rodgers would have a lot less experience and confidence.

Speaking of injuries, it was exactly two years ago this week that Brett Favre hobbled off of the field in Dallas after two first half interceptions with shoulder and elbow injuries. Aaron Rodgers stepped in and threw for over 200 yards and a touchdown with 69% completion rate. It’s easy to see McCarthy’s logic when Brett Favre unretired himself. One choice is the legendary quarterback who has played well, but is very injury prone and has a tendency to throw interceptions in critical games and the other is a first-round draft choice with only upsides who has had his team build around him for two years now. McCarthy chose Rodgers and as they say, the rest is history.

So here we are today. Both quarterbacks are playing well, but if you watched this past Sunday night game, you may have noticed a change in Favre. In the Vikings loss to Arizonia, Favre threw two picks even though he had only thrown three in all of his previous games. Both interceptions were not overthrown passes or ones caused by a deflection from a defensive player. Both were thrown while Favre was under pressure and he forced a pass to one receiver who was well covered by multiple defenders. Classic Brett Favre picks. No doubt the ones Packers fans would see plenty of if Favre was under the pressure Rodgers has been under this season, and who has only thrown five interceptions himself.

You can pass it off as just an off game for an otherwise great player. Even Peyton Manning and Tom Brady have bad days, but then you remember this time last year. The Jets looked like great super bowl contenders with an 8-3 record going into a final five game stretch. In those final five games, Brett Favre blew the team’s playoff hopes with an abominable 1-4 record, throwing for only two touchdowns versus nine interceptions with a dismal passer rating of 55.4.

Could this be history repeating itself for Brett Favre? Only time will tell, but if you were a playoff contending team fighting for a wildcard spot like the Packers, would you really want this 40 year old gunslinger leading your team? Fortunately for Mike McCarthy, that is one decision he will not have to make.

by Bradley Wilson
bradley.wilson@mu.edu

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What was supposed to be a nostalgic night spent reminiscing about the past and paying deference to one of the best NFL quarterbacks of all time, instead became a night spent looking towards the future and more importantly, the present. The Green Bay Packers kicked off its 90th season in franchise history (its 88th in the NFL) by defeating the Minnesota Vikings, 24-19.

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers had an impressive showing in his first NFL start. Rodgers went 18 for 22, throwing for 178 yards with one passing touchdown to go along with his first NFL rushing touchdown.

Originally, the Monday Night Football opener was slated to be a night in which former Packer quarterback Brett Favre was to be honored and have his jersey and number retired. But a tumultuous summer ensued, one in which Favre came out of retirement after feeling the “itch” to play and the next thing Packer fans knew, Favre had been traded to the New York Jets for a conditional draft pick.

So when Aaron Rodgers took the opening snap Monday night, it marked the first time since Sept. 20, 1992 that a Green Bay quarterback not named Brett Favre started a game.
Quick Favre Update (As if we haven’t heard enough): Sunday in Miami, the exiled Brett Favre extended his win total to 161 games by leading the New York Jets (1-0) over the Miami Dolphins (0-1), 20-14. Favre went 15-for-22 and threw for 194 yards.

In his highly anticipated first drive, Rodgers and the Packers came out a little stagnant. A 3-yard dump off to tight end Donald Lee and an illegal formation penalty, which forced the Packers to punt, were the highlights of the season’s opening drive.

But in the second quarter Rodgers came alive launching a 56-yard bomb down the middle of the field to wide receiver Greg Jennings, who wrestled the ball away from a Vikings defender.
Several plays and penalties later, Rodgers threw for his first passing touchdown of the year. In similar fashion to that of his predecessor, Rodgers rolled left and threw a laser into the hands of blanketed Korey Hall who held on for the score.

The 24-year old Rodgers would have added a 68-yard touchdown to his stat line but it was stand-in guard Tony Moll whose illegal man downfield penalty nullified a laudable throw to receiver Donald Driver.

The Packers did eventually catch a break from the Packers special teams late in the third quarter when cornerback Will Blackmon returned a punt 76 yards for a touchdown. Blackman tiptoed up the sidelines then abruptly cut back across the field and into the end zone to bring the score to 17-6 in favor of the Packers.
The Vikings would answer with a 23-yard touchdown pass to bring the score to 17-12 midway through the fourth quarter. Quarterback Tavaris Jackson was able to find a wide-open Sidney Rice on 4th and 1.

With eight minutes remaining and the Packers in need of a sustainable drive, running back Ryan Grant took some pressure off Rodgers by taking the ball 57 yards to the Vikings 3-yard line. That set up an Aaron Rodgers quarterback sneak as he plunged over the goal line to put the Packers up 24-12. A beaming Rodgers spiked the ball with vigor and ran to take his first career Lambeau leap.

An Adrian Peterson run brought the Vikings within five points, who were able to take advantage of a Packer penalty and get the ball back with 1:51 remaining.
The Packers were able to seal the game when safety Atari Bigby intercepted the ball near midfield with about a minute left and the Vikings threatening.
All in all it was a very impressive showing for Aaron Rodgers, a former first round pick. It was his first regular season action since he replaced Brett Favre midway through the team’s game against the Dallas Cowboys last season.

It was that game in which Rogers showed much poise and convinced Packers General Manager Ted Thompson and Head Coach Mike McCarthy that he was ready to step out of Brett Favre’s shadow and into a starting role.

Rodgers also found his way into the NFL record books on Monday night by completing 81.3 percent of his passes, the second highest in NFL history for a quarterback making his first start.

On his very first Lambeau leap, Rodgers called it something he has been “dreaming about for four years.” With performances like the one he put forth on Monday night, he won’t have to wait four years for another opportunity.

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Peyton Manning’s prominence in the history of the NFL is easily apparent to anyone who has seen a Packers game during Brett Favre’s impressive string of record-breaking performances. Nearly every time Favre sets a new NFL mark for wins, touchdown passes, yards or any other of a host of statistical passing categories the announcers cannot be quick enough to indicate that Favre is merely holding the spot until Manning has an opportunity to break the record.

All of this has led to frequent comparisons of Manning and Dan Marino, the former holder of many of the records Favre is now breaking. Marino, despite his statistical legacy, will be forever discounted from contention for greatest quarterback ever due to his inability to win a Super Bowl. This same criticism plagued Manning until the Indianapolis Colts Super Bowl victory over the Chicago Bears last season. Thanks to his much-deserved Super Bowl ring, Manning’s many other accomplishments can now be brought to bear in his near constant comparison to the New England Patriots’ Tom Brady.

This comparison is a critical one, as fans of over great sports rivalries know. One cannot discuss Magic Johnson without Larry Bird .Just as this generation asked their parents about the 1979 title game that established this legacy, future generations will ask us to recount the meetings of two of the greatest NFL quarterbacks ever. With that in mind, one should be sure to view both Manning and Brady in terms of their achievements as well as the context in which they earned those achievements.

Since he entered the NFL as the first overall pick in the 1998 draft, Manning has been the face of the Indianapolis Colts. He has been the focus nucleus of the franchise and the centerpiece of future roster plans. In light of this, Manning has been given an amount of responsibility and power on the field that few other players, even quarterbacks, have enjoyed. He is asked to make decisions at the line of scrimmage that frankly most offensive coordinators are incapable of making. In light of this, it is easy to see that Manning deserves more credit for his Super Bowl ring than your typical quarterback.

Brady entered the league as a successful but relatively unknown quarterback from the University of Michigan. He became a starter after an injury to Drew Bledsoe during the 2001 season. Since then, he has won three Super Bowls, an impressive feat, but in each instance Brady was far from the catalyst for the season. To put it in a more accessible context, name as many defensive starters for the Patriots’ Super Bowl squads as you can. Without much effort many can name Richard Seymour, Ty Law, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel, Asante Samuels and maybe a few others. Now name all the Colts’ defenders you can. So, Dwight Freeney? This pretty clearly illustrates a substantial difference in the quality of defense playing the other half of the game for both Manning’s Colts and Brady’s Patriots.

The obvious objection is that Manning has had a better set of weapons at his disposal on offense. This may seem to be the case but the difference may not be as significant as Brady supporters would have you believe. Brady has had a very respectable running game behind him his entire career. Whether it was Corey Dillon or Laurence Maroney, a viable ground game has always been a part of the Patriot’s offense.

Manning has also had an above average run game at his disposal for his entire career with Edgerrin James headlining the attack. Fortunately for our purposes, James left the Colts and is now part of a less than impressive ground attack for the Arizona Cardinals. One extremely probable explanation for this is the pass first mentality of the Colts, which forced defenses to play extra defensive backs which led to a more user friendly environment for James while he was in Indianapolis.

In terms of receivers, the recent departure of Brandon Stokely again provides a useful case study. While Stokely was with the Colts he was the third wide receiver and had immense success in that role. So much success that in fact people often speculated that he could become a starter on another NFL roster if he chose to leave Indianapolis for a lesser offensive unit. Well, three years after catching 10 touchdowns from Manning, Stokely departed for the Denver Broncos. In Denver, Stokely was again slotted as a third wide receiver, only this time instead of being stuck behind Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne, he was sitting on the bench behind Javon Walker and Brandon Marshall until a recent Walker injury.

Bearing these two instances in mind, it is hard to believe that if their situations were reversed that Brady would have been able to match the success of Manning over the last decade. Manning on the other hand seems more than capable of performing the duties of Brady. Manning has provided the Colts with more offense than Brady has been capable of in every season but this one and Brady’s sudden surge of offensive productivity can be easily traded to the off season acquisitions of Randy Moss, arguably the most physically talented player in the NFL, along with a slew of other offensive tools including Donte Stallworth and Wes Welker.

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With the Packers out of the playoff race and 3 weeks left in the season is there anything for Packer fans to look forward to? Yes. Of course, when any team is out of playoff contention it is always popular to root for a high draft pick. You could turn your attention to dreaming about which favorite college player you’d like to see in the Green and Gold next year, but before you look ahead to next year there are still a few things left to enjoy this season.

First, Brett Favre is only seven touchdown passes away from breaking Dan Marino’s career touchdown passing record. It sure would be nice to see Brett break it before the end of the year so that no offseason craziness could prevent him from breaking it as a Packer.

The second thing to look forward to is the Packers last three games are against divisional foes. It’s always nice to beat a divisional opponent even when the game is meaningless for us. How nice would it be to see the Packers ruin the Bears season by beating them at Soldier Field? With some luck the Pack’s victory would prevent the Bears from securing home field advantage throughout the playoffs. It is always common to see Packer fans with a my favorite team is the Packers, my second favorite team is whoever plays the Bears t-shirt. With the Bears a legitimate Super Bowl contender this year rooting against them takes on added importance. Rooting against the Bears for the remainder of the season could provide ample enjoyment for the true Packer fan.

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