Happy Brett Favre Day

Packers 52 - Saints 3

Brett 36 - Happy Birthday!

If this is going to be a Jekyll & Hyde season, I'll take the Jekyll days like yesterday any time. Finally, we fired on all cylinders. We didn't make mistakes, we capitalized on the opponents'. We didn't get the ball taken from us, we took the ball. Al Harris started a barrage of turnovers in the first quarter, when he picked off Aaron Brooks and returned the interception for a TD -- it looked almost exactly like the play he made to end the game against Seattle in the opening week of the Playoffs after the 2003 season. Then, 59 seconds later, Harris picked Brooks off again. He nearly had a hat trick, but dropped a near-interception of one of Bouman's passes in the fourth quarter. (He did get a sack, too, though!)

Then the rest of the defense started looking for the ball. It's like they collectively realized (finally), hey, we can actually take the ball AWAY from them! There were two fumble recoveries and then Nick Barnett sealed the win -- and ratcheted the total up to 52 unanswered points -- with a 95-yard interception return, the second-longest in Packers history. Five turnovers from a team who had only managed two in the previous four games. It's a start.

There's bad news, too, of course. Najeh Davenport -- who racked up over 50 yards in 12 carries and 2 TDs -- broke his ankle near the end of the first half. He's out for the season. This is definitely the time of year when injuries tend to pile up, but this is getting ridiculous. Of course, if it means that more of our backups can step up and perform (note: Favre's three TD passes were all to guys listed as backups at the start of the season), then perhaps it's a blessing in disguise.

So, finally, a good first:

• First time the Packers have ever scored more than 50 points in a game with Favre as QB

Oh, and yesterday was Brett's 230th consecutive start (including the Playoffs), and our 35 points in the first half was the most we've scored since his tenth start against the Lions in Milwaukee. Incidentally, the Lions now (shudder) lead the NFC North with their two wins.

So, is this the turnaround? We'll see. We have a tough schedule ahead. The bye week is coming at the right time (yet again), and hopefully we can get healthy. In the meantime, it really feels good knowing that, in games we've lost this season, we've lost by an average of less than 5 points; in the ones we've won, we're averaging a 49 point differential.