Monday Night Magic III

Packers 19 - Broncos 13 (OT)

Man, the 'Brettrospectives' have really be flying around this season. FOX did one back in Week 4, when they had the Vikings game in which Favre was sure to crack Marino's TD record. Last week, it was ESPN showing all of his great moments from "MNF." Ah, memories.

In Monday night's game, Favre did not disappoint. He had two pass plays in this game that went for over 75 yards (has that ever happened?), and they both resulted in touchdowns. In fact, those two plays constituted 13 of the team's points, while the other six took the team 27 plays to earn! It was the last play of the game, though, that will be cemented in history as official 'Favre Monday night magic.' Greg Jennings -- originally dubbed on this blog as "The Jennerator" (so I have dibs once the merchandisers catch up, ahem) -- was on a double-go on the left side of the field, defended by Dré Bly. Favre threw a beautiful play action pass that dropped right into Jennings' arms. 82 yards later, we were going batshit crazy, yelling, hugging, and high-fiving in the basement (the kids somehow slept right through it), and the Packers were 6-for-6 in overtime games behind Brett Favre.

The first TD was a similar 79-yarder on the right side of the field to rookie Jimmy "JJ" Jones, who was being defended by Champ Bailey. All weekend long, those picking the game were going on and on about how Bly and Bailey were two of the best corners in the league. I think they probably are the best in the AFC. Favre's seen a lot of Bly over the years since he played for both the Rams and the Lions. Perhaps that helped, but there were tons of factors involved and many pieces that fell into place in order for that play to have succeeded the way it did. What a credit to Favre, Jones, and Jennings, though, that the two biggest offensive plays were against the two greatest players on the Broncos' roster.

Now, on the other side of the coin, we racked up a totally unacceptable number of penalties. For one thing, that led to points on the board for the Broncos, and for another, it kept us from scoring more points of our own. Denver's ability to march down the field was made possible in large part by our guys' stupid mistakes or poor choices. Atari Bigby made my blood boil; first, with an unnecessary roughness penalty and then a pass interference penalty, both on third downs in the Broncos' touchdown drive in the 1st quarter; next, on a stupid delay of game penalty in the 4th, when he kicked the ball in frustration; and finally, in one more interference call on the first play of the Broncos' last drive, when they were backed up on their own 7 yard line, and wound up tying the game. Bigby wasn't the only one at fault, though. After the 2:00 warning in the first half, we drove down to the Broncos' 1, but then false-started ourselves back to the 8 and had to kick a field goal.

Similarly, in one of the most unfortunate oddities of the game, at the beginning of the 2nd quarter, we had started a drive on our own 1 and made it all the way to the Broncos' 1, where we also had to settle for 3 points. How often do you see a 98-yard scoring drive wind up in only 3 points on the board?

But thanks to the one-play touchdown in overtime, we're 6-1, and Packers fans are enjoying a phenomenal (if back-and-forth and often heart-stopping) season.