I Almost Forgot

One of the best parts of Sunday's game showcased what we all love about Brett Favre (well, perhaps everyone except Eagles fans). The NYT wrote it up well:

For Favre and Packers, an Ugly Win Is Still a Win - New York Times:
The Eagles’ pass rush forced Favre to improvise, and his shining moment occurred during the third quarter, facing third-and-10. With a defender hanging on his leg, and other Eagles closing in for a potential sack, Favre deftly shoveled an underhand pass to DeShawn Wynn, who gained 18 yards to keep a drive alive, leading to a field goal. Asked about that play, Eagles safety Brian Dawkins complimented Favre. “A quarterback with not that much moxie would not complete that pass,” Dawkins said. “He’d have just taken the sack and gone down. But Brett has been there for so long, and he’s that gunslinger and he’s going to take those chances.”

I had toyed with calling the last post "What a Wynn!" but I am growing tired of pun-based post titles. Of course, having decided against that title, I forgot to mention it altogether.

A couple of plays later, Favre escaped another sack (to Philly's credit, they did get to Favre successfully four times) and completed a six-yarder to Donald Lee. Has Favre aged? Of course. Is he the most reliable 4th-quarter comeback QB he was a decade ago? Not so much. But do I want the ball in his hands any less now than I did ten -- or even 16 -- years ago? Nope. Magic.

Undefeated!

Packers 16 - Eagles 13

I'm hopeful that this victory will be a sign that this will be a year in which any last-second field goals will fall in our favor. Mason Crosby quickly became famous this week, thanks to literally kicking off his career as a Packer by booting a 53-yarder through the uprights to put the team up ten to zip in the first quarter... and then, oh, by the way, kicking a 42-yarder through with two seconds left to win the game. The last rookie kicker to win a game like that for the Pack? Same as the last Packer to boot a 53-yarder on opening day: A guy named Chris Jacke. In the end, yes, Crosby's just a kicker, and I'm sure I'll have a vitriolic rant about him on this blog eventually, but for now it's nice that he was able to lead us off with a victory the way he did.

The offense struggled in this game. The defense played solidly, although there's still room for them to improve -- the Philly offense should not have been allowed to catch back up to us by the end of the first half. The play by special teams was inspired. Over the past couple of seasons, I've lamented that we had no "x-factor" like we had in the late '90s. Our defense was amazing then -- and defense really does win championships -- but we also had Desmond Howard running kicks back into the end zone every once in a while. Last year, the Bears got to the Super Bowl, thanks in no small part to Devon Hester. Meanwhile, our average starting field position was probably at, like, the 15. We didn't run anything back on Sunday, but we did apparently scare the bejeezus out of their returners enough to make a difference. The first score of the season was a muff recovery in the end zone (thanks, Atari!). If that's an sign of things to come, I'm reading.

To make up for lost time, I expect Brett to throw at least four TD passes (and run one in -- why not?) this weekend at the Giants' place. In the meantime, Brett did reach his first milestone of the season in Game #1, tying John Elway with his 148th career win. Donald Driver also tied an important record on Sunday. He and Antonio Freeman both have 213 catches at Lambeau.

Beating the Eagles was huge. We haven't done that in a long time. Winning our home opener was equally as huge. It's been too long on that, too. Our contain was good on Brian Westbrook, and our pressure on McNabb was appropriately persistent. The only really weird trend I noticed in this game, which I hope was just an opening day fluke, was that it seemed to take us far too long to get the ball snapped and start the play. We had, I think, one delay-of-game penalty, but there was also one no-call I noticed, and otherwise it seemed we were snapping the ball with :01 on the clock with alarming frequency. We'll see if New York time is any different. Hope so.

Short version: I wish Rayner all the best (I guess), but we chose wisely with Crosby.