I’ll give Aaron Rodgers all the credit he is due: This past weekend, with the game on the line, he finally made what could be characterized as plays in the clutch. Was there pressure on Rodgers even though the Packers still had the comfort of knowing that at worst, there was still overtime to decide the contest against the New York Giants? Certainly there was; if the Giants had won the toss in overtime, there is every reason to believe that Eli Manning would pick apart the Packers porous secondary like he had been doing all game long in order to get into at least field goal range. I just say lucky for the team that it found out he could really do it. I might point out the odd coincidence that the New England Patriots also escaped with a 38-35 win against the Giants in their 16-0 season. What does this mean? The Packers may finish the season unbeaten, but maybe they should hope they don’t encounter the Giants again.
There has been a lot of comparison shopping by the sports media, although frankly a lot of it is apples and oranges. Everything is relative. We don’t even need to compare this Packer team with the 2007 Patriot team, because we have two other Packer teams in the mix. Which is the better team--the 1962, 1996 or 2011 Packer teams? The question will be moot unless the 2011 team wins the Super Bowl, but these were different teams in different eras; the 1962 team relied heavily on the running game, its 36 rushing touchdowns still a single-season NFL record, while the 1996 team still managed a respectable 11th in rushing compared to 29th currently for the pass-happy 2011 team. The more significant differences are to be seen on the other side of the ball: While the 1962 and 1996 teams led the NFL in scoring, they also led in fewest points allowed, and the defenses were 2 and 1 respectively in yardage allowed. In their 13 regular season wins, they were utterly dominant. The 1962 team outscored their opponents 401-122, while the 1996 team did so by a 409-132 margin; include the playoffs that year, the Favre-led Packers outscored their opponents 519-180 in 16 wins. Through 12 wins this season, the Packers league-leading 420 points is indeed impressive, but the 262 points allowed less impressive—number 17 in scoring defense as well as 31st in yardage allowed. Thus there can be a case to be made that the 2011 team is one that is more vulnerable to losing the “big one,” but has had the breaks bounce their way up to this point. In fact the 2009 squad was the overall statistically more complete team on both sides of the ball, and save for the two losses to the Favre-led Vikings and a one-point loss to the Steelers, they might have gone considerably farther than that bizarre ending at Arizona.
And then of course there is the inevitably boring comparisons between Favre and Rodgers. Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel attempted to dispel the “myth” that Rodgers is the better quarterback, and the fact is that 4,000-yard passing seasons were still the exception rather than the rule in the 1980s and 1990s. Dan Marino had “only” six 4,000-yard seasons (as did Favre), while Peyton Manning has 11 in 13 seasons in the "current" era. So we are still talking about different modes of play. Silverstein pointed out, however, that during a certain stretch during the 1995 and 1996 seasons, Favre put up impressive numbers, including a 49-7 TD pass to INTs during a 16-game stretch that included the 1995 playoffs. Favre’s best 16-game regular season stretch (also from 1995 to 1996) was 47-9 TDs to INTs—still none to shabby (of course, we might also mention that within that stretch Favre had a 37-4 ratio through 12 games, and 41-5 through 13). Earlier today I had to endure this very rude person named Steven A. Smith, an ESPN analyst who styles himself as a “journalist,” expectorate that he thought Favre was being “selfish” for even bothering to suit-up the last five years (Eric Mangini, former Jets coach who ought to know better, told Smith to his face that he was wrong; if anyone was "selfish," it was Ted Thompson & Co. who tried to force Favre into retirement and then deliberately trading him to a team for which he was an ill-fit). Yet in 2007 he threw for 3,356 yards through the first 11 games--just 119 yards behind Rodgers’ output this year--before Favre injured his shoulder against Dallas, which apparently effected him the rest of the season and the following year in New York. In 2009, he had arguably his best season statistically, yet the envy of some people is just too much for them to bear. The Silverstein article also included old video that refreshed the memory about Favre’s uncanny ability to make the kind of eye-popping throws that even Rodgers wouldn’t dare try.
So is Rodgers really superior to Favre? Is this Packer team the franchise’s “best” ever? Well, let’s just wait and see first.
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