Packers Top Eagles (Despite Having Favre)

According to the Associated Press, the Green Bay Packers 16–13 win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday "counted as the 37th time Brett Favre had led the Packers from a fourth-quarter tie or deficit to a win." It must been written by Favre's agent. In truth, about the only thing Favre contributed to the Packers' thrilling victory was the inept quarterbacking that made the game close in the first place.

Brett Favre is the NFL's Teflon quarterback; if he got caught in a dogfighting scandal, I think his fans and much of the press would blame the dogs. For the last two seasons, Favre has been a wretched quarterback, throwing 47 interceptions against just 38 touchdowns while his legions of admirers have tossed out every possible explanation for his lousy passing except, well, that his passing is lousy.

Yesterday, Favre never began to get the Packers offense going, completing 23 of 42 passes for only 206 yards, an abysmal 4.9 yards per pass average with just a single completion (to wide receiver Donald Driver) for as long as 22 yards and only one other, to running back Brandon Jackson, for as long as 15. This means that on his other 40 passes, Favre was barely averaging four yards a toss, about what you'd expect the average NFL running back to get from scrimmage. The Packers' only touchdown came in the first quarter courtesy of linebacker Tracey White's recovery of a fumble in the end zone, and their only other first half score was a spectacular 53-yard field goal by Mason Crosby. The so-called winning "drive" in the fourth quarter followed the recovery of a fumbled punt and consisted of two rushing plays before Crosby's winning 42-yarder. I don't know how anyone could credit Favre with the win unless he was playing on special teams.

On this day, Green Bay didn't need a passing offense — in fact, they probably would have been better off running the ball into the line three yards and punting instead of trying to throw the ball at all. Donovan McNabb was very nearly as bad as Favre. He completed just 15 of 33 passes for 184 yards, a 5.8 YPP, though at least he had a touchdown pass. But in McNabb's case there were mitigating circumstances, as he was playing on the road in his first non-exhibition start after missing most of the last seven regular season games in 2006. He was actually a lot better than the numbers indicated. He completed two passes for first downs that were called back for illegal motion, and a nine-yard scramble for a first down was brought back on a holding call.

All in all, the Eagles chalked up six offensive penalties, the kind of performance that makes it almost impossible to move the ball consistently. Defensive penalties, on the whole, tend to be a sign of aggressiveness, and most coaches will ignore them if the defense plays well. But offensive penalties are almost always bad. As Bill Walsh once told me in an interview, "Trying to get an offense going with false starts and holding calls is like trying to play tennis while wearing ankle weights."

With Brian Westbrook squirming for 85 yards on 20 carries, the Eagles always seemed to be on the verge of gaining control of the game. They ended up outgaining the Packers by 69 yards, but the penalties and two lost fumbles are an indication that mentally they still aren't out of the preseason.

The Eagles will get better, and their schedule is a relatively easy one. A match with New England in Foxboro in Week 12 and a Week 16 game with the Saints in New Orleans are likely the only ones in which they'll be underdogs by more than a couple points. They'll get better as McNabb gets back in his groove. Packers fans, though, will find that they're the victims of much false optimism. Green Bay won their last four games to close out the 2006 season and finish 8–8, but three of the wins were against bad teams (San Francisco, Detroit and Minnesota) and the fourth was against the Bears' Bteam. My guess is that they won't win another game this season against a team that finishes with a winning record — and that they have a shot at finishing 8–8 again only by virtue of the fact that they don't play many winning teams.

* * *

Some commentators were billing Sunday afternoon's Bears-Chargers game as a possible Super Bowl preview. If so, it's likely that the next Super Bowl will be even duller than the last one.

In pre-salary cap times, the Bears' Lovie Smith and his staff would have gone out in the offseason and tried to find a decent replacement for quarterback Rex Grossman, one of the three or four worst passers ever to make it to the big game. But with the rules they way they are now, the Bears are pretty much stuck with him all season, and they can expect more performances like Sunday's — 12 of 23 for 145 yards, no TDs, and one interception — any time they play a team with a good defense.

I don't know that San Diego's defense is that good, but they came perilously close to shutting out the Bears, whose 27-yard field goal in the second quarter was their only offense. Only a couple of meaningless desperation completions late in the game allowed the Bears to finish with over 200 total yards. Not that the Chargers did much better on offense; with Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher keying on San Diego running LaDainian Tomlinson tighter than Jon Stewart on Alberto Gonzales (just 17 carries for 25 yards, nine of those carries for zero or negative yardage). The Chargers offense was shut out for nearly three quarters. Finally, with 45 seconds left in the third quarter, someone thought to call a halfback option play with Tomlinson faking an end run then dropping back to lob a 17-yard TD pass to Antonio Gates, who was so uncovered he should have felt insulted.

San Diego will no doubt be back to its usually 400+ yards on offense in a week or so, but you got a scary feeling watching the Bears offense that it' already in midseason form. An even scarier thought is that they probably will be make it back in the Super Bowl.

Mr. Barra is the author of "The Last Coach: A Life of Paul ‘Bear' Bryant."