Barber Runs Wild as Giants Pound Favre, Packers
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Giants left Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers wobbly.
Tiki Barber rushed for 182 yards and scored on a 52-yard touchdown run, and Kurt Warner threw a touchdown pass to Jeremy Shockey in a 14-7 victory yesterday at Lambeau Field, where Favre was knocked from the game with a concussion.
The Giants improved to 3-1 despite a series of missed opportunities, including three errant field goal attempts by Steve Christie.
“This was a phenomenal win for us,” defensive end Michael Strahan said. “Our rate of improvement has been quicker than I expected.”
And the rate of Green Bay’s descent has been equally surprising. The Packers, mired in a contractual mess with cornerback Mike McKenzie and trying to overcome infighting and injuries, fell to 1-3 for the first time since 1993 and have their first three-game losing streak under fifth-year coach Mike Sherman.
Favre sustained a concussion when defensive lineman William Joseph knocked him to the ground in the third quarter and missed the next two plays. Favre went back in on fourth-and-5, waved backup Doug Pederson to the sideline and floated a 28-yard TD pass to Javon Walker for a 7-0 lead.
The Packers’ medical staff hadn’t cleared Favre to return to action. Sherman said he turned to Favre and asked if he was okay. Favre said yes, so in he went.
“The doctors told me after that they didn’t want him back in the ballgame,” Sherman said.
So, Favre was done for the day. Warner said that when they spoke on the field afterward, Favre was fuzzy.
“I talked to him just for a minute to see how he was feeling. He didn’t re member the touchdown play,” Warner said. “You knew he wasn’t quite right.”
Two plays after Favre’s TD, Barber beat the blitz with a 52-yard touchdown run to tie it at 7.
Warner appeared to have made a costly mistake when he did a hook slide 18 inches shy of the goal line, but Shockey juked cornerback Michael Hawthorne and grabbed a 4-yard TD pass on third-and-goal to give New York a 14-7 lead with 12 minutes left.
“Next time, I’ll dive head first,” Warner said.
Pederson hurt his side on a hit near the sideline but stayed in until the final play, when third-stringer Craig Nall threw a 24-yard pass to Robert Ferguson to the Giants 32. But the clock expired before he could spike the ball and take a shot at the end zone.
The Packers have been a team in turmoil and are now in full crisis management. McKenzie was deactivated for the second straight game with a mysterious hamstring injury. He wasn’t on the sideline Sunday even though the other injured players all were.
Warner’s streak was ended at 127 passes without an interception when he threw into triple coverage from the 2 in the first half and Darren Sharper picked it off.