The Favre factor
The Jets' QB is struggling with INTs, but he's got enough game to pose a potent threat to the Bills' defense
Buffalo Bills quarterback Trent Edwards was asked last week how fans would react if he had thrown seven interceptions in the past three games, as Brett Favre has done for the New York Jets.
"I'm sure the media would be all over me," Edwards said. "I'd be trying to find excuses, and I'm sure there would be some questions as to whether or not I should and could even play in this position on this team. [But] this is only my second year in the league. The quarterback that the Jets have is in a much different stage in his career."
The scrutiny, however, never ends for an NFL quarterback, even for one bound for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The 39-year-old Favre takes the Ralph Wilson Stadium field today aiming to put an end to a week of hand-wringing over his propensity to throw interceptions this season.
The Bills (5-2) hope they can take advantage of New York turnovers and stay ahead of the Jets (4-3) in a key AFC East division meeting.
The Jets had designs on Super Bowl contention when they acquired Favre on Aug. 6 in a trade with Green Bay. So far the Jets have not looked super. Favre is tied for the league lead in interceptions with 11. New York was blown out at San Diego, lost at Oakland and struggled last week to beat lowly Kansas City.
Jets coach Eric Mangini last week told Favre to be a little more judicious in his decisions and used a blackjack analogy to make his point.
"You just stress, don't hit on 20, you know what I mean?" Mangini said.
Favre, in his 18th NFL season, knows what he means.
"Believe me, I'm well aware of what is expected of me and how important it is to take care of the ball," he said. "I've played a long time. ... I know statistically speaking, if you turn the ball over more than your opponent, you lose. That's two times in three weeks we've won. Can you make a living doing that? Every coach, any statistician would tell you no. I don't plan on doing that."
The Bills hope Favre shows his age today, but they know they can't count on it.
Yes, Favre has thrown 11 pickoffs, and at that pace, he will hit 25 for the season.
However, he also has 15 touchdown passes in seven games, a pace that would give him 34 for the season. That's more than Jim Kelly threw in any season for the Bills. Favre is on a pace that would give him 3,682 passing yards — more than Kelly threw in any Bills season except for 1991.
So Favre can still sling it. The Jets are averaging 26 points per game. A Bills defense that yielded 314 yards to Chad Pennington last week knows it needs to play better.
"He's a Hall of Fame quarterback," Bills safety Donte Whitner said. "You know he's seen every defense. He's seen every front, every blitz that you could throw at him. He's a guy that is very confident and very calm on the football field. ... So we expect Favre to come out and sling it. He hasn't lost anything on the way he throws the football and the balls that he can throw."
Bills defensive coordinator Perry Fewell admires Favre's creativity.
"That's why he is fun to play against because he is a guy that creates things on the field," Fewell said. "Where you think the ball is supposed to go, it may not go. So you have to be on your toes, you have to be alert and you have to be ready to play at all times with that guy."
Favre admits that after 16 seasons in Green Bay, the adjustment to a new offense and new teammates in New York has been tough. "I knew it was going to be difficult on my way up here," Favre said. "But not as hard as [it has been]. I'd been in the same offense pretty much my whole career, and coming here was totally different. The terminology was totally different. The concepts are totally different."
"Not to mention I'd never thrown to these guys before. So on top of learning the plays, I was trying to figure out who runs what better, how guys just run routes in general. I had to do it from the get-go. I went right into playing games."
Despite the difficulty, Favre says he has no doubt he made the right decision in coming back to the game after announcing his retirement in March.
"I tell you what, it's been refreshing," he said. "Believe me, the guys I worked with in Green Bay, I love them to death. I had a lot of fun. I think people in Green Bay just kind of got used to everything, and maybe I did to a certain extent. You just kind of get into this monotonous, repetitious way of doing things. Not that I didn't work hard. I competed in practice like I always do and like I do here. But from Day One everything was new to me here and I knew it was a big challenge. But I was up for it."
Favre is the NFL's all-time leader in completions, attempts, passing yards and passing touchdowns. He's also the career leader in interceptions, at a rate of 3.3 percent of his attempts. That's tied for 47th-best all-time, considerably higher than that of Hall of Famers Joe Montana, Steve Young and Troy Aikman, along with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. It's better than the rate of Eli Manning, Tony Romo, Ben Roethlisberger, and a slew of Hall of Famers who did not play in a West Coast offense, such as Kelly, Phil Simms and Warren Moon.
"It's obviously something that we wanted to minimize," Mangini said. "And we went into the relationship understanding that he has thrown the most touchdowns in the NFL and the most interceptions, and that probably wasn't going to change when he came here. However, that doesn't stop us from working to minimize those things."
The Bills' defense had 18 interceptions last year, which was middle of the pack in terms of pickoffs per pass attempt faced. This year the Bills have four interceptions, which is tied for 24th in the league.
Buffalo ranks 13th in passing yards allowed and is tied for 22nd in quarterback sacks.
Favre has taken a good number of hits this year and there has been speculation his shoulder is hurting. Nevertheless, he will make his NFL-record 261st straight start today (283 including playoffs).
The Bills, playing without their best pass rusher (injured Aaron Schobel), will have to find a way to bring some heat. Fewell says the pass rush is doing a decent job.
"We have got a lot of hits on the quarterback, we are pressuring the quarterback and we have a lot of hurries on the quarterback," Fewell said. "Some weeks some of those hurries result in interceptions, some of those hurries result in bad throws and some of those hurries result in other things. ... I am not disappointed in it. Yes, I would like the numbers to be better, of course. Without your premier pass rusher, which is Schobel, we are working hard at it and I think we will be OK."
