Favre succeeds in filling role
Brett Favre threw his 300th career interception, one that Jabari Greer plucked away and returned 42 yards for a touchdown.
That pass, which came one play after a missed 43-yard field goal attempt by Rian Lindell, put the Buffalo Bills right back in Sunday's game, trailing, 23-17. Now the future Hall of Fame quarterback had to return to the New York Jets' huddle and calm his teammates.
"I was nervous as hell, to be honest with you," he said. "Things are not what they seem and I'm no different than anyone else. You're watching the game and you're like, 'Man, he's got it under control, look at him.' ... I thought, 'Boy, this ain't good.'"
But it wasn't that bad, either. The Jets were still leading the Bills by six before Favre orchestrated a clock-killing, 14-play, 65-yard drive that ended with a Jay Feely 31-yard field goal that all but clinched a hard-earned, 26-17 victory for the Jets on Sunday at Ralph Wilson Stadium.
Favre's numbers were prosaic, for him, but it was by design. His mission was to complete short passes against the Bills' Cover 2 and move the chains. He went 19 of 28 for 201 yards and didn't throw a touchdown pass, "at least to us," he said.
"I've played almost 300 games, or maybe 300 games, and they're all different," said Favre, who played in his 265th regular-season game Sunday. "But when you win, they all feel great. I could care less if I had thrown seven touchdowns or zero; it doesn't matter to me. What felt great was being able to kneel down at the end of the game."
Favre, by his own admission, is a risk taker and his interception total of 11 coming into Sunday's game was cause for concern for Jets coach Eric Mangini. So early last week, Mangini tried to convince Favre to take the good with the bad.
"You just stress, don't hit on 20, you know what I mean," Mangini, describing the card game blackjack, told reporters last week. "Like, sometimes it's OK to stay and see what the dealer has."
Said Favre, "I don't know if I'd hit on 20, but I'd hit on 16."
Mangini doesn't want to change Favre's style — he's passed for 457 touchdowns in his career — only to make him become more prudent in his decision-making.
"We've identified certain things that we need to improve offensively and we're working hard to improve those things to make sure we can be as efficient as possible," Mangini said. "It's not just Brett, it's play-calling, it's routes, it's protection. It's being able to protect the passer better; that was a point of emphasis."
And Favre understood where Mangini was coming from.
"This is 18 years and I don't know where that certain point came where I realized how important I could be to winning or losing a game," he said. "We all should feel that way. But obviously when you're handling the ball every play, that carries a little more weight."
Favre also understands why the Jets traded for him. The Jets have playmakers all over the field. They need him to feed the ball to Jerricho Cotchery, who Sunday had six receptions for 62 yards, and Thomas Jones, who also had six catches for 38 yards. His job is to get the ball to game breakers like Laveranues Coles, who finished with three receptions for 40 yards, and running back Leon Washington, who had a 40-yard reception, the longest of the day for the Jets.
"I was brought in here to make plays, be a competitor, be a leader and somehow find a way to win football games," Favre said. "That's what I'm here to do and that's what I tried to do [Sunday]."
On Sunday he succeeded.
