Packers’ Favre breaks records while Vikings break down

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 10/04/2007

 

Not often can you have your cake and eat it too, but everything is falling into place, it seems, for the Green Bay Packers (4-0) and record-setting quarterback Brett Favre. He connected with wide receiver Greg Jennings in the first quarter on a quick slant for a touchdown to change the course of NFL history. Favre is now number one in the record books with 422 career touchdown passes.

Favre broke former Miami Dolphin great Dan Marino’s long- standing record in leading the unbeaten Packers to a 23-16 win Sunday over the Minnesota Vikings (1-3) at a sold-out Metrodome. He completed 32-45 passes for 344 yards; it was the 50th time in his great 17-year career that he has thrown for 300 yards or more in a game.

Favre also continues to amaze everyone by having started 241 consecutive games in the regular season (261 including playoffs). He is now number two all-time in that record, passing former Vikings great center Mick Tinglehoff at 240. Only the Vikings’ Jim Marshall (270) has a longer consecutive starting streak in NFL history.

Minnesota slipping in NFC North race

The Packers remained unbeaten at 4-0 along with Indianapolis, Dallas, and New England. The Packers have won eight games in a row, dating back to last season. Meanwhile, the Vikings are allowing the season to slip away, having lost three games in a row. The Vikings will have plenty of time to think about this huge loss at home to their number-one rival the Packers because this week they have a bye. Few rivalries in sports have been this close and have meant so much. Over the last 13 years, these two teams have accounted for nine NFC Central/North Division titles.

The Packers swept the Vikings in 2006 and now hold a 47-45-1 edge in this series that started back in 1961 when the Vikings were born.

Vikings Head Coach Brad Childress in his second year is now just 7-13 after 20 games. If that trend continues, Childress will have a short tenure in Minnesota. Childress is 0-5 vs. the Packers and the Chicago Bears, the Vikings’ top two rivals in the NFC North. So far, the Vikings are 0-2 in the NFC North in 2007, having lost to both Green Bay and Detroit. The NFC North is not regarded as the toughest division in football; however, under Childress the Vikings are just 2-6 vs. Green Bay, Chicago, and Detroit.

Vikings struggle under bad decisions

When the Vikings return from the bye week on Sunday, October 14, they will visit the defending NFC Champion Chicago Bears at Soldiers Field; then they will travel to Dallas on October 21 to play the unbeaten Cowboys and Tony Romo. This is a critical year for the Vikings, especially with their major stadium issues.

Since Dennis Green left after the 2001 season, the Vikings have missed the playoffs four times. If they miss the playoffs again in 2007 — and with 12 games to go anything can still happen — that would mean the Vikings are 1-5 since Green. After going 8-2 with Green, that is eight playoff appearances while missing out twice. That would mean that the Vikings would rather lose with the wrong coach than win with the right coach. Minnesota Vikings fans and media should check themselves because history does not lie.

When your organization makes the wrong decision for head coach and for quarterback, your organization is doomed. Green Bay stuck with Favre the legend at quarterback when Mike McCarthy was hired as head coach. The Packers are 12-8 with McCarthy, winners of eight in a row. Childress decided to trade veteran quarterback Daunte Culpepper to Miami for a second-round pick. Decisions, decisions. It is not working out in Minnesota, and that is the bottom line.