YES, I SAID IT FIRST. 

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Saturday, January 30, 2010
Volume 8; Article Number 4
Issue #187

WHY THEY LIFT ALL THOSE WEIGHTS

By Patrick Morand, Senior Editor, “YES, I SAID IT FIRST”

Our lasting memory of a great football game is usually how it ends.

When I think back to great games with exciting finishes I like to recall the 2002 Superbowl when the New England Patriots upset the St. Louis Rams and won on an Adam Vinatieri field goal kick as time expired.

In that game the Patriots drove down field without much resistance in the final two minutes and avoided overtime.

The game was close, but it should have been a walk in the park for the Rams as that season they had the most prolific offense led by their quarterback Kurt Warner. Perhaps their defense was not used to games coming down to the final two minutes and was more apt to be exploited by the Patriots with the game on the line.

The image that particularly rests with me about that game was how relentless the Pats were at getting pressure on the quarterback and making things uncomfortable for him. For the first three quarters Warner was stopped from doing what made his team successful all season. That pressure made it possible for the Patriots to stay in that game and win.

Perhaps the lasting memory of last Sunday’s NFC Championship game won by New Orleans Saints over Minnesota Vikings will forever be the cross center pass by Brett Favre that was intercepted and ended the drive that could have won the game for Minnesota.

That could be why so many have been critical of Minnesota’s Favre for how he finished the championship game. Most will consider the game and season lost on that one more ill advised play choice by Favre within the final 20 seconds of regulation time.

The game actually ended in overtime with New Orleans winning on a chip shot field goal to advance to the Superbowl. The Favre mistake play made the Saints winning play actually anticlimactic.

The Vikings lost despite having the ball at the Saints end of the field with a tie score and under thirty seconds remaining in regulation.

The Vikings lost despite out-gaining the Saints by a two to one margin in yards throughout the game. Many Vikings followers will go to the grave thinking the Vikings commanded the ball and played the best for the whole game but still lost, and that is why the piercing arrows of despair are pointed mainly at how Favre manages games.

Although so often in the NFL in big games it is more than one obvious mistake that makes the difference between winning and losing it has become a debate about what Favre did not do in the Vikings loss to provide perspective to that fateful night.

Long forgotten is why Favre was even in that game.

Last summer Favre was retired and “physically unable” to handle the requirements of playing NFL quarterback for another season.

When he did decide to be persuaded back out of retirement for the Vikings gig we all expected that by midseason an injury or fatigue of playing all the games late into the season would do him in and the Vikings would not make it as far as they actually did.

In reality what happened was quite the unexpected. The Vikings were the perfect fit for Favre. He was given pocket protection like he never had before. With very little revision to his playing style he made the Vikings contenders all season long.

Favre established the passing game, which is his specialty, to set up the running touchdowns of Adrian Peterson.

Favre had everything and it looked great.

He threw only 7 interceptions all season even though he still would thread the ball through the eye of a needle to make challenging passes to rookies like Percy Harvin. It was vintage Favre at 40 years old getting excited about what he wanted to do. He played the same as always without bad outcomes on his mistakes.

A week before the big New Orleans game he set aside the naysayers by picking apart Dallas in the divisional playoff round. He even made a questionable late passing touchdown to put an exclamation mark on that game. It was an exclamation that went noticed down in New Orleans and it probably had the Saint’s coach dust off some raw meat and potatoes doctrines of winning football for his defensive players to bone up on.

In the NFL to win you must stop the quarterback of the other team.

It certainly worked in 2002 when the Patriots gave relentless pressure against Kurt Warner in a Superbowl upset that year. Hit after hit after hit made Warner think faster and make mistakes because of it.

It seemed to work two seasons ago as the 18-0 Patriots lost a Superbowl to the New York Giants.

The reason that Favre succeeded so finely as a Viking in 2009 was the theory of time and space.

Favre always had options to make something out of a play. He had too much time and too much space, and when he did not have either he had Adrian Peterson to keep the defenses honest.

New Orleans knew they could not let Favre get that comfortable, and for some of the 400 yards gained he was comfortable, but by the fourth quarter he was thinking less about completing plays and a little more about protecting himself.

Usually good quarterbacks try and keep their offensive groups on the field long enough to wear down the defenses. As the game moves along the defenders get exhausted and the most finesse teams win because they can move the ball much easier late in the game against tired opponents.

As much as I often look for a drained defense left exhausted on the field to be exploited in the final minutes by a veteran quarterback waiting for mistakes there also is credence to the reverse happening as well.

In the case of Favre and the Vikings it was constant pounding, hurrying and threatening of Favre early in the game by an aggressive Saints pass rush that got him thinking and overcompensating late in the game.

It only took one mistake late in the game to swing victory to the grasp of New Orleans. Though New Orleans caused many mistakes throughout the game or Minnesota would have won by two more touchdowns.

They forced a few turnovers by Peterson who has never been the most sure handed of ball carriers, and had Favre cough up the ball twice on interceptions.

New Orleans made it happen.

They crunched Favre hard to the turf when they got to him, even though they never sacked him.

Favre always got rid of the ball and then got thrown down or hit viciously. Some of the hits were border line late but still effective. We could see the effects the hits had on Favre as he wobbled back up.

Normally they teach young quarterbacks that hanging on to the ball in pressure and taking the sack is the best move while throwing is the riskiest.

Not all veteran quarterbacks live by those rules. In fact Favre hardly ever goes down with the ball so it means he throws early or throws a play away. That is second nature to him, but it is unforgiving when it goes wrong, and one of the reasons in his career he has been intercepted so many times.

The outcome chart for the Saints was right in predicting that eventually one of those passes would be intercepted. Two of them were. One of them was on a critical final seconds drive.

The mix of 40 year old worn (and not necessarily in shape) body and young receivers conscious of getting hit themselves meant opportunities to cause turnovers.

Sure the argument could be made that all Favre had to do was run down field a few yards in some open space and save the play, but really? Have you ever known running to be part of what Favre does well? He was not in shape to extend that play, and he was not ready to leave his comfort zone.

The Vikings left the door open and the Saints walked through.

The game was still close.

Offense generally is in control of winning close games late. That is why teams like to keep their time outs so that when they have the ball they can control the play calls and affect change in the game score in their favor late.  

Most of the time the game is decided by a play tried late that was not executed like a missed field goal or dropped pass with time running out.  Like the Patriots game at Indianapolis this season when they chose to go for it on fourth down and could not convert. Making that play would have won the game for the offense. Not making that play ended up giving the other team the ball and they won the game with it.

If “one play” could win them the game a team will try it – on offense.

On defense however it is never “one play” but a series of plays throughout the game that add to the attrition factor. With some exceptions in the luck department it is all the little things throughout the game having to add up to victory to win a game with defense.

When Vikings players started leaving the game with injuries, and Favre began to wobble after some hits they had begun to see the fruits of their efforts. The Saints were one key miscue from winning the game.

Still if the Vikings had a chance for one more play it would have been a field goal attempt from some distance out and not a sure thing. We probably would not be having this discussion now.

Or if the Vikings had not taken the 12 men in the huddle penalty the play before maybe they would have won. That penalty was certainly the most major error in the game, because it forced them to make another play with some degree of risk. The penalty actually put the game more in Favre's hands than it should have been.

Penalties and turnovers are always forced though. Players thinking fast and ahead of themselves make both types of errors.

So even though Favre and his teammates made the blatant mistakes (fumbles and turnovers) one would have to surmise that the Saints had something to do with them making those “errors”.

Favre became the most visible punching bag for upset Viking followers for three reasons:

First, Favre put himself out in front of the team all season. He performed so great and really without him they would have struggled to make the playoffs. Nobody questions that. It was a Favre fantasy season.

Second, Favre ended the season the same way he has ended other seasons. He was the appetizer, and full course meal without the topping on the dessert. He lost this game the way he has lost all games that mattered in his career. He tried to force a play and lost.

Then third, we continue to put Favre on the pedestal he craves. Someone is always letting the guy come back and play expecting him to play like he did all season even without the hard off field work that players 30 and under retire to avoid.

We should not be denying the obvious though.

Favre showed up at camp on life support. He had an expiry date where he would get pounded at some point and not be able to handle the physical toll to keep going. The Saints made sure that time was going to be in their game in the fourth quarter.

It was eventually going to end.

We did not want to see it end and that has led to the disappointment that ensued.

The NFC Championship game was the highest rated non-Superbowl prime time show since the last episode of Seinfeld. If you ask around you find that the star appeal of Favre playing attracted us to watch that game. Many of us secretly wanted to see him pull it off. I secretly wanted him to do it just to see if he could. Too many hearts went thud all at the same time.

Favre, who just made up his mind about playing in August and led a team without the hard committed offseason training and week to week body management went up against younger guys who trained even harder to pound it out for a whole season and lost.

The Saints did all that hard labor in training camp and all season so that they could deliver the lasting blows to give them a chance to advance to the Superbowl.

They succeeded.

So rather than focus on Favre’s errant throw or Peterson’s gift of dropsy maybe we have it all wrong.

The Saint’s defense should get the credit for lifting all those weights all season and sticking to their plan.

That hard work helped them not tire out to let Favre add 30 more yards to his total and steal victory. They were bringing it all night.

The same hard work and fighting in the trenches to get pressure on the quarterback and his receivers ultimately forced the crucial error which we should have expected.

That was the error that spoiled a remarkable season of a 40 year old man who just did not have it in the tank to make the right choices with 20 seconds left.

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