Vikings crush Bears, Favre showing zero signs of fatigue
If Brett Favre is wearing down, then he has everybody fooled because the guy is playing like a freaking maniac.
Favre completed 32-of-48 passes for 392 yards with three touchdowns and no inceptions in the Vikings’ 36-10 win over the Bears in Week 12. Minnesota attacked Chicago repeatedly through the air, throwing the ball 31 times to just 12 rushes in the first half. When the dust settled, the Vikings had a 24-7 halftime lead and the game was never in doubt from that point forward.
Minnesota is now 10-1 and will be rooting hard for New England to beat New Orleans on Monday night. The Vikes have the inside track on a first round bye, but they’ll have their eye on earning the top seed in the playoffs entering the final month of the season.
As for the Bears, their disastrous season continues. All of their defensive problems were on full display today as Favre and the Vikings went up and down the field with the greatest of ease. Chicago was out gained in first downs (31 to eight) and total yardage (537 to 169).
It was the same story today as it has been all season: They were outplayed in the trenches, they couldn’t run the ball and Jay Cutler turned the ball over multiple times. Nothing has changed about this team in over a month.
I’m actually starting to root for the guy.
A tip of the hat to the Vikings, they are a great team. I am a Bears fan and always will be….however, the owners need to loosen the purse strings or sell the team. We need new owners and new coaches……Lovie Dovie’s time is over. Everyone is at fault for the decline of this team…..it is truly a team effort. But, Lovie and his boys must go now, not two years from now. Swallow the money, Virginia……
I’m impressed, shocked and a little bit angry. I’m willing to eat crow at this point, didn’t think he would hold up or play within the offense (minimizing turnovers). I’m shocked that a guy averaging 17 INT’s/year in his career is caring for the ball so much (he still throws em’ up and Sidney Rice is playing like something out of Madden 10′). Favre gets his just due from a former critic….
That being said, I’m also extremely critical that he didn’t bring this type of focus in his game since 02′. Other than his 07′ anomoly (only played 3 teams over .500) he looked old, took way to many chances and threw almost 100 INT’s. So yes, he is likely the leading MVP candidate and deservedly so, but how do you reconcile his focus this year out of spite with his loose and indifferent play in the alst 7 years????
Favre wasn’t playing with a chip on his shoulder from ‘02 to ‘07…people weren’t saying he was going to break down or he was washed up. Oh yeah…and the Packers hadn’t had a running game like this since Lombardi.
That’s straight to the point, T-bone. Why does a professional athlete, HOF quarterback, need to have a chip on his shoulder to perform at an MVP level? So he collected his 100+ million from the Packers and Jets during this period just to, ’show up’ and sling it?
Again, he absolutely deserves credit for what he’s doing but the question about his recent efforts with two other franchises needs to be asked, doesn’t it?
I agree Mike but I also do believe he is playing on a better team today than he had from ‘02-’08. The running game of those Packers and Jets doesn’t compare to the talent on this Vikings team, so he doesn’t have to be the play-maker in every game and doesn’t have to take those risks to win…the result is fewer int’s. For a guy that’s played in 300+ consecutive games, I don’t think anyone can question his effort and dedication to the game.
Mike, your missing the big picture, the packers had very little talent , other than Green and DD, and everyone said he wasn’t a no. 1 receiver. Yes, Favre carried the team, and their poor decisions by both Sherman, and TT. He never missed a game, if all he was doing was showing up, I don’t think you watched many games. He left it all on the field. It makes the packers look worse all the time, to see just what could have been, if they would played their cards right.
It also shows how much coaching matters. The Vikings have talent and they are obviously doing a good job coaching this offense.
Few athletes can perform at their best all the time. Even when Favre isn’t at his best he’s still a very good player, but here we’re seeing him up his game and the players and coaches around him also deserve credit.
While he never had a RB like Peterson in Green Bay, those teams aren’t as bad as people on this thread are making them out to be. Green Bay made the right decision in cutting him loose. His annual will he/won’t he dance was hurting the team, and they would have lost Rodgers had they dragged it out any further. The Packers aren’t good enough to win a Super Bowl with Favre or Rodgers, so they might as well rebuild around the younger QB.
As for his time with the Jets, he was in the MVP conversation before he injured his arm (after the impressive win in Tennessee). Favre landed in the perfect situation in Minnesota, which is why he pushed so hard for it. Anything less than a Super Bowl win would be a disappointment at this point.
Shouldn’t Peyton be the MVP frontrunner? The Vikings have a better running game and defense, and they also have a loss.
Oh, I forgot about Drew Brees. He’s pretty good too.
I agree, GB made the right decision letting him go. It was time and they needed to rebuild. I think the entire situation for both team and player became stale and he needed something to help motivate him. He got it with the way he departed GB.
“Anything less than a superbowl win would be a disappointment”? To Favre and the Vikings maybe, but to football fans and media, it shouldn’t be. The vikings aren’t the best team in the conference, the Saints are and by the looks of how they sliced and diced the Patriots, it’s not even close. I think getting the Vikings to the conference championship game would be a pretty good finish, but I don’t think the Vikings have enough weapons to compete with the Saints, who seem to score a td with every player on the field.