I’ve said for Brett Favre’s entire career, that despite the hall-of-fame statistics he has, he would be even much greater if he had good offensive coordinators that understood offensive strategy, weren’t conservative, and let him pass on first down. He spent most of his career handcuffed by poor offensive coordinators.
This year, he is 38 years old, and is having his best season statistically. Although there have been times when the Packers emphasized the run, for a large part of the season, they have passed, passed on early downs, and many times don’t even have a running back in the game. In the previous game against Detroit, they passed on 17 straight plays at one point. Favre completed 20 straight passes during the game. In the third quarter, the Packers had 7 yards rushing, Detroit had over 120 yards rushing, and the Packers led about 34-12. (This again proves my point you pass to score, not run to score.)
So, let’s look at the results. This is the most aggressive they’ve been offensively in Favre’s career. People have been saying for 4 years that he should retire, and now that they are aggressive, people are saying he should win the MVP at age 38! And, a Packer team that no one expected to be that good, is 11-0. What a difference good strategy makes.
Now, to the statistics. Let’s compare this year prorated over 16 games, to his three MVP years. You will see that he has better stats this year than in all of his MVP years.
Completion percentage: 1995: 0.630, 1996: 0.599, 1997: 0.593, 2007: 0.685
Passing yards: 1995: 4413, 1996: 3899, 1997: 3867, 2007: 4881
Yards/attempt: 1995: 7.7, 1996: 7.2, 1997: 7.5, 2007: 7.9
Touchdowns: 1995: 38, 1996: 39, 1997: 35, 2007: 32 Note: 2007 would be higher if the refs did not take away two TD passes in the Washington game that should have counted.
Interceptions: 1995: 13, 1996: 13, 1997: 16, 2007: 12
Rating: 1995: 99.5, 1996: 95.8, 1997: 92.6, 2007: 101.5
This is exactly what I’ve been saying for 17 years.