Zero2Cool
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Probably Pete's best article to date.
By Pete Dougherty
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After Brett Favre threw five interceptions in a practice four days into training camp, coach Mike McCarthy said the same thing publicly as in the Green Bay Packers' next quarterbacks meeting: Favre broke a cardinal rule by throwing the ball down the middle of the field late in a play.
That practice, and the way McCarthy and his coaching staff handled it, potentially was an important day in the 2006 season. It could show whether McCarthy's more critical way of handling a future Hall of Fame quarterback is more effective than the previous coaching staff's lighter touch, and could be seen as a watershed if Favre cuts his interceptions about in half from the astounding 29 he threw last season.
As a 36-year-old and three-time NFL most valuable player, Favre isn't, and shouldn't be, coached like a younger quarterback. But it was worth noting that McCarthy publicly, even if mildly, rebuked Favre, and went over each of those interceptions with all four quarterbacks at their next meeting. He recalls categorizing two or three of them as bad decisions.
"A big part of coaching is emphasizing," McCarthy said Friday. "When something goes wrong, you have to emphasize it, and if it doesn't get corrected, you have to find a different way to emphasize it until you correct it. That (meeting) was an opportunity to emphasize it for everybody in the room. We did that, and I'm not saying that's the reason why, but it's been pretty good since."
Coaching Favre, and keeping his interception total to a manageable number, could go a long way in defining McCarthy's debut season as Packers coach. In his best seasons, 1995 to 1997, Favre threw 13, 13 and 16 interceptions, respectively, and his 112 touchdown passes to 42 interceptions was almost a 3-to-1 ratio.
Attaining that high a ratio with this rebuilding team and at Favre's age might not be realistic, but a 2-to-1 ratio is a strong season.
"Your aim is to get higher than that," quarterbacks coach Tom Clements said. "But if you get 30 touchdowns and 15 interceptions, that's pretty good."
There will be several factors in Favre's play, including whether he has a running game to occupy defenses, and if he's constantly playing from behind, like last season.
Regardless of those circumstances, much of the Packers' fate on offense rests in Favre's hands because he remains their best offensive playmaker. McCarthy and his offensive coaching staff have to find a way to get the maximum from that talent without the interceptions that plagued last season.
Like the previous coaching staff, the Packers' coaches say Favre is open to coaching — all attribute it in part to the ingrained respect he has for coaches because his father was a high school coach. In the quarterbacks' meeting after the five-interception practice, offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski said Favre matter-of-factly accepted the critique of his interceptions and the mind-set McCarthy wants.
"'Yeah, I see it, I can't force it,'" Jagodzinski said, recounting Favre's reaction.
"He takes coaching, he always has. You don't berate a guy. There's a way to do it, there's a way not to do it."
Favre hasn't had a lights-out training camp and isn't the talent he was several years ago, but he's played well in practice this summer. After a preseason opener in which San Diego's defense ran roughshod over the Packers' offensive line, Favre last week against Atlanta had a passer rating of 118.4 points while playing through the first series of the second half.
On Monday night, he'll get his longest look of the preseason against a Cincinnati team that intercepted him five times in a 21-14 win over the Packers last season. The Packers' starters probably will play at least well into third quarter on Monday night, and play only briefly in the preseason finale four days later.
The Bengals led the NFL in interceptions last season with 31, and likely will play their starting defense about as long as the Packers' starters on offense.
Though one game never proves anything, this game against an interception-oriented defense might suggest how much Favre's decision-making mind-set has changed.
It also will provide a better look at McCarthy's efforts to move closer to the roots of the West Coast offense with more ball-control slants and crossing patterns, combined with the new zone-blocking run game, so Favre won't feel like he has to carry the offense.
"I think (Favre) is a lot more disciplined, clearly," McCarthy said. "That's really just a focus of how our offense needs to be run. We're looking to generate first downs, we're looking to create as many red-zone situations as possible, because we feel that's going to be the strength of our offense."
The factors that led to Favre's NFL-leading 29 interceptions last year have been well chronicled. The biggest was the early season injuries to receiver Javon Walker and halfbacks Ahman Green and Najeh Davenport, which robbed the offense of a running game and its best big-play receiver. That left the previous coaching staff with too few weapons and Favre with a feeling he had to make all the plays.
Favre deserved his share of the blame for letting that mentality override him. Former coach Mike Sherman and his staff deserve blame for not convincing Favre to operate more within the limitations of his team, as futile as that might have seemed.
"He could have been more careful with the ball, and the team still would have lost," Clements said. "But he was trying to make plays."
Even if the Packers' new coaching staff accepts that rationale for the 29-interception season, it has been more outspoken about Favre reining in his strongest gun-slinging instincts.
When McCarthy was the Packers' quarterbacks coach in 1999, he watched all the game film from 1998, when Favre threw 23 interceptions in his last season under ultra-demanding former coach Mike Holmgren. McCarthy also watched five games of each of Favre's previous five years, which included the MVP seasons.
Favre threw 23 interceptions in 1999, though McCarthy attributed a good share of those problems to the chronic thumb injury that actually was three injuries to Favre's throwing hand. Regardless, after working with Favre in the offseason and training camp, he sees a far more mature and sophisticated quarterback than the one he worked with seven years ago.
"Coaching him," McCarthy said, "is more of a reinforcement of fundamentals; reinforcement that we're all on the same page; reinforcement of not pushing the envelop too much, just let the game come to you, because he still is talented enough to make all the reads and all the throws.
"So coaching him is a little different than a younger player. A younger player, they think they know, but they haven't done it. He knows, he's done it. He's done it good and he's also screwed it up. The guy's 36 years old, he's played more snaps than just about anybody in the history of the NFL. Think about all the snaps he's taken in practice, let alone games."
