The 40-Year-Old Surgeon: Favre Picks Apart Rams in 38-10 Rout

This article can also be found in the Alton Telegraph.

ST. LOUIS – A day after his 40th birthday, Brett Favre showed no signs of old age.

The veteran Minnesota quarterback completed 18 of his 24 pass attempts for 232 yards and a touchdown to lead the Vikings to a 38-10 win over the Rams at the Edward Jones Dome.

The Vikings are 5-0, and it’s the first time in Favre’s career that he’s had a 5-0 start to a season.

“It’s a good start, but it only get tougher from here,” Favre said. “Success is equally measured on how you handle success. The more good things that come your way, the better you have to play.”

It was Favre’s NFL-record 274th consecutive regular-season start at quarterback and, aside from a second-quarter interception, he was able to find holes in the Rams secondary all afternoon.

“My first win at 40, and I hope there’s many more to come,” Favre said. “I’d be lying if I told you I thought I’d still be playing at 40, and not miss a game.”

The one miscue was on a pass intended for Bernard Berrian, but St. Louis linebacker James Laurinaitis undercut the throw for his first career interception.

“It’s pretty cool, I have to say. I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was,” the rookie from Ohio State said of his first pick being off a future Hall of Famer. “But I’d put that ball on the ground to get a W. I’d give up any individual achievements to get a win for the team.”

The Laurinaitis interception return to the Minnesota 25 led to a 29-yard Josh Brown field goal.

The Rams dropped to 0-5 on the season, and lost their 15th consecutive game, despite outgaining the Vikings in total offense.

Minnesota running back Adrian Peterson ran for 69 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries. St. Louis was led by Steven Jackson’s 84 yards on 21 carries, and a costly fumble on first-and-goal from the 1.

St. Louis picked up 400 yards to Minnesota’s 377, but four costly turnovers led to disaster. Three of the four turnovers were inside the 5-yard line.

“Stats sometimes don’t always tell the story,” Laurinaitis said. “You’ve got to make the play when you have an opportunity to.”

St. Louis quarterback Kyle Boller and tailback Steven Jackson had a botched exchange at the 1 to negate a second-quarter scoring opportunity. Later in the quarter tight end Daniel Fells coughed it up at the 3.

“You can’t do that, and expect to win the game,” said St. Louis coach Steve Spagnuolo. “It’s hard enough getting down there. You look at the silver lining, and we moved it all the way down there. Our guys did something right to move it inside the 10.”

The first turnover occurred when Boller had the ball slip out of his hands while dropping back to throw a screen pass to Jackson. Boller backpedaled away from pressure, but went forward with an empty hand. Minnesota defensive end Jared Allen scooped up the loose ball, and raced 52 yards for the score to put the Vikings up 14-0 just six minutes into the game.

The defensive touchdown came after Favre led the Vikings on nine-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a Peterson five-yard run.

“I thought our guys did a good job of driving the football that first drive,” said Minnesota coach Brad Childress. “I thought we had a little lull there on our first 14 points.”

The Rams got to Favre twice, getting sacks on blitzes from safeties Oshiomogho Atogwe and Craig Dahl. But the 19-year veteran was still able to make plays downfield, connecting with Sydney Rice on a 47-yard play on the first possession of the second half.

Two plays later he hit tight end Visanthe Shiancoe in the back of the end zone for a 24-3 lead.

The Rams were knocking on the door again early in the fourth, but Boller was picked off in the end zone by Vikings safety Tyrell Johnson.

Boller’s head was hit on the play, although no penalty was called. He came out and was replaced by Marc Bulger. Spagnuolo did not rule out a concussion, but Boller said he was “fine” following the game.

Bulger had a perfect quarterback rating in his short relief duty. The former starter was 7-of-7 for 88 yards and a late 27-yard touchdown toss to Donnie Avery.

“That’s Mark,” Spagnuolo said. “He’s a pro. He did what he had to, and made some throws.”

Just don't ask Spags what Avery was doing dancing in the end zone after the score with his team still trailing by three touchdowns.

The Rams had two other players leave the game with injuries, the most serious being Gary Gibson's. The defensive tackle suffered “a broken foot or ankle,” according to Spagnuolo and will require season-ending surgery.

Also coming out was cornerback Justin King, who sprained his knee. The severity of King’s injury is not known, but it’s not expected to be serious.

Spagnuolo scredited the Vikings with playing well, but said they’ll evaluate the film today, and “put this one behind” them.

“That was a good football team we played, but I do think we went toe-to-toe with them for most of the game,” Spagnuolo said. “We didn’t finish some things and shot ourselves in the foot. That’s the reason for the score of the game. It was a good measuring stick for us.

“We took a good look at those guys across from us, because that’s what we want to look like. We’re not there yet, but we’ll put this one behind us, and move onto Jacksonville.”