Packers—Jets: Where Do They Stand?

The NFL Football season is past its half way point and the story that rocked the football world or so every sporting outlet led us to believe, was Brett Favre un-retiring. This included he team that made him famous, or the team he made famous again, kicking him to the curb with tens of millions of dollars in a golden parachute that he could put under his mattress.

Living in New York and following the Favre saga made for a fascinating conclusion, to an odd roller coaster ride. Brett Favre plays for the New York Jets. Who would have thought? 

The easy comparison would to view Favre and Aaron Rogers and compare their statistics and measure them up against one another, but from watching the NFL, quarterback stats do not always give an accurate measure of a quarterback and/or team play. Just ask Drew Brees and the Saints.

Now that we are nine games into the season and with each team playing a bitter division rival this week, where do each of these teams stand and how has quarterback play affected both of these teams with very high hopes entering the 2008 season?

The Jets are 6-3 and tied for first place in the AFC East heading into this Thursday's game against the Patriots.  Favre has thrown 16 TD and 12 INT. Watching this Jets team week in and week out you get a sense they could easily be 8-1 or 2-7. 

This team wins ugly and Favre plays ugly. Aside from eggs or turnovers (to be more literal,) the Cardinals and Rams laid in the Jets lap. Thus far, the Jets have not looked liked an elite team in the NFL.  They can still get there.

But at the end of the day, this combination works, and it works well.  This is Favre's style and it's the Jets style.  The Jets game's this year have been won on a third and six, at the beginning of the fourth quarter to keep a drive alive and keep their defense off the field. 

It's not just any six yards, its THESE SIX YARDS that need to be had and another five minutes off the clock. And Favre gets them, he gets it done. He may have thrown two interceptions already and had another two dropped, but he finds away to squeeze the ball into Keller for a first down and keep the drive alive.

Coincidentally, these plays are exactly what the Packers have been missing all season and why they sit at 4-5 going into their game against the Bears, with their season on the brink.

On television the Packers have looked good, even great at times.  The offense seems to flow and the defense has been more up than down over the course of the year.  Rodgers has looked like a possible top quarterback for years to come.  He has the stats to back it up this year with 14 TD and five INT, despite playing over half the season with a sprained shoulder.

But over the last two games, both of them close losses to Tennessee in overtime and Minnesota by one point, the Packers haven't been able to execute on third downs in the fourth quarter to keep drives alive and to keep their tiring defense off the field. 

The run defense of the Packers has been getting crucified over the past couple weeks, but part of that equation is the offense sustaining drives in the fourth quarter the same way they do in the first quarter of games.

This is what separates a playoff season from a non-playoff season.  And what experience at the quarterback position brings to a football team.  The Packers coming off last season had very high hopes for 2008 with a consistent running game, an athletic defense and high powered weapons at receiver. 

The one question that came about was who the quarterback was going to be?  And most felt, they would be fine with Aaron Rodgers and on paper he has looked fine. 

This is the problem with relying on a young talented quarterback to helm the ship of a Super Bowl contender.  They don't make the key plays at the key times.  The often do it in spite of them.  These situations don't come up during training camps or mini camps, know matter how good a quarterback looks.  It only comes from experience. 

In three years, Rodgers will begin to make those plays, but will Packers still have the players around him to contend.  Just look at Donovan McNabb.  He looks great and is playing at an all time high, but does not have enough quality players around him at this stage of his career.

This is why the Jets wanted Favre, because he plays their style of football and wins games  They went out and got a team they thought could be a contender and when Favre became available they got a quarterback who would make the key play to put them over the hump. 

They don't mind the interceptions or throwing into coverage becomes when the game is on the line, he knows what he has to do to get the win.  And if the NFL it's win now or never.

Teams have a certain window to make their Super Bowl runs before they have to revamp and start over.  In a couple years Rodgers will be making the key play, but will he still have the team around him? 

The Packers traded a rising young quarterback over a possible Super Bowl season.  Time will tell if they made the right one.