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Patriots knock out Favre, Vikings and grab control of division
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By Judy Battista
November 1, 2010
Foxborough, MA. — If that was how it was going to end for Brett Favre, it would have been appropriately dramatic. His chin bloodied, his eyes closed, Favre lay on a cart as it took him in to the locker room for stitches, the quarterback looking more like a punch-drunk boxer than the iron man of the NFL who kept his streak of starts alive Sunday. It is now at 292 straight despite fractures in his left ankle that had turned much of the football universe into amateur orthopedists.
But for those agonizing moments, as the cart made its way to the locker room with its woozy rider — some fans booed as he went by — Favre finally seemed done.
“I thought to myself for a brief second, ‘What in the world am I doing?’ ” Favre said.
More than a few people have been wondering that this season as elbow tendinitis and the bad ankle took its toll on his accuracy. It will not stop now that Favre has eight stitches in his chin, with a concussion test likely on the horizon and the Vikings sinking to 2-5 after losing to the New England Patriots, 28-18.
Favre is nothing if not resilient — with an affinity for melodrama thrown in, too — so he said that while his chin was numb, he would almost certainly be ready to play next week. Given that Favre now has 7 touchdowns and 15 turnovers after throwing 33 touchdowns last season, that may or may not be such a good thing for him or the Vikings.
“There’s nothing like competing,” he said. “Then again, there’s nothing worse than losing. Weighing that and the physical side of it, I really can’t complain. Talk to me in 10 years, and we may think differently, but then again we may not. Call it dumb. Call it hard-headed. Maybe all of the above. But I love to compete.”
For oddities, Halloween had nothing on the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. The victory put the Patriots (6-1) into first place in the A.F.C. East, one game ahead of the Jets. But this was the rare day when the Patriots were out-lightning-rodded, even if Coach Bill Belichick called for two highly unorthodox quarterback dives near the goal line to kill time before the Patriots scored their final touchdown.
Last week, the NFL was consumed by Favre’s bad left ankle and heel, by the apparent schism in his relationship with Coach Brad Childress, by whether Childress would have the fortitude to end Favre’s starting streak as much because Favre’s performance has flagged badly this season as that his left ankle was shredded last week. Favre started as usual. (Childress was reportedly leaning during the week toward starting Tarvaris Jackson.) Then the real fun began.
For much of the afternoon, Favre was little more than a game manager, handing the ball off to Adrian Peterson (who had 25 runs for 92 yards) and throwing short passes (Favre was 22 of 32 for 259 yards, no touchdowns and an interception that was not his fault).
With the Patriots rolling a safety over to Randy Moss, the forsaken Patriot was thrown to only twice. So even though Favre’s chin was blasted by Patriots defensive tackle Myron Pryor with 7 minutes 31 seconds left — Pryor hit Favre under the right arm, and then his helmet came up to hit Favre’s chin — the medical report was nearly usurped by Moss’s postgame ode to the Patriots.
The Patriots are 3-0 since trading Moss, whose unhappiness about his lack of a contract extension precipitated the trade, and the Vikings are 1-3 with him. But Moss offered seven minutes of unqualified Patriots love in his news conference.
He took no questions — he said he would not for the rest of the season after being fined $25,000 by the league last week for not making himself available to reporters — but instead subtly questioned why Childress did not kick a field goal from the Patriots’ 1 late in the second quarter, implied that his teammates did not pay enough attention to his insider knowledge of the Patriots, and lauded practically everyone in the Patriots’ organization, from Bill Belichick to Myra Kraft to Deion Branch, whom he had just met.
“I miss them guys, I miss the team,” Moss began. “It was hard for me to come here and play. It’s been a roller coaster all week.”
Moss continued: “I actually salute Coach Belichick for the success they had before me, during me and after me. I can’t say enough about this team and this organization. The New England Patriots will always be a special organization.”
Whether that was merely Moss unplugged or an early pitch for the Patriots to re-sign him when he is a free agent after the season remained unanswered.
But Zygi Wilf, the Vikings’ owner who forlornly stared at the ground as he walked toward the locker room, must wonder how his franchise had become so publicly dysfunctional, with a receiver who clearly wishes he were elsewhere and a quarterback who might be better off elsewhere.
The Vikings started the season as a playoff favorite while the Patriots were thought to be rebuilding. Now, their roles are reversed. With his chin stitched up and his eyes clear, Favre was left to wonder if his team would heal as quickly with its playoff hopes hanging by thread even thinner than he now has in his chin.
“I’m in it to win it,” Favre said. “Hopefully our guys will not go south.”
• NFL News Archive Index:
2010, 2009
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