Favre stuns Broncos in OT

Published October 30, 2007 at midnight

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Right did make might.

Especially when it was Brett Favre’s right arm, just enough to trump Jason Elam’s right foot Monday night and give the Green Bay Packers a 19-13 overtime victory against the Broncos at Invesco Field at Mile High.

"Two plays beat us," Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey said. "They didn’t do anything else to beat us. . . . That’s it. Two plays. If we have position, we can make those plays; we didn’t, so he did."

That, Favre did. The Broncos have played with the sharp edge of things for much of the season, a running-with-the-scissors anthology thus far that has seen run defense, pass defense and red-zone offense come up short at times.

One that now sees them at 3-4, behind the 4-3 Chargers and 4-3 Chiefs in the muddled AFC West race.

Monday night, they left opportunity on the table and Favre was more than happy to grab it and jump on the bus with another Roman candle play on his résumé — the Packers won the game on an 82-yard Favre-to-Greg Jennings missile that came on the first play of overtime.

All because the Broncos had done what they’ve always done this season, it seems, relying on Elam to get them into the win column. This time, they rushed Elam onto the field without the ability to stop the clock, in the same fashion as they had done to beat the Bills in the season opener.

Monday night, Elam calmly knocked the 21-yarder through the uprights to tie the score at 13-13.

But it meant, as has been a struggle for this offense all season, that the Broncos had not closed the deal when it was time to close it.

The Broncos went nine plays, covering 89 yards in 2:02. They reached the Green Bay 4-yard line, where they faced a second-and-1 with no timeouts in their pockets.

An incomplete pass was followed by a Jay Cutler rushing attempt — it was a play Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said he thought had a chance because of the help the Packers had pushed outside toward the Broncos wide receivers — for no gain.

No gain, no timeouts and no help with the clock running.

"I thought (the officials) should have at least measured it," said Broncos wide receiver Brandon Stokley. "I don’t know, but I thought it was close enough to a first down to measure."

So the Broncos rushed Elam on, he made the kick and a coin flip gave Favre his opportunity. And for almost two decades, nobody has played the risk-reward game more in the passing game than Favre, whose fourth 300-yard passing game this season included the throw to Jennings and a 79-yard touchdown to James Jones in the first quarter.

"It’s Monday night; you know he’s going to take his shots," Bailey said.

"It seemed like he threw it 90 yards," said Broncos cornerback Dré Bly, who watched the winning touchdown go over his head. "That’s what Brett, that’s what he does, he takes shots. . . . I had good coverage, but at the end, I looked up and I couldn’t find the ball."

The Broncos offense is without two starting offensive linemen, Tom Nalen and Ben Hamilton; without running back Travis Henry (ribs); without wide receiver Javon Walker (knee). They were 3-for-10 on third down Monday, 1-for-4 inside the Packers’ 20- yard line.

And the touchdown they didn’t score counted far more than the points they did.

Didn’t get the memo

When a quarterback has 17 years in and almost as many pages of the NFL record book devoted to his name, he can do some things.

One of those is challenge Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey when he gets either the whim or the matchup he wants.

With Bailey coming off limited practice time because of a left thigh injury, Brett Favre was perfectly willing to see just how healthy the seven-time Pro Bowl selection was; something Bailey doesn’t often see, since most quarterbacks find themselves under orders to stay away much of the time.

"You know he’s coming at you," Bailey said.

But on the Packers’ second possession, Favre launched a ball to wide receiver James Jones up the Broncos sideline.

Jones had a step and Bailey could not recover on a ball that was where it was supposed to be.

Jones finished off the 79-yard touchdown play with a nice run on the end of the catch.

"He got in my blind spot and I couldn’t see him," Bailey said. "I tried to get there, but I couldn’t."

Favre went after Bailey a smattering of other times in the game, including a 17-yard completion to Donald Driver with slightly more than 5 minutes left in the game.

Bailey, as long as teams believe his leg isn’t completely healed — he practiced fully only once last week — likely will get tested again Sunday in Detroit, where former Rams head coach Mike Martz now is calling the shots on offense.

Tough day

The Broncos certainly aren’t alone in their struggles in dealing with Packers defensive end Aaron Kampman.

Kampman, who lines up on the defensive right side — usually the power end — is the Packers’ best threat in the pass rush. Scouts believe Kampman is one of the best players in the league with his hands, he rarely makes mistakes in his technique for offensive linemen to take advantage of, and he also comes hard every play.

He finished with all three of the Packers’ sacks to go with six tackles.

Kampman powered past Broncos right tackle Erik Pears for a sack just before halftime and then forced a holding penalty on Pears to go with another sack during the same Broncos possession in the third quarter.

He consistently forced Jay Cutler to adjust his positioning in the pocket, often unsettling the timing in the Broncos passing attack.

In the Packers’ last game before facing the Broncos — a three-point win over the Redskins — Kampman then had two sacks, another tackle for loss and another tackle for no gain in the Redskins’ final six plays from scrimmage in the game.

Power up

Facing a stout Packers defensive line without Travis Henry in the lineup, the Broncos tried to add a little muscle to the offensive front.

The Broncos started the game in a three-tight end formation, with Brandon Marshall as the only wide receiver on the field, running their first eight plays of the game out of the look.

As they have routinely done against teams they believe are tough up front, they also played plenty with two tight ends in the formation.

The Broncos did move Tony Scheffler around, lining him up wide at times like a wide receiver.

The results still weren’t always what the Broncos had hoped for. They did not yet have 60 yards rushing by the end of the third quarter and finished with 88 yards on their 24 carries — their fourth game in the past five they have not rushed for 100 yards.

Century mark

When the Broncos don’t rush for 100 yards, the news isn’t usually good right now. In three of their four losses they have not cleared 100 yards rushing as a team.

Opponent Carries Yds Result

Jaguars 18 47 L, 23-14

Chargers 20 72 L, 41-3

Steelers 24 90 W, 31-28

Packers 24 88 L, 19-13, OT

Number that counts

22 penalties combined by both teams in the game, including 13 on the Packers. And at times it looked it as both teams struggled to finish drives and find any sort of rhythm.

The flags included 12 men on the field for the Broncos defense to go with holding penalties on back-to-back plays on Packers offensive lineman Jason Spitz, a holding penalty on Marshall that wiped out an 18-yard fourth-quarter run by Selvin Young and a delay- of-game penalty on Packers safety Atari Bigby for kicking the ball after he didn’t come up with an interception.

legwoldj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2359

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