TODAY’S NFL GAMES : Get Brett! : That’s the Cowboys’ Assignment Today, but Can They Lasso the Leader of the Pack?

Darkness had long descended on the grounds of the Cowboys’ headquarters, yet inside at a late-night meeting the lights seldom came on. Over and over, film by film, coaches searched for some clue to a question the entire team has been asking since Sunday:

How in the world are we going to stop Brett Favre?

“He’s playing his game, man,” Deion Sanders said. “Brett is a whole different person.”

There isn’t much research available on the new Favre, who is a different quarterback from last season, or even from earlier this season. The Cowboys defeated him and his Green Bay Packers in October, 34-24, but they say that game film won’t help them prepare much for today’s NFC title game in Dallas.

The Cowboys say they can’t count on this Favre throwing as many wild passes as he used to.

“It seems like he can close his eyes and fire the ball 30 yards down the field and hit one of his guys,” Cowboy center Dale Hellestrae said.

They say they can’t let this Favre out of the pocket, because he is almost more effective out of it than in.

“If that makes any sense,” shrugs Dave Campo, Dallas’ defensive coordinator.

They say he is more controlled.

“He’s not forcing it,” Sanders said. “He’s making some good reads and he’s scrambling.”

They say he has changed. For his better. For the Cowboys’ worse.

“When we get Philly down, we can beat them,” Michael Irvin said. “With Green Bay, there is no guaranteeing that the game is over. All Favre needs is three minutes and he can come back with a couple of touchdown passes.”

And Favre knows it.

“This is probably the best I’ve ever played,” said Favre, the league’s most valuable player and the Packers’ first all-pro quarterback since Bart Starr.

Favre passed for 4,413 yards and an NFC-record 38 touchdowns this season, with 13 interceptions. But he threw only four of those interceptions in the last eight games of the regular season.

In two playoff games, he has completed 71.4% of his passes, with five touchdowns and no interceptions.

Dallas has a plan, or a prayer anyway.

“It is almost better to pressure him and contain him than it is to sack him,” Campo said. “You get him to scramble, he can make plays, either running or throwing the ball. We have to make sure our defensive linemen’s lane responsibilities are good.

“A lot of guys on the defensive line are in a rush lane, and there he is, and if they make a mistake, then he scrambles outside and we are in trouble. But if they continue to stay in that rush lane and contain him, and make sure he can’t get outside that pocket, we have enough push up front that we feel we can make it more difficult for him.”

When Dallas played Green Bay in October, Campo said, the Cowboys’ defensive line got sloppy near the end of the game, when it was out of reach for the Packers. Or so they thought.

“And now we are running some lanes and guys were trying to get sacks, and Favre started scrambling,” Campo said. “He ran two [touchdowns] in and threw one in and all of a sudden he was out on the perimeter and it was a ballgame again.”

Now Campo says Favre can find ways to produce those results, even against defenses that are at their best. With that in mind, the Cowboys would welcome any sacks from defensive end Charles Haley, who is recovering from back surgery. They hope Haley will be available for at least 15-20 plays, but say they get a boost just having him on the bench.

“Just seeing Charles in shoulder pads is a plus,” Emmitt Smith said.

Only four teams have held Favre to one touchdown or fewer this season, and the one time he didn’t throw one, on Nov. 5 at Minnesota, he was knocked out in the first half because of a sprained ankle. The Vikings, though, sacked Favre four times before he left the game and credit their 27-24 victory to harassing him early. He threw two interceptions.

“He’s not a cool character with a lot of heat on him,” Viking linebacker Broderick Thomas said.

“I put him in the elite class as long as you let him set his feet and there’s no heat and he’s not getting bounced on the turf.”

Tampa Bay seemed to play Favre most effectively, limiting him to one touchdown pass, no yards rushing and one interception in a 13-10 Buccaneer victory Dec. 10. Still, Favre passed for 285 yards.

“The defensive line wasn’t getting sacks, but they were getting pressure and disrupting his timing,” Buccaneer linebacker Lonnie Marts said after the game.

In that game, the Buccaneers set the tone early when rookie safety Melvin Johnson intercepted one of Favre’s passes in the end zone after the Packers had taken the opening kickoff and marched the length of the field.

“I wish I could tell you there was something magic about it, but I can’t,” said Rusty Tillman, the Buccaneers’ defensive coordinator at the time.

“Favre is very well coached, and he is not going to sit there and take a sack. When you dog him, Favre knows exactly where the pressure is coming from. We also tried to contain his roll to his right, which is the most dangerous because he can buy extra time that way and then you are really in trouble because of his arm. One time in an earlier game against him, he threw the ball across the field, John Elway style. It should have been intercepted but it somehow wasn’t.”

Dallas is hoping its defense will make a statement early.

“I truly believe that defense wins championships all the way down from stopping the run to getting them out on third down,” Cowboy safety Bill Bates said. “We have to--some way, somehow--get the ball back to our offense. Defense can set the tone early.”

Favre said last week that he experienced his turning point after the third game last season, when he and Coach Mike Holmgren talked about play calling.

“Before, we never communicated,” Favre said. “He called the plays and I would run them, but we never talked about it.

“I never had a chance to get a feel for what he was calling, and he never had a chance to know what I liked to run. It’s important that you think the same way, and since then we have.”

Favre also said his team’s offense is better this year because it isn’t focused on wide receiver Sterling Sharpe, who sat out this year because of injury.

“With Sterling gone, it gave me a chance to open our offense up, even though Robert [Brooks] had [102] catches, the other guys had a lot more catches too.”

Sharpe had 94 catches last season and the other wide receivers had 90. This year, Brooks has 14 more catches than all the other receivers, but Favre used more receivers.

“We are not just stopping Brett Favre, we have to stop the entire offense,” Cowboy linebacker Darrin Smith said. “First of all we have to stop the run. That is primarily our goal right now.

“We have our hands full with his scrambling ability. He is more like Steve Young because of the system they use. He is able to scramble as well as having a strong arm for throwing across the field. They are just making the right decisions and have a great receiver in Brooks.”

Favre says he is more than aware of Dallas’ quick defense.

“They close the gap on runs and passes and they just don’t let you in,” he said. “You can’t run laterally on them because of their speed, and they are so big up front because of their defensive line that it is hard to run right at them. It’s hard to get off on their ‘backers with their offensive line.

“We are just going to call our stuff, and we hope that that’s enough.”

Sanders and Favre were teammates at Atlanta in 1991 and Sanders says he believes he has played against him since, although neither team knew for sure. But the encounter Sanders remembers most vividly was when he was playing with Florida State in 1988 while Favre was with Southern Mississippi. Sanders intercepted a pass by Favre and returned it for a touchdown. It was the second play of the game, won by Florida State, 29-13.

“Brett let me know that is not going to happen again,” Sanders said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Maturing of Brett Favre

While at Green Bay, Brett Favre has grown into one of the NFL’s dominant quarterbacks. *--*

Season Yds. TDs Ints. 1992 3,227 18 13 1993 3,308 19 24 1994 3,882 33 14 1994 4,413 38 13

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