Favre Off the Mark and Out of Playoffs

The NFL’s most valuable player sighed, pulled the last swallow out of a postgame bottle of water, then tossed the empty toward a nearby waste can.

And bounced it off the rim.

It was that kind of day for Brett Favre, the swashbuckling quarterback of the Green Bay Packers.

In his team’s quest to return to the Super Bowl for the first time since No. II in 1968--on the very anniversary of that 33-14 victory over the Oakland Raiders, in fact--Favre completed 21 of 39 passes for 307 yards and three touchdowns. Among his completions were plays covering 73, 55, 25 and 24 yards.

He also threw two interceptions.

The Packers were able to offset the first, by defensive tackle Leon Lett--the first of his career--that led to a Dallas touchdown in the first quarter of the NFC title game here between the Packers and Cowboys.

The second was a killer.

On the second play after Dallas cornerback Larry Brown had interrupted still another comeback drive by the Packers with his timely grab, Emmitt Smith bolted off left tackle for 16 yards and the touchdown that buried Green Bay--and put the Cowboys back in the Super Bowl.

“We had them, right there until the end,” a weary, disconsolate Favre mumbled. “It was back and forth all the way and that’s the way we wanted. We came in wanting to keep it close till the end, and then wait and see what happened.”

What happened, of course was the killer interception.

It was still early in the fourth quarter. The Cowboys, with quarterback Troy Aikman having escaped what might have been his own killer interception when Packer defensive end Sean Jones batted down a pass he should have caught, had just completed a 90-yard drive with a five-yard scoring run by Smith up the middle for a 31-27 lead.

Now it was the Packers’ turn, and they were on the move. A pass by Favre to Robert Brooks on third and one was good for five yards and a first down at the Packer 36, then Edgar Bennett ran 18 yards on a draw for another at the Dallas 46.

Once more, Favre dropped back and threw to Mark Ingram. Well, he thought he was throwing to Ingram. Instead, it was Brown who caught it, the same Larry Brown who had been scorched on Favre’s 73-yard connection with Brooks in the first quarter.

Brown intercepted on the 20, returned the pass 28 yards before he was pushed out of bounds, and two plays later--a 36-yard pass from Aikman to Michael Irvin and Smith’s big run--and the Packers were suddenly out of it.

“I saw Mark Ingram looking at me,” Favre said of the pass that went wrong. “He wasn’t the primary receiver but he was looking at me. I thought he was going to stop and run a comeback. But he kept going. [Brown] had his back turned when I threw the ball. Then he turned around and made the play. I’m still sure we would have come away with points on the drive.”

Brown saw to it that they didn’t.

“In the first half, we didn’t play defense like we are capable of playing and gave them some easy points,” he said. “I felt like I owed the team after blowing the coverage on Brooks’ long touchdown.

“On the interception . . . I got a good break on the ball. It was an even swap for me. This play got our offense on the field to get some more points.”

Favre understood that all too well.

“You can’t turn the ball over with this good of a team,” he said. “I said coming into the game that turnovers would be important. You can’t make it easy for a team this good.”

And, on this day, the Cowboys were good.

Aikman wasn’t nearly as adventuresome as Favre but he was quietly effective. Of course, he had Smith running for 150 yards to take some of the heat off himself but when the Cowboys needed to complete a pass, he generally did. He completed 21 of 33--seven of them to Irvin--for 255 yards and two interceptions.

Between the quarterbacks in this game, there wasn’t much question which was the more valuable.

“Larry Brown gave us an opportunity to put points on the board,” he said. “That was a big play.

“I don’t think we felt like we had to dominate the whole game. Offensively, we had to execute. We didn’t want a scoring duel, although it looks like that’s what we had. There was not a lot of rhythm to the game.

“[Favre] played well. The two interceptions hurt him, but those things will happen.”

Yes, they will. Which is why Favre is going home to Kiln, Miss., today. And Aikman and the Cowboys are getting ready to play the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl.