Favre, Packers on Target

The Green Bay Packers looked like the Super Bowl contenders they’re supposed to be, and Brett Favre played like the quarterback who can get them there.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Well, they were a lot like the perennial NFL losers they’ve been for 20 years Sunday in their first game under Coach Tony Dungy, a 34-3 loss to the Packers.

Favre, last year’s league MVP, launched his comeback from an offseason battle to overcome an addiction to painkillers by throwing for 247 yards and four touchdowns.

He answered the question of how long it might take him to regain his 1995 form. And the Packers felt they made a statement as a team too.

“A lot of people were asking lots of questions, and we had to find the answers for ourselves,” said Keith Jackson, who caught scoring passes of one, four and 51 yards and finished with five receptions for 76 yards.

Trent Dilfer, the lowest-rated starting quarterback in the league last year, when he threw only four touchdown passes, continued to struggle. The Packers held him to 123 yards on 13 for 30 passing and intercepted him four times.

“This is the first time I can remember opening this well,” said Favre, who spent six weeks in a drug rehabilitation clinic after revealing this summer that he was addicted to the painkiller Vicodin.

“Our defense played great, just like we expected, and that’s the name of the game. We can’t do it all by ourselves.”

It was the fifth time in eight starts that Favre has thrown for at least three touchdowns against Tampa Bay.