This Foe a Big Test for Favre, Packers

The question of the week in pro football is whether quarterback Brett Favre can do it all again for the Green Bay Packers (4-0) against the Minnesota Vikings (4-0) in the first big Monday night game of the season.

Favre has been the closest thing to a one-man team in the NFL this year.

By contrast, the league’s two other celebrated 1998 winners, Denver and San Francisco, are full of stars, from Terrell Davis to Jerry Rice.

Even Minnesota is, by comparison with Green Bay, remarkably well stocked. The Vikings lead with a superb running back, Robert Smith. Their three wide receivers, Cris Carter, Jake Reed and Randy Moss, raise visions of San Francisco’s three. And so far, their new quarterback, backup Randall Cunningham, hasn’t missed a beat.

At Green Bay, though, Favre has lost his running back, Dorsey Levens, to a broken leg. His best receiver, Robert Brooks, who is still recovering from an injury, can’t get open. And his present go-to receiver, Antonio Freeman, keeps dropping the ball.

So there has been an extraordinary difference this fall between the NFL’s three best teams, Green Bay, on the one hand, and Denver and San Francisco. The high-flying Broncos and 49ers sometimes seem capable of scoring on demand. For Favre, every game has been a struggle.

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The Detroit Lions won the most recent Monday night game by catching quarterback Charlie Batch’s passes when the ball, if not perfectly thrown, was at least close enough for wide receivers Herman Moore and Johnnie Morton to reach.

A week earlier, in Batch’s debut as an NFL starter, the Lions had lost their third straight game when the same receivers dropped the same kinds of passes all over the Minneapolis Metrodome.

Because last year’s Lions were the only NFC team with two receivers in the top six--Moore and Morton--it’s no big surprise that they walloped helpless Tampa Bay on Monday night, 27-6, in Batch’s second appearance as an NFL quarterback.

But you ask: How could the same good receivers have ruined the kid’s first game?

The explanation is simple enough. The first time, they hadn’t adjusted to a new rotation of the football from a new passer. They were accustomed to Scott Mitchell’s passes. After Mitchell was benched, they had to take a few from Batch--in game conditions--before they could be ready.

The Lions’ problem this week is more serious. Although Batch is a scrambler, they haven’t yet taught him to slide feet first when hits are imminent. The Bears will be waiting for him in Chicago.

It seems inconceivable that the coaches on an NFL staff could go through a full summer training camp without teaching a young quarterback to slide. But apparently they did.

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The San Francisco defense had to blitz Atlanta quarterback Chris Chandler on almost every play last week to hold off the Falcons in a 31-20 game.

That doesn’t sound as if the 49ers are on another Super Bowl track.

When used to excess, the blitz is a sign of weakness. It means that your defensive line can’t pressure the quarterback without help from your linebackers, your defensive backs or both.

It’s a rule of thumb in the NFL that any defense that can only disturb the passer with blitzing linebackers and other secondary people, taking them away from their assigned and accustomed places, can expect trouble from a good team.

They say you can beat Atlanta that way but not Denver.

But this year’s 49er offense, possibly the most flamboyant in league history, is possibly also the most effective, led, as it is, by five aces: Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Terrell Owens, J.J. Stokes and Garrison Hearst.

The 49ers won one Super Bowl without a defense, beating San Diego in 1995, 49-26. Could they do it again?

Conceivably, that’s what this season is about.