The Green Bay Packers coaches always spend a portion of their offseason studying their NFC North opponents, and when the defensive staff worked on the Minnesota Vikings, it was with Brett Favre in mind.
When the coaches first introduced some of the Vikings plays in practice on Tuesday morning, they were plays Favre would likely run.
And when the 40-year-old quarterback announced on Wednesday afternoon he would indeed return to the Vikings for another season, Dom Capers and his assistants didnt have to adjust a single thing.
There wasnt much doubt in my mind, just knowing what you know about the guy and his competitiveness and the kind of team they had last year, that he was going to play again, Capers said Thursday. Its hard to walk away from that, the kind of year he had. It lures you back when youve had that kind of success. So yeah, the time we spent on the Vikings was basically with Brett being the quarterback.
The Packers began working this week on two of their regular-season opponents the Philadelphia Eagles, the Week 1 opponent, and the Vikings in addition to some brief prep work for Saturdays preseason game at Seattle. During the periods devoted to the Vikings, the defensive starters went against the scout team offense that was mimicking some of the plays in which Favre gouged them during the Vikings two victories over the Packers last season.
Minnesota was successful with some stuff, so it would be wise to work on that, cornerback Tramon Williams said. I dont know if it was because of Favre, but we were working against some Minnesota stuff.
The two losses to Favre and the Vikings still stick in Capers craw. Even though he never worked for the Packers during Favres 16-year tenure in Green Bay, he fully understands how important those two games were to the Packers and to Favre.
In the first meeting at Minnesota on Oct. 5, the Packers were entering their fourth game in their conversion to Capers 3-4 scheme, and they were forced to start a safety, Derrick Martin, that they had acquired only a month earlier. Martin blew coverage on Bernard Berrians 31-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter that gave the Vikings a 14-point lead on the way to a 30-23 victory.
Count Martin among those who would like another crack at Favre.
No excuses, Martin said Thursday when asked about his breakdown against Favre. I felt like at the time I knew the defense, but I didnt know it half as well as I do now. Its funny, when I look back, I knew nothing back then. But I know the defense very well. I know who I am playing with, and I know what everybody else is supposed to do, so its a lot easier to play when its like that.
The same could be said for even those members of the defense who had a full offseason and training camp with Capers last year. Both games against the Vikings came in the first half of the season, when the players were still adjusting to Capers scheme.
Our communication, I think, is going to be a lot better this year because guys understand the defense more, and were communicating a lot better, Williams said. Obviously, we didnt perform as well as wed like to, and both of those games were early in the season, and I think we got better toward the end of the year.
The Packers actually held up well against the Vikings high-powered run game but never could put enough pressure on Favre to force him into mistakes. They didnt sack him in either game and only recorded five hits on him in the two games combined.
He hurt us getting the ball out quickly, Capers said. I think we would take our run play, certainly in the first game. The second game they hit us on a couple of runs, but we would take the run stats. What weve got to do is play their pass game better. We have to assume and anticipate that were going to see the same level (of play by Favre) that we saw last year, and they were darn good last year.