The 40 year-old quarterback has had a rough start to his 20th season in the NFL, and it will get even worse if he keeps throwing the ball.
In the first three games of the season for the Vikings, Favre has thrown six interceptions, one fewer than he threw all of last year. If this doesn’t show that Favre is quickly losing his touch, what does?
Last season was one of, if not the best seasons he has ever had in his career. He threw 531 passes, completing 363 of those with only seven interceptions. How could he come off a season like that and then get out to the start that he has had this year? There is only one reason: the 40th birthday. He is simply over-the-hill now and is without the cat eyes that he has had throughout his career.
Favre understood from day one that it was not going to be easy to duplicate last year’s success.
“It’s just hard to repeat those type[s] of numbers and statistics and it’s hard to repeat wins,” Favre said of 2009, when he threw 33 touchdowns and led the Vikings to a 9-0 record at home.
After this year’s Week 2 game against the Miami Dolphins, in which Favre threw three interceptions, both Favre and coach Brad Childress agreed to open up the running game until the secondary lays off Favre’s passing game. The Vikings’ offense, in essence has to cover up the fact that Favre is struggling, and with a speedy running back like Adrian Peterson, the running game is generally the safer choice.
The fact that Peterson is taking this team under his wing shows that Favre has lost his special touch that he had throughout his many years in the NFL. Although it’s only three games into the season, the first few games are crucial to a team’s success in the end.
At the rate that Favre is going this year, he will have over 30 interceptions by the end of the season, a number that he has gotten close to in the past but never reached (he threw 29 in 2005 and 24 in 1993).
“We’re not near as good as we were last year. And I’m talking about me in the passing game, I’m not talking about everyone else,” Favre said after the win against the Detroit Lions. “So we have to either figure out a way of doing it or it’s going to be a tough road.”
Favre is right that it will be a tough road for the rest of the season if he keeps throwing the ball into the other team’s hands. Maybe after this bumpy road of a season he will finalize the retirement that he has been talking about for the past four years.
