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Packers-49ers Notebook Playoff hopes, Favre look better following Green Bay win
Posted: Tuesday November 30, 1999 04:10 AM
By Jon A. Dolezar, CNN/SI SAN FRANCISCO -- Green Bay's playoff hopes got a much-needed boost on a rainy night in the Bay Area. The offense ran efficiently and the defense kept the pressure on 49ers quarterback Steve Stenstrom for most of the night. All of this added up to an easy 20-3 win for the Packers, keeping them squarely in the hunt for an NFC wild-card berth. "Right now I still see us playing Chicago next week, and that's as far as I'm going to look ahead," Green Bay coach Ray Rhodes said. "Right now we are starting to feel like we are coming together as a football team. We just want to take it one week at a time and just keep working." Brett Favre and the Packers have won two straight after a three-game losing streak left them sitting at 4-5. It's been Favre's play that has kickstarted Green Bay's postseason run. Favre has completed 67.1 percent of his passes in the Packers' last two wins -- key conference games against Detroit and San Francisco. "This is a good football team," Favre said. "As long as we believe that and play our game, then we'll be fine. If we're not, then it just wasn't our year. We can't alter anything that we do. What got us here is probably the way we played tonight -- take what they give you, run the ball well, block well and score enough points to get our defense a break." Green Bay has a difficult schedule down the stretch -- all five of its remaining games are against conference opponents. "We are really looking at this as that we are in the playoffs right now," Packers DT Santana Dotson said. "We're looking at these next few games as games that this team must win if we want to be in the playoffs."
Back to normalFavre's thumb looked healthy Monday, as he zinged the ball to open receivers with authority, even in the second-half downpour. He completed 25-of-36 passes for 246 yards and two touchdowns, but more importantly he avoided turning the ball over. Monday's game was only the fourth time this season that Favre has gone interception-free, and not coincidentally the Packers are 4-0 in those games. "I feel healthy for a change," Favre said. "That's the main difference. I can play my game, and throw the ball from anywhere with confidence. When I drop back now I'm not afraid to throw the ball anywhere. Before there were places that I was throwing where I was aiming that way, but it didn't go that way. So I just feel more confident in that I feel more healthy. It's no different than a receiver or a running back who has a hurt knee or a hurt ankle that is not able to make the cuts that they usually do." The 49ers recognized that Favre was on his game against them on Monday night. "I have to take my hat off to Green Bay because they executed very well," linebacker Winfred Tubbs said. "Brett Favre made the plays he needed to and found the right people to throw the ball to. Green Bay had some big plays in this game."
Sinking shipWhen it rain, it pours. Quite literally on Monday night for San Francisco. The ugly fall of the 49ers continued, as San Francisco dropped its seventh straight game, and its fourth straight home game. "Well, I'm not throwing in the towel," wide receiver Jerry Rice said. "I'm going to keep working hard and try to better myself. Sometimes you have to go through situations like this. If we have to go through it until the end, then I'm quite sure it's going to leave a bad taste in your mouth and you're not going to want to go through it next year." Rhodes knows a lot of people in the 49ers organization from his days as their defensive coordinator under George Seifert, and he also coached with Steve Mariucci on Mike Holmgren's staff in Green Bay. "I have a lot of friends here, a lot of guys that I have coached on this football team, and I just want to let these guys know to keep fighting and things will turn around," Rhodes said. "You know where this organization has been. Right now it just happens that these are lean times, but they will pull it back together. There are still enough guys with enough character to get this team pulled back together. They will be fine." "It's just one of those times when nothing is going right," linebacker Ken Norton Jr. said. "And it seems like no matter how hard we play or no matter what we do, it's not working for us." Favre had sympathy for the players in the other locker room following the game, acknowledging that the 49ers long list of walking wounded has hampered them this season.
"San Francisco has had a lot of injuries," Favre said. "They will be back. It is just one of those years where a lot of strange things happen. They have been on top for so long that something like this was bound to happen eventually. They've proven themselves as winners over the years and I would not be surprised if they return to their winning ways fairly soon."
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