Something has to give when Donovan McNabb meets Brett Favre.
The Washington Redskins have never beaten a team quarterbacked by Favre. The Minnesota Vikings have never beaten a team quarterbacked by McNabb.
McNabb is 5-0 against the Vikings since 2001. That streak included two playoff wins, including the 2007 meeting, a 26-14 win over the Tavaris Jackson led Minnesota squad.
Donovan McNabb holds a 4-2 record against teams quarterbacked by Favre. McNabb and the Philadelphia Eagles lost 6-3 to Favre’s’ Green Bay Packers in 2000, McNabb’s first full year as starting quarterback.
McNabb led the Eagles to an 11-5 record and to the post-season that year. McNabb and the Eagles lost 16-13 to Favre and the Packers in their last meeting in 2007. Favre enjoyed his last storied season with the 13-3 Packers that year. The Eagles struggled to an 8-8 record.
Favre dithered on retirement in 2008, finally foisting himself on his old team who no longer wanted him. He made an injury-plagued sojourn through the New York Jets before his dream season with the Vikings in 2009.
McNabb led the 2009 Eagles to an 11-5 record. Two straight losses to the Dallas Cowboys, one to close the regular season and the other in the playoff game that followed, led the Eagles to the same conclusion about McNabb that the Packers made about Favre. It was time to move on, though the Eagles and McNabb were far more gracious about it than the Packers and Favre.
The thrill is gone for Favre
Favre’s year in Minnesota is nothing like last season when he was the NFL’s darling quarterback. The Vikings receiver corps is riddled with injuries. Sidney Rice, Percy Harvin and Bernard Berrian have had season-long ailments that have restricted practice and playing time. Randy Moss was on and off the team in a blink of an eye.
Favre leads the league in interceptions (17). Both Favre and McNabb have thrown 10 touchdown passes, but McNabb has thrown for 368 more yards and the Redskins have scored 30 more points on the season than the Vikings.
Vulnerable defenses
Quarterbacks don’t face each other. They face defenses. The trick is for McNabb to do a better job against the Vikings’ defense than Favre does against the Redskins’ D.
Purple Jesus Diaries, the Bloguin site covering the Vikings, says that Minnesota’s secondary is ripe for the picking with CB Antoine Winfield the only stalwart defensive back on the field. McNabb could have a field day for distance to place the ‘Skins in scoring position.
After losses to the 4-6 St. Louis Rams and the 2-9 Detroit Lions, the Redskins cannot be smug about the 3-7 Vikings led by a quarterback they’ve never beaten.
The Rams opened scoring against the Redskins with a 42 yard Stephen Jackson run, something that Vikings interim head coach Leslie Frazier surely noticed. With Redskins safety LaRon Landry declared OUT for the game, running Minnesota’s ace back Adrian Peterson through the middle of Washington’s defense must tempt Frazier.
Oddly, Frazier and Mike Shanahan might have the same strategy to win the game. Keep the ball out of Brett Favre’s hands.
Point after: I just heard Mooch on The NFL Network say that Farve has never lost to the Redskins and McNabb has never lost to the Vikings. “Something’s gotta give,” he said. Shout out to me.
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