General

Game 1 For Rodgers Goes Perfectly, Aside From the Endless Favre Comparisons

Sep 9, 2008, 2:45 AM UTC

The verdict on Aaron Rodgers is in: He is Brett Favre. Or, at least that’s what Tony Kornheiser would have you think. On the night in which we were supposed to finally -- officially -- let the Cheeseheads move on from Favre and usher in the Rodgers Era, we had to hear seemingly endless comparisons between the two quarterbacks from Tony K in the fist half. â†µâ†µEarly in the second quarter, about an hour after Kornheiser’s Favre-rific scripted intro, he said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “that pass looked just like Favre!” Or something along those lines. The play? A 56-yard pass from Rodgers to Greg Jennings. Sure, it was a beautiful pass and an even better catch, but it was as Favre-esque as say, handing a ball off or putting on your helmet correctly. In other words, the play had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Favre. â†µ

â†µâ†µShortly thereafter, it got even more ridiculous. Rodgers scrambled around on a 3rd and goal play and ultimately hit Korey Hall for the touchdown on an awkward, if not incredible, off balance throw. That play prompted this exchange between Kornheiser and Jaws:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥“That’s exactly the kind of pass Favre would have thrown. Does it remind you of him at all?”â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥“Yes, but you have got to let it go, Tony.”â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µAmen, Jaws. Amen. â†µ

â†µâ†µSometime during the half, I think Kornheiser got the memo to pipe down with the Favre nonsense, because at some point, he stopped comparing every move Rodgers made to No. 4. Although ESPN didn’t make it to the end of the game without putting up a Favre vs. Rodgers Week 1 comparison graphic. Which, as Mike Tirico pointed out, was such a pointless comparison given the defenses the two were playing this week.
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â†µâ†µAs for Rodgers’ very non-Favre-like performance, he was pretty outstanding. Well, as outstanding as you can be when your team incurs 12 penalties for 118 yards, one of which called back a Rodgers touchdown pass to Donald Driver. Aside from his precision (18-22 passing), what impressed me most was his ability to move, both within the pocket and while rushing for yards. He picked up several first downs with his legs. â†µ

â†µâ†µAll-in-all, I don’t think game one for Rodgers could’ve gone much better. He didn’t make any stupid mistakes that might force fans to second guess management (again), and led the team to a 24-19 victory, that actually didn’t feel as close as the score would suggest. â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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