THE Brett Favre experiment, which began 131 days ago when he stepped off a private plane in Cleveland, has come down to this: two games, eight quarters, 120 minutes of football.
If the Jets’ season is over when the final whistle blows in two weeks, the trade with Green Bay that brought Favre to New York can be considered nothing but an absolute failure. The Jets knew this was the risk when they made the deal last summer.
It was a bold move that rendered the future irrelevant. This was all about 2008. Chad Pennington was jettisoned and Kellen Clemens was shoved aside. It put the Jets on the back page, and sold jerseys and PSLs, but how great has Favre’s impact been on the field?
Somehow, he made the Pro Bowl yesterday. But even the most ardent Jets supporter would admit that’s the silliest trip to Hawaii since the Brady Bunch vacationed there.
Favre has had some memorable moments, from six touchdowns against the Cardinals to leading the Jets to overtime dramatics in Foxborough. In the past three weeks, though, his play has slipped, and so has the team.
His quarterback ratings in losses to Denver (60.9), San Francisco (60.8) and the miracle win over the Bills (61.4) are the worst healthy three-game stretch he’s had since the end of the 2002 season.
Favre started strong Sunday but fizzled after the first quarter. He threw two interceptions, one off a wacky bounce that wasn’t his fault, the other a bad decision to throw into double coverage, compounded by an underthrow. That gave him an NFL-leading 17 interceptions.
“I had him [but] underthrew it,” Favre said Sunday after the 31-27 win. “Maybe I don’t have the arm I used to have. I don’t know.”
The last part of that comment was off-handed, but it may have shown a sliver of self-doubt we haven’t seen from Favre before, and rightfully so.
The Iraqi shoe tosser showed more accuracy Sunday than Favre. The 39-year-old quarterback badly missed wide open Dustin Keller on a third-down pass in the fourth quarter, and several other throws sailed out of his receivers’ reach.
Don’t tell me about what a great downfield passer Favre is, either. Of his deep passes (balls that traveled in the air 21 or more yards), he’s completed 12 of 47 (26 percent) for 405 yards, five touchdowns and eight interceptions for a rating of 58.86.
Remember how Pennington was supposed to be such a terrible longball thrower. In 2006, his last full season as the Jets’ starter, he completed 15 of 41 (37 percent) for 505 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions for a 92.98 rating.
Pennington’s success in Miami has put Favre’s performance under a more powerful microscope. Pennington is the fourth-rated passer in the NFL; Favre is 15th. This has spawned a what-if game among Jets fans: Would the Jets’ record be 9-5 with Pennington instead of Favre?
It’s impossible to know the answer, but if the ultimate doomsday scenario comes true for the Jets and Pennington knocks them out of the playoffs in two weeks, Eric Mangini and Mike Tannenbaum better go into hiding.
You can forget about 2009, too. You get the impression Deanna Favre isn’t buying green bananas these days. Her husband sounds like a man on his last day of vacation: He’s happy he made the trip, but he’s ready to go home.
That leaves two weeks for Favre to either make the high hopes that walked off that plane with him in Cleveland a reality, or end another sad chapter in Jets history.