The Comeback Kids

I don't know if I've ever seen a regular-season NFL Sunday that had as many comebacks as we saw yesterday.

Was it because it was only the second week of the season and many players haven't gotten into mid-season form?

Or was it a sign of things to come?

We shall see, we shall see.

• The San Diego-Denver game may have been the most dramatic game on the schedule.
  
  Denver led, 31-17, at halftime, then gave up 21 points in the second half before scoring the winning touchdown with just under four minutes to play. The Chargers still had a chance to pull it out on the final play of the game, but the Broncos prevailed, 39-38.
  
  The teams combined for an astonishing 942 yards in total offense. The two starting quarterbacks combined for more than 700 yards on 57-of-83 passing — with seven TD passes and only two interceptions — between them.
  
  Kind of like a throwback to the salad days of the old AFL, isn't it?


• Speaking of starting quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers may have made Green Bay's fans forget (albeit temporarily) about Brett Favre's departure.
  
  OK, Packer fans won't forget about Favre any time soon. But Rodgers completed three first-half touchdown passes as the Packers ran up a 21-3 halftime lead on Detroit.
  
  Thanks to a couple of field goals and a couple of Calvin Johnson TD receptions, the Lions rallied to take a 25-24 lead on Green Bay in the fourth quarter, but the Packers scored the last 24 points of the game on a couple of interception returns for touchdowns and a TD run by Brandon Jackson.
  
  Rodgers is now 2-0 as the starting QB for the Packers. The last Green Bay QB who started his tenure in Titletown 2-0 was Scott Hunter, who also replaced a Super Bowl-winning legend — Bart Starr — in 1971.


• Peyton Manning led the Indianapolis Colts to a come-from-behind victory over the Minnesota Vikings on the road.
  
  The Colts trailed, 15-0, before Manning threw for a couple of TDs (one of which included a two-point conversion that tied the score), then maneuvered the team into position for kicker Adam Vinatieri to nail the game-winning field goal with three seconds remaining.
  
  Manning was another member of the 300-yard club, passing for 311 yards against the Vikings.


• The Buffalo Bills and the Jacksonville Jaguars have met nine times. In seven of those games, the winner has outscored the loser by six points or less.
  
  Sunday's game was no exception, as Buffalo improved to 2-0 with a 20-16 victory over the Jaguars.
  
  The Bills led, 10-3, at intermission, then relinquished the lead in the third quarter, trailing 13-10 going into the fourth quarter. But the Bills scored 10 points in the final four minutes to win the game.


• The Washington Redskins jumped out to a 3-0 lead over New Orleans in the first quarter, then fell behind at halftime, 10-9.
  
  The Saints built a two-score advantage by the end of the third quarter, 24-15, but Washington scored 15 unanswered points in the final period to win the game, 29-24.


• The Carolina Panthers remained unbeaten with a 20-17 come-from-behind victory over the Chicago Bears.
  
  The Bears led, 10-3, at halftime, and they maintained their lead by a slimmer margin, 17-13, going into the fourth quarter.
  
  But the Panthers won the game on Jonathan Stewart's 1-yard TD run with 3:52 to play.


• San Francisco and Seattle needed overtime to settle things between them.
  
  The 49ers fell behind, 14-3, in the first quarter, and trailed, 20-13, at halftime. They rallied to take the lead in the third quarter, 27-20, but Seattle took the lead, 30-27, in the fourth quarter before the 49ers tied the game on a 28-yard Joe Nedney field goal with less than 2:30 to play in regulation.
  
  Nedney won the game in the overtime period with a 40-yard field goal.

The week wraps up tonight when the Philadelphia Eagles visit the Dallas Cowboys for ESPN's Monday night football game at 7:30 p.m. (Central).

An End ... And a Beginning

Yesterday, I pointed out how few newspapers in New York paid much attention to the closing of Astroland, the last of the old-fashioned amusement parks on Coney Island.

But in today's New York Times, Cara Buckley, who apparently spent part of Sunday at Astroland, has written a fond farewell to the place. It deserves to be mentioned.

"[T]housands of visitors poured into Astroland for what appeared to be the last time," Buckley writes, "pushing toddlers in strollers and aged relatives in wheelchairs, and taking a final look at a park that may have seen better days, but was still widely adored."

It seems crowds were sizable as Astroland welcomed visitors for the final time.

But many New Yorkers who otherwise might have come to the amusement park may have chosen instead to stay home Sunday to watch quarterback Brett Favre lead the New York Jets to a season-opening 20-14 win over the Miami Dolphins.

That victory, admittedly, came against a team that hasn't been in the playoffs in awhile. Of course, the Jets have only three wins in the postseason in the last 20 years.

But it was Favre's presence that made it noteworthy, and the Jets held on to beat former Jets QB Chad Pennington and the Dolphins in Miami.

The Jets' next opponent is another AFC East foe, the New England Patriots, who won all their regular-season games and two playoff games before losing the Super Bowl last year.

Football fans had been anticipating the Jets-Patriots game since Favre signed with the Jets earlier in the summer. Initially, it was viewed as an opportunity to see two quarterbacks who will ultimately be enshrined in the NFL's Hall of Fame — but that matchup may never occur.

New England's Tom Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury in Sunday's win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

It was an unfortunate injury. Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss claimed it was a dirty play. But, in my opinion, it was a clean hit. Unfortunate result. Clean hit.

And, with Brady out of action for the rest of the season, and Favre about to turn 39 this fall, it's far from certain that the two will meet on the football field.

That doesn't mean the Patriots won't be a challenge for the Jets this Sunday. A team doesn't go undefeated during the regular season on the strength of its quarterback alone — even one as talented as Brady.

And, while playoff wins have been rare for the Jets in recent years, this decade has belonged to the Patriots.

It's too bad that some of the lustre from Sunday's game is gone.

Nevertheless, Sports Illustrated's Don Banks says Favre gives the Jets a chance to win a lot of games this year.

Clearly, Jets fans have more reason to feel optimistic this morning than they did before kickoff yesterday.

So Long, Brett

Nearly two months ago, as Brett Favre and his Green Bay Packers teammates were preparing to meet the New York Giants in the NFC Championship game, I wrote a little about Favre's career and how ridiculous it was to wait until his career was over to induct him into the NFL's Hall of Fame.

Turns out, his career was just about over. We just didn't know it yet.

That Sunday, Favre and the Packers lost to the Giants in overtime. New York went on to the Super Bowl two weeks later and upset the previously unbeaten New England Patriots.

And today, Favre called it quits.

My immediate response was, "Oh, no!"

I'm a Packer fan. I've been a Packer fan since I was a boy and Vince Lombardi was walking the sidelines.

That, by the way, was a couple of years before Favre was born.

And, as a Packer fan, I've been through many difficult seasons with many subpar quarterbacks -- years when Terry Bradshaw and the Pittsburgh Steelers were dominating the NFL, years when Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers were the best team, and all the other years, when the championships went to Griese and the Dolphins, Staubach and the Cowboys, Stabler and the Raiders, McMahon and the Bears.

About a quarter of a century passed between the last time that Lombardi walked off the field as coach and the first time Favre walked on the field in a Packer uniform. And, in most of those years, the Packers were terrible.

Suffice to say that, when Bradshaw, Griese, Staubach, Stabler, McMahon and Montana were winning Super Bowls, the Packers were being led by quarterbacks who were completely forgettable.

You won't see their busts in Canton, Ohio. Although you might see some of them on the NFL's blooper reels.

So, like most Packer fans, I've gotten a little spoiled with Favre at the helm for nearly two decades. The guy's never missed a game. He's rewritten most of the NFL passing records. He played in two Super Bowls and he won one of them.

I knew this day would come. I was just hoping it was still a couple of years down the road.

It seems that mere words can't do justice to what Favre has done in his career. But that hasn't stopped the nation's sportswriters from weighing in.

Rick Morrissey writes, in the Chicago Tribune, that Favre's departure is "our loss."

"I know that's probably heresy to most hard-core Bears fans," Morrissey says, "but it's true. Anybody who enjoys football, who likes flair and emotion and effort, liked Brett Favre. The NFL just became a colder place with word of his retirement ... He looked like a kid who was enjoying a game, and even the most cynical among us had to appreciate that, especially in a sports world in which greed and self-absorption seem to be the most prevalent natural attributes. "

That's the thing that always appealed to me about Favre. It was always so much fun to watch him play. And I will miss that very much.

But kids don't stay kids forever. They grow up. And growing up brings with it new issues.

Another season just wasn't worth the grind for Favre, writes Peter King in Sports Illustrated.

But that doesn't mean that Favre doesn't love the game.

And football fans love Favre, says Pete Prisco of CBS Sports.

"We loved watching him play," writes Prisco. "He was fearless. He was daring. He was the every man, the Southern kid with the aw-shucks, down-home attitude who happened to have a rocket for a right arm. He also had flaws, which we all do. ... Maybe that's why so many loved Favre so much; fans saw themselves in him."

Without Favre, says John Clayton of ESPN, the Packers may still be a playoff team, a team with loads of young talent and a quarterback in Aaron Rodgers who has been groomed to succeed Favre.

But without Favre, Clayton says, the Packers won't be the same team. "[I]t's hard seeing the Packers back at that Super Bowl level this season without him. They are just another NFC team that has a chance."

Clayton says the Packers are going to miss Favre's magic.

And so will I.

So long, Brett. Thanks for the memories.