DENVER - It's safe to say all the supposed doubts about Brett Favre's arm strength will cease for a while.
Favre threw two absolutely perfect deep balls on Monday night in Denver, both resulting in long touchdowns. His 79-yarder to James Jones in the first quarter was just a prelude to his 82-yarder to Greg Jennings on the first play of overtime in the 19-13 victory over the Broncos.
Two weeks ago against Washington, Favre underthrew a handful of deep passes when he had receivers open, and two of those were intercepted, leading to questions about whether he's lost some arm strength in his 17th season.
"What did I say after the press conference? You can't base it off of two or three throws," Favre said after the game in his usual give-and-take with the throng of reporters. "I underthrew them, I took ownership of it. I knew it had nothing to do with my arm strength. It was just one of those days."
And Monday was one of those nights his longtime teammates weren't surprised at the response.
"Whatever you doubt him about you might as well write that he's going to do it," veteran offensive tackle Mark Tauscher said. "That's the kind of competitor he is."
Jennings admitted he and the other receivers didn't help Favre against the Redskins by not adjusting well to the ball and at least breaking up the interceptions. But he re-iterated that no one on the team has ever questioned his arm.
"We see it every day in practice," Jennings said. "He has the arm. He overthrows us a lot in practice. It's like this guy is 70 years old and he's overthrowing us, but if he gets it out there and we get under it, we know we have a chance for a big play."
With the long TDs, both Jennings and Jones set career highs for receiving yards. Jennings had six catches for 141 yards, while Jones had three catches for 107 yards.
Lone turnover is a big one
There was only one turnover in Monday night's game, but it couldn't have been more critical.
With the score tied at 7, the Broncos had just moved the ball to the Green Bay 1-yard line when the first quarter expired. After marching the length of the field to begin the second quarter, Denver promptly fumbled when quarterback Jay Cutler didn't get the center exchange cleanly.
Green Bay linebacker Nick Barnett recovered at the 1, thwarting what had been a 71-yard drive by the Broncos and keeping the game tied.
The offense responded by putting together a 14-play, 98-yard drive that took more than half of the quarter (7 minutes, 42 seconds) and resulted in the go-ahead field goal.
"That was a big shift right there," cornerback Charles Woodson said. "That's six points it seems like just waiting to happen, and they fumbled the ball. That was a big swing for us, and the offense just kept driving the ball and taking time off the clock.
"It was a big turnaround for us. Sometimes in games like this you need those kind of breaks, and luckily it fell our way."
Rough night with penalties
The Packers cost themselves a potential touchdown late in the second quarter with a pair of false start penalties inside the Denver 5-yard line that forced the offense to settle for a field goal.
The first false start was against Tony Moll on second-and-goal at the 1. Two plays later it was third-and-goal on the 2, and Chad Clifton jumped. The ensuing third-down pass to Donald Driver was incomplete.
Penalties were probably the biggest black mark on the victory, as the Packers committed 13 infractions for 103 yards.
Denver hurt itself in that category as well, committing nine penalties for 63 yards. The Broncos had back-to-back holding penalties in Green Bay territory that helped stall a third-quarter drive, resulting in a field goal. Then in the fourth quarter, a 48-yard run by Selvin Young to the Green Bay 4-yard line was shortened to a net 8-yard gain because of a downfield holding penalty on receiver Brandon Marshall.
{sportsad300}Another three-sack effort
For the fourth time in his career, defensive end Aaron Kampman recorded three sacks in one game. Kampman leads the team with eight sacks this season, halfway to topping his career-high 15 1/2 sacks from last year.
Kampman sacked Cutler twice, once for a 10-yard loss late in the second quarter and again for a 7-yard loss late in the third quarter. The second sack came on third-and-long and forced the Broncos to kick a field goal.
His third sack was the toughest. Denver tried an option pass in the fourth quarter, with Marshall taking a handoff on an end-around and looking to throw. Kampman missed the shifty receiver twice along the sideline for potentially big losses but then finally ran him down near the middle of the field for a 3-yard sack.
"I'm not going to lie, I was winded," Kampman said. "That last one I got I chased that guy, missed him twice, and got him on that third one. I try to pride myself on not coming off the field, but I tapped my hat on that one (to signal for a sub). I was tired."
Going back in history
You have to go back 24 years to find the last time the Packers won an overtime game on the road on Monday Night Football.
It was on Dec. 12, 1983, at Tampa Bay. The Packers won 12-9 in longtime announcer Howard Cosell's last Monday Night Football broadcast.
Not active yet
The Packers decided not to active reinstated receiver Koren Robinson for Monday night's game and have until Tuesday afternoon to place him on the 53-man roster.
Robinson returned during the bye week from a one-year suspension after being reinstated by the commissioner. His roster exemption expires on Tuesday, and the Packers will have to make a roster move to make room for him.
