Pats know you can never relax vs. Favre

FOXBORO, Mass. -- It's up for debate whether or not he really wanted to be the center of attention, but a couple of weeks ago, New York Jets quarterback Brett Favre was on everyone's lips as the Green Bay hero un-retired and then forced the Packers' hand, which ended up with him being traded to the AFC East. Funny how things change. Now all the talk surrounding the Jets and New England Patriots' first matchup of the season is centered on two other QBs: Matt Cassel and Tom Brady. Brady won't play Sunday, for the first time in nearly eight years since becoming the Patriots' starter; Cassel will be making his first start since his days at California's Chatsworth High School in 1999.But Favre has his own streak going, a mind-boggling 276 games, and will add one more to the tally in his first regular-season game in front of the Jets faithful at the Meadowlands. A future Hall of Famer who owns nearly every major career passing record, Favre won his first game with New York last weekend in Miami. He is a known gunslinger, and takes risks frequently -- some of which he's rewarded for, and others not. The move to the Jets and learning a new offense for the first time in 17 years has had its challenges, and Favre acknowledged this week that there's been some give-and-take on both sides. "This offense is obviously different than what I'm used to, and I've got 17 years under my belt of something totally different. In talking with (Jets' general manager) Mike Tannenbaum through this whole process, he's said, 'Brett, we're making this deal for you because you will make plays that maybe other guys wouldn't attempt, and we're willing to take that chance. We're hoping to take it to the next level,'" Favre said. "I'm going to do whatever it takes to win and in some ways that game (a 20-14 win over the Dolphins) was a perfect example of that. I didn't play very well from an overall standpoint, but it was enough to win. I'm still learning this offense and we're trying to scale back but also add at the same time, if that makes sense." New York coach Eric Mangini, who is actually more than a year younger than his new star quarterback, joked that Favre has played so long he was around for the invention of the forward pass. In seriousness, Mangini said Favre has been exposed to many of the concepts the Jets use, though there has been some changes to terminology to ease the transition. Favre's ability to freelance makes things that much tougher for defenders, whom he can often get to bite on his head fakes. "I think in the secondary, particularly, you can never relax," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. "You never want to relax anywhere, but Brett is the type of player that can take the ball from one side of the field and in a split second turn around, whip it somewhere else and put it right on the money. You don't really want to guess with Brett; you've got to react to him." New England instructs its players to simply do their job, and as safety Rodney Harrison indicated, that's never more important than when facing Favre. Linebacker Mike Vrabel expanded on what it takes to play Favre successfully. "We've seen him play in this league for a lot of years. We know what he's about. We know he can improvise plays, he's going to take chances. That's his game," he said. "You need to stay on your coverage if you're covering guys. You need to continue to rush and try to keep him in the pocket. You know that if you keep rushing, you are going to have chances to make plays on the quarterback because he will hang onto the ball and wait for guys to get uncovered. You just have to be smart, come up with a plan, and try to stick to it." As New England owner Robert Kraft noted shortly after the trade that sent Favre to the Pats' AFC East rival, Favre is one of the few quarterbacks to have a winning record against the Patriots. He is 3-2 in his career, including leading Green Bay to a 35-21 win over New England in Super Bowl XXXI.(Contact Shalise Manza Young at smanza@projo.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)