It's old Favre, not Favre of old as Vikings fall further out of contention

MINNEAPOLIS

Brett Favre has lost 122 games in his NFL career - 111 in the regular season and 11 more in the playoffs. Loss No. 122 left him speechless.

At 41, Favre returned to the Minnesota Vikings in 2010 with one goal - to win the Super Bowl. He finished a game short last season and was coaxed by his teammates to return for one final shot at a championship.

After a 31-3 home loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, that's not going to happen. That dropped the Vikings to 3-7. Minnesota now needs to run the table to have an outside shot at a wild-card playoff berth. And the schedule still includes games against the Redskins, Eagles, Giants and Bears.

In a game that would be Minnesota's last stand on the season, the Vikings failed to score a touchdown.

"This one has me at a loss for words," Favre said. "Disappointment would be an understatement. It's tough. As I stand here today, I never expected to be in this situation. This may be an understatement, but this doesn't seem to be our year."

Favre has thrown an NFL record 334 interceptions. No. 334 was devastating.

Trailing 10-3 in the closing minutes of the second quarter, Favre drove the Vikings 53 yards to the Green Bay 25. . On a first down, Favre fired a pass to Percy Harvin on a slant. But cornerback Tramon Williams jumped the route for an interception.

"I knew what they run out of that formation," Williams said. "When the tight end ran an out, I knew the slant was coming. I've been waiting for that route for more than a year now. I was grateful it finally came."

Williams' 14-yard return and a 15-yard personal foul penalty against the Vikings put the ball on the Packers' 47.

It took Green Bay just six plays and 58 seconds to turn what potentially was a tie into a 17-3 halftime lead. Aaron Rodgers completed five consecutive passes, the last one covering 3 yards to James Jones for the touchdown.

Green Bay then marched 73 yards in six plays following the second-half kickoff for a 24-3 lead on a 46-yard Rodgers-to-Greg Jennings touchdown pass.

Not even Brett Favre in his prime was going to bring the Vikings back in this one. He threw more incompletions (21) than completions (17) and finished with a passer efficiency rating of 51.2 in what was likely his final NFL game as a playoff-contending quarterback.

"I missed a few passes in a game where every positive play was needed," Favre said. "Anything that's negative is magnified 10 times in a game like this."

Favre said he needed to go home and think about this one. The Vikings have now lost four of their last five.

"I'd like to finish the season different than today and last week," Favre said, referring to a 27-13 loss to Chicago. "There's still some hope, and I want to somehow turn this around. But we . . . us . . . me . . . this team all have to play better."

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.