Quarterback Brett Favre starts his 200th consecutive game as the Packers rout the Rams.
By wire services
Published November 30, 2004
GREEN BAY, Wis. - Brett Favre won his 200th straight regular season game Monday night and set another record as the Packers romped past the Rams 45-17.
Favre topped 20 touchdown passes for the 11th straight season, breaking a tie with Dan Marino on a 7-yard toss to tight end Bubba Franks in the second quarter that made it 14-3.
He also threw touchdown passes to Javon Walker and Donald Driver. Favre completed 18 of 27 for 215 yards and three touchdowns.
The Packers had never lost in 63 home games in which they took an 18-point lead, but the Rams stayed in the game when Isaac Bruce's 4-yard touchdown catch just before halftime brought St. Louis to 21-10.
Najeh Davenport made his first career start in place of Ahman Green and scored a touchdown with 178 yards on 19 carries.
Favre's record streak of starts moved to 219, counting playoffs, and is almost 100 more than Ron Jaworski's previous NFL quarterback mark of 123.
Favre was hoping to improve to 37-1 in his career at home with the temperature at kickoff at 34 degrees or below. But he didn't have his co-star, Green, who was out with injured ribs.
Favre took over for an injured Don Majkowski on Sept. 27, 1992. Since then, 11 of his backups have gone on to start for another team. Last week, Eli Manning became the 178th quarterback to have started a game in the NFL since Favre last came off the bench. The Chicago Bears have had 18 quarterbacks during Favre's starting streak.
"Considering the position he plays and the number of injuries at quarterback around the league, I think it's quite a feat," Packers president Bob Harlan said. "He can be on crutches in the middle off the week and he always runs out there on Sunday."
In the third quarter, the Rams benefited from a new rule this year that allows the coach to call a timeout from the sideline. Mike Martz did just that on a play in which running back Steven Jackson fumbled the ball away at the Green Bay 26.
But Martz followed up with a questionable call - a fake field goal when a 42-yarder by Jeff Wilkins would have made it a one-possession game. Instead, Wilkins was stuffed 12 yards shy of the first down on fourth-and-7.
Not only did the Rams get nothing out of a nearly eight-minute drive, but the Packers went 71 yards in four plays for Driver's leaping 16-yard touchdown catch that gave Green Bay a 28-10 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
