Cimini on Monday TC

Another milestone: Favre's first INT as Jet

The Great Favre is human, after all.

Brett the Jet threw his first interception, his first since the Corey Webster pick in the NFC Championship Game, in the single session today at Hofstra. It wasn?t a terrible throw; it was just a brilliant individual play by S Kerry Rhodes.

Favre had speedy WR David Clowney racing up the left sideline, covered by CB David Barrett. Rhodes lurked in the middle of the field, making like he was defending the post pattern. Ah, but he was deceiving Favre. He sold the ?post? and broke quickly to Clowney, arriving on the scene at the same time as Favre?s 40-yard throw. Rhodes leaped and made an amazing, one-handed interception. He used brains and athleticism to pick Favre, and that?s why Rhodes is one of the best safeties in the league.

Technically, it wasn?t Favre?s first interception - he was picked by LB Matt Chatham on Saturday - but that came in a 7-on-7 drill, so that doesn?t really count. Sorry, Matt.

Aside from that play, Favre had another solid practice. His best play came in a red-zone drill, from the 11-yard line. He rolled right, stopped and started backpedaling toward the pocket ? looking, looking. Finally, he unleashed a rifle shot to the back of the end zone, where Brad Smith made a lunging catch. One play later, Rhodes almost made another interception, but he couldn?t hold on because the ball was ?traveling about 100 mph,? he said later. It was one of those improv plays that Favre is known for. Later on, he tried another, and almost got burned. He tried a jump-throw to TE Dustin Keller, about 15 yards, but he floated it down the middle of the field and into a Cover-2 zone. S Eric Smith knocked it down; it easily could?ve been intercepted.

Favre?s day ended with a 31-yard TD pass to Laveranues Coles. It was a high, high fade ? a moonshot really ? and the coverage by CB Justin Miller was terrible. Coles made a nice adjustment and made the catch in the end zone.

Other notes from practice:

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Remarkably, backup TE A.J. Schable was back on the field, only four days after his frightening collision in Cleveland. We spoke to Schable after practice and he described the Cleveland nightmare, saying the left side of his body was paralyzed for about a minute. ?That?s the most scared I?ve ever been,? he said.?I was thinking, ?Oh, man, I?m done playing.?? Schable said his mother was watching the Cardinals game (he used to play in Arizona) when she noticed his name on the ESPN crawl, saying he had been taken off on a stretcher.Talk about upsetting. Fortunately, Schable appears okay.
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One idiot fan really got on Coles? case during practice. Standing on the sideline after a long incompletion from Favre, Coles heard this from a loudmouth in the bleachers: ?Laveranues, he can throw it farther than Chad.? Coles turned around, glared at the fan and muttered an expletive. Once again, Coles declined interview requests. Obviously, he?s still upset that Pennington, a close friend, was unceremoniously dumped.
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Overall, this was a sloppy, sloppy practice. They may have set an unofficial team record for most penalty laps in a sessions, thanks to fumbles and penalties. The penalty pals included QB Kellen Clemens, RB Leon Washington, RT Damien Woody, TE Dustin Keller and DT Thomas Johnson, among others. No laps for Favre today. This was an ugly practice and I?m sure they heard about it from Mangini.

 

Is it me or is Cimini always a little more cynical? Boland seems to be ever the optimist compared to Rich.