GREEN BAY, Wis. — This time of year, it’s not unusual for the dim light emanating from each of the darkened defensive meeting rooms at the Green Bay Packers’ training facility to have a purple hue to it.

Not during Vikings week.
The video machines are rolling like they normally do, but there’s a slight difference in the action spread across the screen. The guy playing quarterback for the Vikings looks a lot like the guy who used to play quarterback for the Packers.
After 16 years with the Packers, Brett Favre is behind center for the Vikings, and that means a large chunk of film study now focuses on a guy some players around here faced in practice on a regular basis. There haven’t been a lot of changes with Favre’s game since he left the Packers after the 2007 season, but that doesn’t mean the Packers aren’t looking for some.
“Me personally, on Monday and Tuesday, I studied him,” cornerback Al Harris said after practice Thursday. “I took a little time to study Brett because I haven’t faced him in a little while. You know, just looking at his drops, when he lets the ball go, checking out his reads.”
Harris and Favre were teammates for five seasons and faced each other in training camp and practice more times than they can remember. Among the most competitive drills the team runs during the regular season is the Thursday 2-minute segment when the No. 1 offense goes against the No. 1 defense.
Both sides know the other side’s scheme, so the outcome often came down to which player could outsmart the other. This week, Harris, fellow cornerback Charles Woodson and the rest of the defense are looking for an edge to win that same battle.
“He’s doing a lot of things well,” Harris said. “He’s not taking as many chances. He’s taking care of the ball. He’s only thrown one pick and that was a tipped ball. The DB made a good play, tipped it, and the guy behind him caught it.”
Asked if it looked like there were fewer opportunities to try to intercept Favre, Harris shook his head.
“I’m not going to say that,” he said. “He just hasn’t made mistakes, as far as careless mistakes getting rid of the ball, throwing into double coverage. He’s been making all the right reads. He’s been playing well. Honestly.”
The opportunities Harris is talking about are plays other cornerbacks with fewer credentials than Harris and Woodson failed to make against Favre. The Packers rank tied for first in the NFL with seven interceptions and are looking to add to their totals against the NFL’s all-time leader in that category.
“We’re on it,” Harris said.
They also know that Favre studies film as hard as anybody. He knows how Harris likes to play bump-and-run coverage, how Woodson likes to make it look like he’s beat only to recover for an interception and how fast it takes safety Nick Collins to get from his Cover-2 position to the sideline.
“He knows us; we know him,” Harris said. “You’re familiar with the guy, but on the other hand, he’s familiar with you. He knows how we’re thinking. He knows how we’re going to be playing.”
It’s not just the secondary that has to put in time studying Favre.
The defensive linemen and linebackers spend most of their time looking at the running back and offensive line, but this week former Favre teammates Cullen Jenkins, Ryan Pickett, Johnny Jolly and Mike Montgomery are watching film of the Minnesota quarterback for a couple of reasons.
“Our biggest thing as far as quarterback-wise is the thing to watch with him is the hard count,” Jenkins said. “And to see how mobile they are and let us know how we need to rush them in certain situations.”
Favre is one of the best in the NFL in drawing players offside with his cadence. And even though some of the guys have heard it over and over again, they still have to study it to make sure they aren’t duped into jumping into the backfield too soon.
Just like they had to study Jay Cutler and Marc Bulger’s count, they have to see if Favre has changed anything since he has been gone.
“Every quarterback has tendencies of how they do their count,” linebacker Brady Poppinga said. “Sometimes before the ball is snapped, as they’re preparing for the ball, they’ll do a little twitch. You read up on those things.”
Before they turn on the video machine, each of the players receives a scouting report on offensive players who affect his position. They’ve heard and read the ones on the Vikings so often that most of them can repeat them word for word.
This week, there was a scouting report on Favre.
“Same stuff,” Poppinga said. “He has a great arm; he is a savvy vet, that kind of stuff.”
Obviously, Poppinga wasn’t going to divulge the parts of the scouting report that identified Favre’s weaknesses, perhaps like a loss of mobility and a desire not to get hit. Favre has been sacked nine times this season, just three less than his counterpart, Aaron Rodgers, who has been downed more times than any quarterback in the NFL.
Several years ago, Jenkins remembers chasing Favre around in practice.
Favre used to make Jenkins and charging defenders miss with a spin move or a pump fake, and get far enough away from the rush to complete a pass down the field. Film study will tell Jenkins whether he needs to put it low gear when he’s charging Favre or if it’s OK now to go full-speed ahead.
“Playing with him and against him so long, you get an understanding for that stuff,” Jenkins said. “He’s really crafty when you’re coming at him, if you’re in a flat-out sprint coming toward him. You’ve got to be smart.”
As for seeing Favre in a purple uniform on video this week, there’s a degree of strangeness involved. But you don’t study faces on video, you study tendencies, so the oddity of it all hasn’t really surfaced for some.
“I don’t think it will hit you until you get on the field and then you see him and then it’s like, ’Man, I’m playing against him now.’ It will be a whole different feeling lining up across from him, like you did during practice.”