Williams' record vs. Favre misleading

Saints defensive coordinator is 0-4 against Favre, but he's disrupted the future Hall of Famer in the past three meetings.

January 22, 2010 at 8:57PM

NEW ORLEANS -- Sunday's game will be the fifth time Brett Favre and Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams have faced each other.

Favre is 4-0, but has played poorly in the past three meetings.

The first meeting came in 1998 when Williams was defensive coordinator with Tennessee. The others came in 2002 when Williams was the head coach in Buffalo, and 2004 and 2007 when Williams was the head coach/defensive coordinator in Washington.

In that first meeting, Favre completed 63.6 percent of his passes with three touchdowns, no interceptions and a 142.6 passer rating as the Packers won 30-22. In the next three meetings, Favre had a combined two touchdown passes and seven interceptions. He had one completion percentage below 50 (45.5) and one that was 51.4. His highest passer rating was 63.0

Williams was asked about facing Favre. He said each game plan was different because of personnel, game conditions, etc.

As for how he'll approach Favre this time, he's mindful that Favre has no doubt gone back and watched tape of their previous meetings, as Williams has.

"We try to change it up," Williams said. "You've got to try to throw a wrinkle out there and do something to try and create doubt because I know he's going to go back and look at some of those things, just as I have. But it comes down to players making plays. Hopefully, we can affect the clock in his head a little bit and affect some of the guys who are trying to help him. But we do try to change things up."

Rest assured, with Williams being a Buddy Ryan disciple, the wrinkles he's tinkering with involve how best to knock the 40-year-old QB on he BEE-hind.

about the writer

about the writer

Mark Craig

Sports reporter

Mark Craig has covered the NFL nearly every year since Brett Favre was a rookie back in 1991. A sports writer since 1987, he is covering his 30th NFL season out of 37 years with the Canton (Ohio) Repository (1987-99) and the Star Tribune (1999-present).

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