GREEN BAY, Wis. - At this point, teams must know what's coming from Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers.

Going into Sunday's game against the Washington Redskins at Lambeau Field, the Packers (4-1) lead the league with an average of 294.6 yards passing per game. They're also the league's second-worst rushing team, and Favre's downfield accuracy isn't quite what it used to be.

It doesn't take a week in the video vault to figure out that the Packers plan to dissect defenses with quick, short passes that lead to long runs after the catch — "dinking and dunking,'' as Favre calls it.

So why, with the exception of the Chicago Bears' performance in their second-half comeback Sunday night, has nobody been able to stop it in recent weeks?

Tight end Bubba Franks said the Packers don't need the element of surprise to move the ball.

"They know what's coming,'' Franks said. "But can you run your offense better than they can run their defense? Even though they do know it's coming, we just have to go out and execute. It's hard to stop when everybody's clicking.''

But despite a hot start against an early schedule that featured four playoff teams from last season, Packers coach Mike McCarthy said the Redskins (3-1) will be "the best team that we've played to date.''

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Favre agrees.

"I think their defense in general is playing by far the best football we've seen up to this point,'' Favre said. "It's not a knock against the teams we've played. But they really haven't had injuries, they have a lot of veterans, they have high picks and everything that they did from an organization standpoint, defensively speaking, is kind of coming into place.''

The Redskins faced another pass-happy NFC North team last week and stopped it cold.

Washington held the Detroit Lions and mad-scientist offensive coordinator Mike Martz to a measly field goal in a 34-3 romp last Sunday. The Lions gained only 144 yards, the fewest allowed by the Redskins since 1992.

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And the Redskins stopped the Lions without using a bunch of blitzes, a curveball from aggressive assistant coach Gregg Williams.

"Now that's not to say he won't roll the dice against us,'' Favre said. "But against a very high-powered offense in Detroit, they played as vanilla as you can play and never gave up anything. And when you can do that and get pressure with the front four, it sure makes it a whole lot easier to call a game. He's presented problems to us in the past with his exotic blitzes and things of that nature; that would pose a threat to us again. But why do it if you don't have to?''

Favre, who will break a tie with George Blanda and become the league's all-time interception king with his next pick, has earned rave reviews for being more careful this year.

He has thrown only four interceptions, and only one true head-scratcher: a lob to Brian Urlacher that helped the Bears mount a second-half comeback on Sunday. But Redskins safety Carlos Rogers has seen more balls that were there for the taking.

"He's still throwing them out there,'' Rogers said. "He's still letting his guys try to make a play, and the ball's been loose. The guys haven't put their hands on them. We've got to show him different looks, but when the opportunity comes, take advantage of it.''

The Redskins could be without a pair of key players on Sunday, linebacker Marcus Washington (hamstring) and defensive end Phillip Daniels (shoulder).