Sunday, three of those five interceptions came with Favre trying to get the ball to his only real professional receiver, Driver. Perhaps Sherman might want to use his own cell phone to tell Favre teams these days are watching Driver a lot more closely than they are 5-foot-9 Antonio Chatman.

Yet the biggest problem for the Packers existed long before they began losing players right and left to injury. Green Bay has lost an average of a player a week thus far and with seven on injured reserve, including their best runner and best receiver, the difficulties Favre and Sherman are trying to cope with are daunting to say the least. But Sherman and the front office contributed mightily to their own demise last spring when they let both starting guards Marco Rivera and Mike Wahle go in free agency. It is no accident that the Packers' running game is averaging more than a yard less per carry this season without them burrowing open holes in the middle of opposing defenses.

Sure the loss of Green has influenced that to a great extent but the absence of two veteran starting guards in an offense that operated the way Green Bay did cannot be underestimated, especially in short yardage situations. As starting tackle Mark Tauscher admitted recently, "I don't think there's a play we can hang our hat on yet.''

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Favre knows this. So do opposing defenses and they try to pressure him more and more, knowing in the end he is the one Packer who will have to make plays with few reinforcements to help him. That's put Favre on pace for a career-high 30 interceptions and there's no sign any of that pressure is going to come off his shoulders any time soon with the exception of having to talk to the press. That, at least, he can apparently avoid until somebody goes to the principal's office and turns in a cell phone.

"If you take a ball out of a great man's hands and tell him to do it another way you put yourself under,'' Driver said when it was suggested this week the Packers might want to ask Favre to be a bit more cautious with the football. It was apparently a sentiment shared by Sherman, who said after Favre's five interceptions, "He plays a certain way and i don't want him to change that. He's never been conservative. He plays to win the games.''

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Sherman may be right, but Favre and the Packers are not winning many games in what is very likely his last season in the NFL. In fact, they've won only once this year and things don't look any better this weekend with the Pittsburgh Steelers looming. Nor does it get easier after that with the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles also having to be dealt with before the month is out.

Both of his running backs and his top wide receiver are gone. That, combined with the gaping hole in the offensive line have doomed the Packers' season. Favre has still tried to be Favre with all of this going on, and you can't blame him for that.