Veteran quarterback throws touchdown pass while tailback rushes for three more as Vikings emerge with 34-20 Week 1 win over Browns
Brett Favre looked pleasing in purple. Adrian Peterson always does.
The ageless quarterback threw a six-yard touchdown pass to rookie Percy Harvin in his debut with the Minnesota Vikings, and Peterson scored three touchdowns in a 34-20 win over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.
Making his 270th consecutive start after a will-he-or-won’t-he flirtation that dominated NFL headlines this summer, the 39-year-old Favre showed he can still fire the football with authority — and hasn’t lost his boyish love for the game.
After hooking up with Harvin, Favre sprinted into the end zone and tackled the young wide receiver who was just four years old when his QB broke into the league with Green Bay.
Peterson scored on a pair of one-yard plunges and capped his day with an electrifying 64-yarder in the fourth quarter to make it 34-13.
Peterson, who was held to 25 yards in the first half, finished with 180 on 25 carries.
Favre was 14-of-21 for 110 yards and appeared to be fully recovered from off-season surgery to repair a torn biceps tendon, an injury that plagued him down the stretch last season with the Jets. Favre threw nine interceptions in New York’s final five games, a slide that cost his team a playoff spot and led to coach Eric Mangini’s firing.
Mangini is now with Cleveland, and one game into his tenure, little has changed with the Browns. They fell to 1-10 in season openers since 1999, but did score their first offensive touchdown in seven games when Brady Quinn hit tight end Robert Royal with 28 seconds left.
Quinn, picked by Mangini to start after a drawn-out battle with Derek Anderson, had a rocky opener. He went 21-of-35 for 205 yards, but most of his completions came on dumpoffs and short routes. He had one interception and the game’s most comical moment when he had the ball pop out of his hand and fall behind him following a scramble.
Joshua Cribbs scored on a 67-yard punt return for Cleveland’s first TD.
It was a game in the first half.
The second one belonged to the Vikings, who trailed 13-10 at the break.
Minnesota scored on its first possession of the third quarter as Peterson plowed his way into the end zone. The next time Cleveland had the ball, Quinn was intercepted by cornerback Cedric Griffin, who broke off his coverage from Braylon Edwards and made the easy pick at the Vikings 18. Favre then went to work, leading Minnesota on the kind of drive he used to victimize the Vikings with when he was with the Packers.
After being sacked, Favre stepped up in the pocket and zipped a pass to Harvin for 21 yards. Peterson then ripped off a 19-yard run before Favre capped the 13-play, 82-yard drive that ate up 7:32 with a short pass to Harvin, who was wrapped up by the two-yard line but managed to stretch his arms across the goal-line.
Favre and Mangini greeted each other warmly on the field before the game, hugging and sharing a few laughs. Their relationship wasn’t always so buddy-buddy in New York, ending with Mangini’s ouster, which many blamed on Favre’s arm injury.
