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Morency helps Favre post another victory over Lions

Dec 17, 2006 - 11:37 PM GREEN BAY, Wisconsin (Ticker) -- Brett Favre usually loves to face the Detroit Lions. Vernand Morency might grow to like the matchup himself.

Favre posted another win against the hapless NFC North Division rival with the help of two touchdown runs by Morency as the Green Bay Packers posted a 17-9 victory over the Lions, who continue to bid for the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.

A future Hall of Famer, Favre has amassed some of his best numbers against the Lions and is now 21-9 all-time against them. But the most recent victory came in spite of Favre, not because of him as Morency picked up the slack.

Favre completed 20-of-37 passes for 174 yards and was intercepted twice but still improved to 15-0 at home against Detroit (2-12). He remained stuck on 413 career touchdown passes, putting him within seven of tying Hall of Famer Dan Marino for the most in NFL history.

Despite the off day, Favre did manage to pass Marino on the all-time completions list with a 21-yard pass to Carlyle Holiday late in the second quarter. It was his 4,968th completion but the future Hall of Famer was more concerned with getting the win.

"I'm more pleased that we won," Favre said. "(Referee) Ed Hochuli congratulated me out there so I did know because of him. I'm more concerned about the three I completed to their team and the fact we won."

Morency ran for a 14-yard TD in the second quarter to give Green Bay (6-8) a 10-3 lead. After Detroit pulled within 10-9 on a 23-yard field goal by Jason Hanson, Morency capped a 12-play, 78-yard drive with a 21-yard TD run.

"It felt great and the offensive line did a great job," Morency said. "Brett Favre had the right checks and the coaches called the right plays. And you can't have long runs without the receivers blocking down field, they did a great job."

The Lions have now lost six straight games and could have the league's worst record by the end of the day. Oakland also entered Sunday 2-11. Detroit is an NFL-worst 23-80 since 2001.

"Getting four turnovers was a positive today, that is why you go out and get turnovers so that you can shorten the field for the offense," Lions coach Rod Marinelli said. "But you need to execute plays. The energy and effort was there, the execution was not."

The Detroit offense had a rough day as Jon Kitna was 16-of-26 for 135 yards and was intercepted twice. Kitna was also the leading rusher for the Lions with 34 yards on seven carries.

Contributing to Kitna's woes was the fact that Packers cornerback Al Harris locked up Roy Williams, limiting him to one catch for 11 yards.

"What Al Harris does best is press guys at the line," Kitna said. "We weren't able to hold the ball long enough to get plays down the field."

"To take their top weapon on offense and shut him down, I thought his performance was awesome," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "We had a bunch of individual performances that really stood out and Al's was definitely one of them."