But enough about Brett Favre...

The real story in yesterday's game was that of Ryan Grant, formerly an undrafted free agent out of Notre Dame:

On Green Bay's first play from scrimmage, Favre threw a swing pass to halfback Ryan Grant, who was hit by Seattle linebacker Leroy Hill behind the line of scrimmage and fumbled.
...
On the Packers' next possession, Grant, who had one fumble in 218 regular season touches, coughed it up a second time after a hit from Seattle safety Brian Russell.
...
It was so quiet, you could hear a snowflake fall.

As Grant sat on the sideline, worrying whether he'd irrevocably blown his chance to shine in his first playoff game, Packers coach Mike McCarthy and his assistants discussed whether they should pull the young runner for a couple of series to let him collect himself, according to a Packers player.

Favre, who later would join Joe Montana as the only players to exceed 5,000 career postseason passing yards, sidled up to the shellshocked halfback and told him to shake it off. "It's not like I gave him some win-one-for-The-Gipper speech," Favre said.

What, exactly, did the great quarterback say to Grant: "Who gives a (expletive)? We're gonna keep handing it to you, so forget about it and keep running hard."

To say Grant listened would be a huge understatement. The first-year starter carried 27 times for 201 yards – the most ever by a Packers back in the team's long postseason history – and three touchdowns. It was one of the great bounce-backs in recent NFL memory.

"He didn't have any choice," Packers cornerback Charles Woodson said. "We were gonna kick his ass if he didn't."
...
"I was running left, the way I was supposed to go, and I saw him (Favre) falling and took off to the right," (tight end Donald) Lee said. "The next thing I knew, the ball was coming."

Favre, just before hitting the turf, threw an underhand scoop pass that hit Lee in stride, and the tight end gained 11 yards for the first down. Grant ran it in from the 3 on the next play for a 28-17 lead, and Green Bay put it out of reach by scoring touchdowns on its first two possessions of the second half – a stretch of six consecutive TD drives after Grant's early miscues.

"I learned a lot from this game," Grant said. "I'm just glad Mike (McCarthy) stuck with me."

More than an hour after the game, Favre stood in a nearly deserted locker room and marveled at the young runner's resilience – and that of this team that no one, not even the quarterback himself, viewed as a viable Super Bowl contender going into '07.

"The way he bounced back, running for 200 yards, that's hard to do," Favre said. "Whooo-hooo. Obviously, he's tough mentally and physically. This game will be important for him down the road."