GREEN BAY, Wis. — It was a night set up for the passing game, with the quarterbacks in do-not-touch red jerseys, the defense playing a vanilla scheme and the veteran cornerback tandem of Charles Woodson and Al Harris taking the evening off.

But Aaron Rodgers, with the weight of the world pressing down upon him, was unable to take advantage in his first appearance at Lambeau Field as the starting quarterback of the Green Bay Packers.

Rodgers took 28 snaps in the 67-play intrasquad scrimmage before a crowd of 56,600 last night and completed just 35 percent of his passes.

Playing quarterback might be the hardest job in sports and Rodgers obviously has a long way to go before his name can be mentioned in the same breath as Brett Favre or any other effective starter in the National Football League.

On this night one year ago, Favre completed 13 of 15 passes for 157 yards and one touchdown, tearing apart the No. 2 defense with ridiculous ease. Even Rodgers was sharp, hitting 12 of 21 for 138.

That certainly didn't happen this time for Rodgers, who completed seven of 20 for 84 yards.

"I thought Aaron was solid," coach Mike McCarthy said, clearly giving Rodgers the benefit of the doubt. "The production wasn't there, whether it was on the front end or the back end of the pass play."

Shortly before the scrimmage, Favre emerged waving from a private jet across town at Austin Straubel International Airport prepared to resume his football career.

In his post-game news briefing, McCarthy was asked immediately about Favre. The coach was on point, almost defiant, his voice rising when he said no promises had been made to Favre about what his role on the team will be.

"It's about the team, OK?" McCarthy said. "That's what the decision will be based on.

"If we play a game tomorrow Aaron Rodgers would be the starting quarterback. I'm not going to change any direction we've gone with this football team based on the information I have here today.

"We have all the confidence in the world in Aaron. I think he's a player that's on time. He's earned this opportunity. I'm very confident with him."

Rodgers led a five-play, 80-yard drive capped by Brandon Jackson's 4-yard touchdown run to open the scrimmage, and cheers erupted.

Rodgers' first pass was a play-action strike down the middle to Donald Driver for 19 yards. On the next play, rookie cornerback Pat Lee drew a 38-yard interference penalty against Driver, putting the ball on the 4.

The next six of Rodgers' passes fell incomplete. Four were broken up, some the result of fine coverage and some the result of mediocre throws. Another pass was dropped by Greg Jennings and one was thrown away.

When Rodgers returned to face the No. 1 defense (minus the starting cornerbacks) in the 2-minute period, he went 6 for 13 for 65.

Rodgers started with three misses, giving him nine straight incompletions, then hit Jennings for 12 and fired incomplete three more times. Down came some boos, something McCarthy dismissed as trifling.

Then Rodgers hit five in a row, showing good arm strength on an 11-yarder to Donald Lee, a 22-yard sideline bullet to Jordy Nelson against Cover 2 before safety Atari Bigby could get over, and a low 14-yard shot between the hashes to Driver.

With his team supposedly trailing by four points and 8 seconds left, Rodgers took a shot to Lee out of a five-wide set from the 20 and was intercepted in the end zone by Aaron Rouse

As spotty as Rodgers' showing was, McCarthy didn't see much to like in terms of protection or routes, either.

"I saw a lot of bad fundamental football," he said.

Rookie Brian Brohm played 21 snaps with the No. 2 offense, generally working against the No. 1 defense. The other rookie, Matt Flynn, had 18 snaps against lower-echelon defenders.

Brohm took over for Rodgers after the opening sequence and missed his first three passes, giving the offense 10 straight incompletions. He rebounded somewhat, finishing 6 for 15 for 61 yards. Flynn went 6 for 11 for 49 yards.

"I thought Brian had some tough situations against the first defense," McCarthy said. "Brian and Matt both need to play faster."

Of Brohm's nine incompletions, two were batted, one was dropped, one was thrown away, one was low and others just missed the mark. Four of his completions went for first downs, including gains of 13 yards to Ruvell Martin and 12 to Tory Humphrey.

Two of Flynn's five incompletions were dropped, including one by Nelson on an easy pass over the middle and another by Taj Smith on a corner route that would have been an 18-yard TD.

"I'm not going to be naive," McCarthy said. "We got two rookie guys and we need to get them ready to play. It will take the whole preseason. I don't think we're behind or ahead of the game. Thing I like with both of them is they keep getting better. They'll have some rough days; I know that."

All three quarterbacks did last night.