GREEN BAY, Wis. -- He couldn't quite pull off an improbable win Sunday night at New England. Now he's headed back to the bench.
Still, Green Bay Packers backup quarterback Matt Flynn showed on a national television stage that he belongs in the NFL. And he's confident he will be a starter some day.
"That's my goal," Flynn said. "I want to be a starter in this league, and I definitely feel like I took a positive step forward. So we'll see."
With Aaron Rodgers sidelined by his second concussion of the season, Flynn spent all last week preparing as the starter. Then he played well against the Patriots, throwing for 251 yards and three touchdowns with an interception.
Flynn earned high marks from his coaches, but he dwelled on some of his mistakes this week.
"It's kind of funny, the things you take away from games like that aren't the good plays," Flynn said. "The bad plays, those are the ones that stick with you the longest, and probably the plays that you learn the most from."
Packers coach Mike McCarthy said Flynn showed everybody else the same things the team sees in practice every day.
"For the people that don't know Matt Flynn, I think they got to look inside and see what type of person and what kind of player he is," McCarthy said. "To have your first start in the NFL against Tom Brady at New England, the level that they are playing at right now, 'Sunday Night Football,' it doesn't get much bigger than that. We all knew what Matt is all about, the people that see him every day, but I think the rest of the country got to take a look."
Packers quarterbacks coach Tom Clements figures other teams took notice, too.
"They'll evaluate Matt and they'll see he's a good player and they'll have an interest," Clements said.
Flynn wasn't a highly regarded prospect coming out of college -- the Packers took him in the seventh round of the 2008 draft -- but maybe he should have been.
Flynn took over as the starter during his senior year at LSU and led the Tigers to a victory over Ohio State in the BCS title game. So perhaps people shouldn't have been so surprised that he played well in a big game Sunday night.
"I guess it's good for people to know that I can step up against a good team on a big stage," Flynn said. "But I've never been worried about that at all. That's just kind of something I've always been comfortable with."
Rodgers returned to practice this week and is expected to start Sunday against the New York Giants. Flynn praised Rodgers for helping him during last Sunday's game and said he wasn't disappointed to be headed back to the bench.
"That's not a letdown," Flynn said. "That's definitely the job of the backup quarterback. We're excited to have Aaron back. I'm going to prepare just like I did last week. I learned a lot last week and I'm just excited I had the opportunity."
Rodgers, who considers himself a "big brother" to Flynn, said he was impressed but not surprised by the way Flynn played. Rodgers compared the performance against the Patriots to his own game at Dallas in 2007, when he took over after Brett Favre was injured and showed he could play in a game that matters.
"You see the ability in practice, you see it in the offseason, but it's important for our teammates and for himself, confidence-wise, just to kind of prove to himself and to the guys that he can do it," Rodgers said. "I was really happy for him, proud of him, and I thought he played really well."
Flynn's father, Alvin, was part of a small entourage at Sunday night's game to watch Flynn's first career start.
Alvin Flynn, a former quarterback at Baylor who now works as an attorney in Tyler, Texas, never missed his son's practices going back to grade school. Flynn said his father only missed one LSU game -- home or away -- when he was there, even before he became the starter.
"That means a lot," Flynn said. "He's been with me every step of the way. He's a person I confide in when it comes to football. And it means a lot to have people that support you."
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
