GREEN BAY, Wis. -- In Seattle, Ahman Green was considered a promising back who fumbled. In Green Bay, Green is looking as though the fumble occurred by letting him out of Seattle.

Brett Favre is so popular in Green Bay that they name the small road leading to his restaurant as Brett Favre Pass. Pretty soon, the town might have to name the airport runway -- Ahman Green Runway. He's taking the halfback position to new levels.

	In 23 games with the Packers, Ahman Green has rushed for 1,856 yards and scored 17 touchdowns.

During the Packers' 21-20 comeback victory Sunday, Green rushed for 169 yards on 24 carries and led the receiving corps with six catches for 49 yards. That's 30 of the Packers 57 plays and 218 of the Packers' 352 yards. The Packers obviously are Favre's team, but Green's supporting role continues to expand.

"I tell our offensive line to give Ahman just a little push, so he can get some forward movement," Favre said. "He has such great feet and great vision so let him bounce around. It reminds me of Emmitt Smith when the Cowboys were good. No one touched Emmitt until he crossed the line of scrimmage. As a running back, it makes a difference. It's like a quarterback who has a chance to step into his throw. If Ahman gets a little bit of breathing room, he makes a difference."

Green was the difference in the game. Even though he had a solid first half with 77 yards on 14 carries against a supposed good run defense, the Packers fell behind because of mistakes. Favre threw two bad interceptions and Green had a costly fumble after Bucs free safety Dexter Jackson stripped the ball from his arms.

The Bucs converted those turnovers into 17 points and had a 17-7 lead in the third quarter. Then coach Mike Sherman turned the Green light on with a perfectly executed running play that is called 92 blast. With strong safety John Lynch caught on the weakside, all Green needed was solid blocking up front and a William Henderson block on Dexter Jackson. He got both.

Green skirted 63 yards for a touchdown with 4:40 left in the third quarter to cut the lead to 17-14. Momentum had shifted.

"That was one of those momentum shifters," Green said. "It was a basic downhill play for us -- one of our bread-and-butter plays. It's a play we usually run on first downs or third-and-shorts, but with what I call perfect blocking happening, all I had to do was outrun the safeties and cornerbacks to the end zone."

The play came on a first down.

The other amazing part about Green's game is how valuable he's becoming on third downs. Four of his six catches came on third downs. Two went for first downs.

"Usually, Ahman's my third read out of the backfield, but if they dropped into zones, I take one quick peek and get him the ball quick even if he is my third read," Favre said. "I want to get it to him as fast as possible, so he can square up on guys. If teams take away the downfield stuff, Green can make a guy miss and maybe get the first down."

For the season, Green has 681 yards on 131 carries and four touchdowns. He leads the team with 35 catches for 293. He is becoming to Favre what Marshall Faulk is to Kurt Warner in St. Louis.

"He's definitely a threat any time he catches the ball," Favre said. "Today was no exception. There may be times when he gets stuffed, but he was a difference-maker today."

Rossum pays huge return
The other difference-maker for the Packers was return specialist Allen Rossum, but some strategy helped him set up his game-winning 55-yard punt return in the fourth quarter.

Before the punt, special teams coach Frank Novak decided to put two blockers on each of the "gunners" who were on the outside set to tackle him. A right return was set up and struggling Bucs punter Mark Royals didn't get much hangtime on this punt. Rossum, who's missed most of the season with a hamstring injury, broke right and then cut to the middle of the field. A defender grabbed his face-mask, but Rossum kept running.

"After getting hit in the face, I didn't know whether I should stop or run fast," Rossum said. "I decided to run fast."

The touchdown with 3:03 left won the game.

Whistle happy
Favre wasn't too thrilled with referee Johnny Grier's handling of a botched downing attempt by Bucs quarterback Brad Johnson with six seconds left in the game. Johnson got to the line of scrimmage at midfield, took the snap and lost control of the ball. It hit his helmet before he pushed it to the ground. Grier flagged the play for illegal touching and wanted to march off a 5-yard penalty. The play was reviewed and Grier had to overturn the call and say it was a fumble that was blown dead by an inadvertent whistle.

"I don't know about the replay system, but I'm sick and tired of those inadvertent whistles," Favre said. "Had we lost that game with a Hail Mary, that would have been a hell of a way to loose the game. I remember one time when Jerry Rice fumbled in the playoffs against us. Clearly, the replay showed it was a fumble. But they called an inadvertent whistle. In the one today, it was ruled a fumble, so the clock should still be running. We didn't get either of those."

Injury update
The Packers lost left tackle Chad Clifton with a bad ankle sprain in the first quarter. Barry Stokes took over for him and there didn't seem to be a dropoff for the Bucs. It is unclear how long Clifton will be out.

John Clayton is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.