During a span of sixty-five years, beginning in 1936, the Green Bay Packers never lost a home playoff game at City Stadium, which was rebuilt in 1956, and renamed Lambeau Field in 1965. ESPN sports anchor Chris Berman took to referring to the venue as “the frozen tundra”, and the nickname stuck.
Any playoff game the Packers hosted at Lambeau was considered a sure victory. Nobody wanted to come up in the cold and play the Pack in January. That was especially true of the warm weather teams from the south and the west. Lambeau was the most feared home field advantage in all of pro football, perhaps in all of sports.
The mystique ended in 2002 when quarterback Michael Vick and the Atlanta Falcons came to Lambeau and thoroughly whipped the Packers 27-7 in the wild card round. Since then, Green Bay has gone just 7-7 in the post season on their home turf. The last two defeats were particularly disheartening because, in both cases, the general consensus was the Packers had the better team. Following the 2020 season, Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Bucs made the cross country trip to northeastern Wisconsin and beat the Packers 31-26 in the NFC championship game. After the 2021 season, the San Francisco 49ers knocked the green and gold out of the playoffs at Lambeau with a 13-10 upset.
Green Bay went 7-1 at home during the 2019 and 2020 seasons. In 2021 they were a perfect 8-0 in the friendly confines. But this past season, the home record slipped to 5-3. That doesn’t include the loss to the New York Giants, which was a home game but was played in London.
It’s not like Green Bay lost those games to top of the league juggernauts. They were beaten at home by the Jets, the Titans and the Lions. None of those teams made the playoffs. The Jets and Titans actually finished with worse records than the Packers. The Lions game was, in effect, a playoff game, and represented yet another failure in the clutch in front of the home crowd.
What has happened to Green Bay’s home field advantage? We all have our own theories. Here’s mine. I believe the decline was inevitable considering the game’s continuing emphasis on the pass. The NFL wants wide open, high scoring games, with big, exciting pass plays. They have made it harder to defend the pass with numerous rule changes protecting quarterbacks and receivers.
Understanding this, the Green Bay front office and coaching staff have tried to gradually assemble a dynamic offense emphasizing speed and athleticism. And for the most part, they’ve been successful. Last year notwithstanding, the Packers have had one of the most dynamic offenses in the league in recent seasons. There was also a sense of not wasting the career of a Hall of Fame caliber passer. Yes, the Packers have two good running backs, but the team has never seemed to commit to winning by running the ball. Like most other teams, they run to set up the pass.
However, that brand of team often comes at the expense of physicality and toughness, qualities that really become necessary when the weather turns cold. How many times have you heard the Packers accused of being “soft” in recent years? How many games has it seemed as though they are getting pushed around by opponents that are not as talented as them? In short, Green Bay, which plays in the coldest venue in the NFL, may have built a team that is ill-suited for cold weather.
And then there are the fans. I am only going by the audio that I hear on my television, which can be deceptive. You readers who have actually attended games at Lambeau recently can correct me if I’m off base. But it seems to me that the amplitude of the cheering when an opponent does something positive is getting louder and louder. I’ve even heard substantial noise from opposing fans when Green Bay lines up to call signals on offense. This seems to indicate the number of enemy fans in the stadium has significantly increased.
We’ve all seen Matt LaFleur flapping his arms like a wounded condor on the sideline, trying to elicit more noise from the home crowd. Frankly, it’s kind of embarrassing that our own coach feels he has to do that. I know from covering the team home and away for four years, that It’s always been a kind of unspoken sentiment among players and coaches that Packer fans aren’t as loud as fans in some other venues, particularly the Milwaukee crowd.
Part of that has nothing to do with team spirit. For one thing, I also know from experience that it’s not easy to scream and shout when temperatures are below freezing, your face is numb, and you’re wearing parkas and gloves. And I empathize with fans who are dealing with the rising cost of season tickets. I get that they need to sell some of the games off to be able to afford the package. I don’t know how much control the fan has over whom those seats get sold to. But it would probably help if they weren’t sold to opposing team supporters.
Really though, I’m not sure how much crowd noise actually affects a game. It’s probably overrated. The Packers just need to find a way to reestablish Lambeau Field as their property. Holding serve at home this coming season will be critical to their success. In addition to their NFC North rivals, Green Bay plays the Saints, Rams, Chargers, Chiefs and Bucs at home. To stay in playoff contention, they likely can’t afford to lose more than one of those games.
The frozen tundra must rise again. Something tells me that it will.
Ken Lass is a former Green Bay television sports anchor and 43 year media veteran, a lifelong Packers fan, and a shareholder.Continue Reading @
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