As I walked round and round down the concourse of Lambeau Field from our seats in Section 314 to ground level on Sunday night, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had just witnessed something historic, for all the wrong reasons. Week 18 had all the makings of what should have been a memorable night on the Frozen Tundra, but an underwhelming and frankly uninspired performance by the Green Bay Packers in a season-ending 20-16 loss to the Detroit Lions never allowed any sort of history to take shape, at least not in the way the Green and Gold faithful hoped.
I was one of the 78,191 fans at Lambeau Field on Sunday night, and I started off the day with a great deal of optimism that the night would go according to the way I envisioned. I had secured tickets through a friend earlier in the week, reinvigorated about the Packers’ demolition of the Minnesota Vikings the week prior. I made the nearly four-hour drive across the state to Green Bay buzzing with excitement, met up with my crew, and found our way to a local establishment for some pre-game libations.
One of the things I was struck by right away was the number of Lions fans permeating the perimeter of the stadium. I did my best to navigate my way through a sea of powder-blue Barry Sanders jerseys (which I couldn’t hate, because that dude was awesome), yet all of the Lions fans were glued to the televisions, beverages in hand, awaiting the outcome of the Los Angeles Rams-Seattle Seahawks game, hanging on every play to see whether or not Detroit’s playoff hopes still had a pulse.
As I made my way into Lambeau, I got the notification that Seattle had won and extinguished the flame on the Lions’ season, but the body language of the Detroit faithful didn’t seem to take a hit. The Lions fans were in enemy territory and, much like their team on the field, enjoyed the night like they had nothing to lose.
The stadium operations team did its best to generate a playoff-like atmosphere in the pregame, with a light show and the usual fireworks display, but there’s something about five field goals in the first half that doesn’t necessarily inject too much enthusiasm into a crowd. Looking back on it, perhaps the loudest roar of the night was on the pass-interference penalty drawn by Allen Lazard on the opening drive that set up first-and-goal for Green Bay on the five-yard line. The Packers managed one stinking yard on the next three plays and settled for a Mason Crosby chip shot to go up 3-0.
It’s hard to say what exactly a touchdown would have done in that situation, but it certainly couldn’t have hurt. The incomplete pass to A.J. Dillon on third down was an absolute downer, knowing that Green Bay had left four points on the field. The drives after that were dud after dud: trading three-and-outs, then alternating three field goals to give the Packers a 9-3 lead that did not feel safe at all, knowing that the team was one defensive miscue away from surrendering their advantage. It certainly appeared that Detroit did just that on a catch-and-run by Jameson Williams, but a bailout holding call negated the touchdown and left the crowd more relieved than enthused. Green Bay had another chance to really put a stamp on the game in the final two minutes, but an Aaron Jones fumble begat a quick scoring drive by Jared Goff to set up a field goal at the horn, cutting the Lions’ deficit to 9-6 at the break.
Nine to six? In what is supposed to be a playoff game? Please. Green Bay had certainly been the better team in the first half, but the frustrating red-zone offense sucked the life out of the crowd because, guess what? It’s not that fun to cheer for field goals! After barely clearing the bar on 48- and 49-yard field goals in the first half, the Packers thought for some reason that a 53-yard attempt on their opening drive of the third quarter was a great idea. That obviously fell short, and Goff took advantage of the short field with a whopping three-play drive to take the lead.
I think it was then when I knew that the Packers were done. Detroit had found a bit of a swagger, and everyone in the building knew that they could play aggressively and take chances because, why not? They’d already been eliminated, and their motivation now was simply ruining their rival’s night. Any time Green Bay got a third-down stop wasn’t met with the normal enthusiasm, because Dan Campbell was obviously keeping the offense out there. The Lions weren’t kicking field goals in the second half. They were there to embarrass the Packers on their home turf.
As D.J. Chark wiggled free for nine yards on fourth-and-one to seal the Packers’ fate, reality began to sink in. We headed for the gates, shaking our heads in frustration that we allowed ourselves to buy all the way back in on a team that appeared very deserving of its earlier 4-8 record. Yet, I wanted to be there not only for the chance that Green Bay might sneak into the playoffs, but also to say that I was at the final game of this particular era of Packers football. Listening to Aaron Rodgers’ press conference while stuck in traffic after the game only amplified the idea that this really might have been it on the team’s current Super Bowl window.
Lambeau Field didn’t have the life that it needed on Sunday night, which has all too often been a theme over the past decade. The home field advantage simply hasn’t been there in big games, playoffs or not. The past 30 years of Packers football has raised the expectations of the Cheesehead fanbase, spoiling it to an extent, and the team is in for what could be a turbulent couple of years. Uncertainly at quarterback, a few contractual albatrosses, and the almost assured departures of some longtime stalwarts like Mason Crosby and Randall Cobb leave more questions than answers about the future. The front office has its work cut out for itself, and if things don’t go well, there may be new faces working at 1265.
The hurt is different than one of the many playoff losses over the past 12 years. Those defeats felt smaller in the sense that the Super Bowl dream was dead, but only for that season. Something about Sunday night had more of a sense of finality. I will certainly zip up my ice fishing bibs and layer up to head into Lambeau Field at some point next season, but it feels like it will be in a new, different era of Green Bay Packers football.
