The Green Bay Packers will stay home for the rest of the playoffs after all. Their season lasted only 60 minutes longer than the Bears and all those other teams simply too tired, too beat up, too spent to continue.
They had limped into the playoffs and crawled out Saturday night, hoping no one would notice. The Atlanta Falcons, who had backed in themselves, put an end to a lot of tradition and myth in Lambeau Field with a shockingly easy 27-7 victory.
It was the first playoff loss at home in Green Bay history. The Packers were 11-0 in Lambeau postseason games. It also was the first time in 36 starts quarterback Brett Favre had lost a game when the temperature was 34 degrees or below.
What was surprising is the Packers barely put up a fight. Falcons star Michael Vick, the youngest quarterback and fastest player in the NFL, didn’t need to do anything extraordinary to win the game.
An expected duel between Vick and Favre never materialized as Favre looked like Custer, surrounded by more enemies than friends. His rifle arm still apparent, Favre’s effort went for naught along with his quest for a third Super Bowl trip.
The sixth-seeded Falcons will play the top-seeded Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia in next weekend’s divisional playoff round.
The Falcons had lost three of their final four games of the regular season, but their problems paled in comparison to that of the Pack.
With Ahman Green, Donald Driver, Terry Glenn, Darren Sharper and Gilbert Brown all hurting and either missing or ineffective, the winners of the non-competitive NFC North Division ended their 12-5 season one game shy of last year’s disappointing divisional round loss in St. Louis.
The Packers came out punchy, still reeling from last week’s 42-17 loss to the New York Jets that cost them home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.
The Falcons opened as if Lambeau was their own, still familiar with the good feeling they took home after the first game of the season here, a 37-34 overtime loss.
Maybe the 31-degree comfort with virtually no wind felt strange for January. The Falcons moved 76 yards in 10 plays after the kickoff, getting three first-down plays in a row on the way to Vick’s easy 10-yard slant pass for a touchdown to Shawn Jefferson.
Favre’s first pass sailed over Robert Ferguson and his second was intercepted by safety Keion Carpenter. The Falcons couldn’t take advantage, but newcomer Eric Metcalf, signed on Christmas Eve, ignored a Falcons punt that was downed at the 5-yard line.
Favre missed two more passes and the Packers failed to get a hand on Mark Simoneau as he rushed punter Josh Bidwell up the middle and easily blocked the kick. Artie Ulmer picked it up at the 1-yard line for an easy touchdown.
The Packers then mounted a modest drive, but Favre took a 9-yard sack and Ryan Longwell missed a 47-yard field-goal attempt.
Again, the Falcons couldn’t move, but a punt proved their biggest weapon. Cornerback Tyrone Williams was knocked back into Metcalf and officials ruled the ball hit Williams and Atlanta recovered. The Packers did not challenge the call to see whether the ball hit the Falcons’ Kevin McCadam first.
Packers coach Mike Sherman said he was told it was not a reviewable play.
From the Green Bay 21, it took only four plays for rookie T.J. Duckett to barrel his way into the end zone from 6 yards out as the Falcons took a 21-0 lead on the listless Pack.
With a light snow starting the fall, the Packers seemed to come to life, driving the ball from their 30 to the Atlanta 1-yard line. But four plays, including an inexplicable fourth-down run by Ahman Green, failed to get the Packers on the board.
The Falcons drove 90 yards just before the half and kicked a field goal to make it 24-0.
Able to overcome assorted injuries all season, the Packers finally hit the wall in the last few weeks, squeezing past Buffalo 10-0 two weeks ago while losing Sharper. When Driver separated and possibly dislocated his right shoulder last week, it left Favre without his favorite target.
Driver started Saturday, but he was obviously struggling. Pass rusher Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, the only chaser with the speed to stay close to Vick, was fighting the flu and wearing himself out. Brown, the run-stuffing tackle, was cut-blocked on the game’s second snap and sat out with a hip injury.
Receiver Terry Glenn, the trade acquisition from New England who was supposed to revamp the receiving corps, was knocked out in the first half with a concussion.
Driver finally broke the scoring ice with a 14-yard grab of a Favre slant at the start of the third quarter and doubled over in pain in the end zone.
