Rich’s Message to Packers Fans in the Wake of Green Bay Getting Steamrolled by the Falcons

Rich started the show on January 4, 2003. He was still on SportsCenter. NFL Network didn't exist yet. And the Green Bay Packers had never lost a home playoff game in the state of Wisconsin: 11-0 at Lambeau, 2-0 in Milwaukee.

That night the Atlanta Falcons came to town for a wild card game. Their head coach was Dan Reeves, the man who threw the halfback option pass that gave Dallas a lead in the Ice Bowl, the closest the Packers had come to losing at home in the playoffs. Reeves, as Rich told it, was sick of hearing about the Ice Bowl and decided to freeze Lambeau himself. He sent a 22-year-old quarterback out for his first career playoff game. His name was Michael Vick.

Vick's numbers didn't light it up: 117 passing yards and 64 rushing yards. What he did in the snow did. Atlanta won 27-7, and that was the end of the Packers' season.

Thursday night, another number seven in a Falcons uniform put up 213 yards from scrimmage at Lambeau. "Now, the difference is that night, on January 4th, 2003, it was the end of the Packers season," Rich said. "And this time around, Packers fans just feel as if their season's over."

The numbers were brutal. Of Bijan Robinson's 213 yards from scrimmage, 194 came on the ground, and 134 of those came before contact. "Flag football yards," Rich called them. Drake London matched him with 194 receiving yards. Atlanta's 17 first-half points were more than the Falcons had scored in their first two games combined.

Michael Penix, back from injury, handed Matt LaFleur his largest home loss. It snapped Green Bay's 13-game winning streak in home openers, which had been tied for the longest in NFL history. The Packers hadn't lost a home opener since 2012 or lost one by double digits since 2006. The 35 points allowed were their most in a home opener since the Giants put up 42 in 1971.

LaFleur didn't sugarcoat it. "That was a humbling night," he said. "It was a butt-whooping. So, I'm not going to put it on one thing."

Rich acknowledged everybody is dealing with injuries, running through the league's news of the day. But he wondered whether any team misses a non-quarterback more than Green Bay misses Josh Jacobs, who is on the commissioner's exempt list. You could argue the Packers are missing the top two on that list, with Micah Parsons standing on the sideline watching it unfold.

Meanwhile, the Robinsons kept scoring. Bijan ran free and Brian Robinson found the end zone, and Rich wondered aloud which other Robinson was coming next.

The run game is where it all breaks down. Green Bay is averaging an NFL-low 48.7 rushing yards per game, 146 total through three weeks, the fewest by any team through three games since 2019. Bijan had 134 yards before contact in one night. Jordan Love has completed just 52% of his passes, the second-lowest mark through a team's first three games in the last 20 seasons.

LaFleur was blunt about the imbalance. "Right now I don't know what we're doing well offensively," he said. "Anytime you drop back 50 some odd times in a game and you have nine rushes, it's usually not going to bode well for you."

Love threw 53 times. The Packers ran nine. "You just can't do that in the NFL," Rich said.

Love said everybody needs to look in the mirror. "It's a very disappointing feeling right now," he said. "Like I said, myself to start."

The strange part, Rich noted, is this might be the best receiving corps Love has had. Wicks and Doubs are gone, but Matthew Golden had 100 receiving yards and a touchdown, and Christian Watson became the first Packer with a receiving touchdown in each of the first three games since Davante Adams in 2018. Tucker Kraft is back too, though he had a couple of drops that hurt.

Kraft also had thoughts on the boos. "Everyone pictures Lambeau Field and not boos," he said. "It's not going to help us win. I don't know what people think, that's going to rally us or something like that."

Rich read it differently. "I don't think the cheeseheads and the Packers faithful are booing the players," he said. "They're booing the management team that decided to run it back with their coach and their general manager because they think that there should have been a change. Fair or not."

The good news, such as it is: the next game is on the road in Tampa, where the Bucs will either be 1-2 or cornered at 0-3 after hosting the Vikings. The next home game is week five against the Bears, which Rich noted should delight a Chicago fan base that just watched the Cubs and White Sox clinch playoff berths almost at the same time the Packers got "curb stomped on national television." Sweet and sour, he called it. "But it all tastes delicious at the end."

Rich still isn't writing the obituary. Vick ended the Packers' season that January night. This is a 1-2 team in week three. Parsons is coming back. The offensive line has to get fixed first. At Tampa, home for Chicago, Dallas on a Sunday night, at Detroit, home for Carolina on a Thursday. Win three of those five and you're .500.

"I'm just trying to manifest in a way that Packers fans certainly aren't right now," Rich said. "It's week three, man."