Lambeau Field can be a notoriously difficult place for road teams to play — but for once, fans turned their collective ire toward the home team.
The Green Bay Packers were booed off the field following their 35-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday, September 24, the worst home defeat since 2018, which dropped the team to 1-2 on the early season.
“That’s pretty tough,” Packers tight end Tucker Kraft said of the booing after the game. “Everyone pictures Lambeau Field and not boos. I don’t picture boos when I picture my home stadium. That’s tough. It’s pretty disappointing. Especially for a home opener. It’s pretty disappointing. It’s not gonna help us win.”
Kraft, 25, continued, “I don’t know what people think, that’s gonna rally us or something like that. But we’re grown men. We’re mentally strong enough, capable enough to get back on the field and play ball. But it’d be much easier with the 70,000 people behind us rather than opposing us.”
Despite the hostility, Kraft insisted the team “can’t let external noise divide us.”
“Us guys in this locker room, we’re really all we’ve got,” he said. “We spend a lot of time together, so just continue to stay close and build off each other.”
Packers wide receiver Christian Watson also addressed the boos after the game, suggesting that supporters have every right to vent their frustrations.
“At the end of the day, it’s an entertainment business, so we have to put a better product out on the field if we want to have the fans have our back,” Watson, 27, told reporters. “Obviously, we like to think that the fans will be there through the ups and downs, but we’ve got to put out a better performance than that.”
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur gave a blunt assessment of his team’s play during his post-game press conference.
“I think we’ve got to continue to work with these guys and try to figure out what we do well,” LaFleur, 46, said. “Because right now I don’t know what we’re doing well offensively.”
Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love admitted he was “very frustrated” after the loss.
“I think the positive is knowing that there’s still a lot of ball out there for us, and I think as a unit, we’ve all got to stick together,” Love, 27, urged.
The quarterback added, “No one’s throwing in the towel at all. It’s just, we’ve got a lot of work to do to get better as a team and as an offense. So, it’s just about continuing to find the positives of what we’re doing.”
The Packers hit the road for their next game, traveling to Tampa Bay to face the Buccaneers on Sunday, October 4. Green Bay returns home the following week to face the Chicago Bears on Sunday, October 11.
