Lambeau Field turned on the Packers early Thursday night and never really let go.
By the time the Atlanta Falcons had finished a 35-14 win in Green Bay’s home opener, the 76,955 fans in the building had spent most of the night booing, and the noise only grew after halftime. Christian Watson didn’t argue with the crowd. He pointed straight at what the Packers put on the field.
“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. 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.”
That was the cleanest summary of the night in Green Bay. The Packers jumped ahead 7-0 on Jordan Love’s 4-yard touchdown pass to Watson just after the five-minute mark of the first quarter, then watched everything unravel. Atlanta scored the next 27 points, added more in the fourth, and never let the Packers back into the game.
The turning point came in the first half. A roughing-the-passer penalty extended an Atlanta drive, and Bijan Robinson made Green Bay pay on the very next snap with a 55-yard run.
From there, the Falcons kept hammering away. Robinson finished with 194 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries, while Brian Robinson Jr. added another rushing score.
Michael Penix Jr. also had a big night in his return from last November’s ACL tear. He went 18-of-25 for 256 yards, one touchdown and one interception, and Drake London piled up nine catches for a career-high 194 yards. Put those numbers together, and it’s easy to see why the mood in the stadium soured.
Green Bay had no answer on the ground. The Packers managed just 17 rushing yards as a team, and Love was forced into a massive workload, throwing 53 times and finishing 28-of-53 for 312 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Most of that production came after the game had already tilted hard in Atlanta’s favor.
The official numbers told the same story another way: the Falcons outgained the Packers on the ground 242-17. It was also Green Bay’s first loss in a home opener since 2012 against San Francisco, ending a 13-game winning streak in such games that had matched Miami for the NFL record.
Inside the locker room, the reaction wasn’t uniform. Watson owned the performance, but tight end Tucker Kraft had a different take on the crowd’s response. He called the boos “pretty disappointing, especially for a home opener,” and said they would not help the Packers win.
Head coach Matt LaFleur didn’t sugarcoat it either. He called the loss “humbling” and a “butt-whooping.” Later, he said he does not know what the offense is doing well right now.
The backs didn’t give the offense much to lean on. MarShawn Lloyd and Kaleb Johnson combined for 17 yards on eight carries, which left Green Bay stuck in a pass-heavy script and made the crowd’s frustration even louder. The weather wasn’t the issue - it was about 61 degrees and cloudy - but the usual Lambeau advantage never showed up.
There were a couple of bright spots. Matthew Golden caught five passes for 100 yards and a 15-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, his first regular-season score and his first 100-yard game. Watson finished with seven catches for 96 yards along with his early touchdown, giving him four touchdowns in three games.
None of that changed the final picture. Green Bay is 1-2, the building was restless, and the Packers head to Tampa Bay on Oct. 4 trying to fix a run game and a defense that got buried by Atlanta’s best players. Watson said it plainly: if the fans are going to stay with them, the Packers have to give them something better to watch.
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