Tucker Kraft spent Thursday night getting paid like a franchise piece and talking like the 70,000 people who bought tickets owed him therapy.
The Packers dropped their home opener 35-14 to a Falcons team that walked into Lambeau at 0-2 and left with a 498-yard clinic. Bijan Robinson ran for 194. Drake London caught for 194. Atlanta held the ball for 37:05. Green Bay rushed for 17 yards on nine carries. That is the fewest the franchise has posted in a game since 1999. Jordan Love threw 53 times because the ground game ceased to exist. Matt LaFleur called it a butt-whoopin’. He was being polite.
And Kraft’s big complaint was the noise.
“That’s pretty tough. Like everyone pictures Lambeau Field and not boos,” he said. “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 going to help us win. Like, I don’t know what people think that’s going to rally us or something like that. But that’s — we’re grown men. We’re mentally strong enough, capable enough to get back on the field and play ball. But it’d probably be much easier with the 70,000 people behind us rather than opposing us.”
I know the pushback already forming in the replies. Protect the young guy. He just came back from the ACL. Booing never lights a fire. Save the heat for when it actually matters. All of that is soft. The fans did not invent the 17-yard rush total. They did not miss the tackles. They did not let an 0-2 visitor control the night for nearly 40 minutes of game clock. They reacted to what was in front of them.
The Check Cleared Two Weeks Ago
Kraft signed the extension right before the season. Four years, base value $75 million, up to $92 million with the incentives. Third-highest paid tight end money by AAV depending on who you ask. Then he put up four catches for 26 yards on eight targets with multiple drops in the ugliest home opener of the LaFleur era. The first 1-2 start of the coach’s eight seasons. The largest home loss on his watch. A 13-game home-opener win streak snapped. Parts of the building started chanting ATL. That is the soundtrack you earn when the product collapses this completely.
Christian Watson at least understood the transaction. “It’s tough,” he said. “But 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 is the adult read. Kraft gave the entitlement read. Grown men who are mentally strong enough do not need the crowd to cosplay a silent retreat after getting gashed for nearly 500 yards in their own building. They clean it up. They stop the bleeding. They stop dropping the football.
Lambeau Does Not Owe You Vibes
The traditional media will dress this up as a locker-room culture story and some talking head will solemnly explain that booing “never helps.” Cool. Neither does a nine-carry, 17-yard ground game against a team that entered the night winless. Neither does a defense that turned Bijan and London into video-game avatars. The Packers are decimated by injuries and still have not played a clean half on either side of the ball. They get a mini-bye and then a road date with Tampa Bay. If the tape stays this messy, the boos stop being a one-night story and start being the season’s background noise.
Kraft wants the postcard version of Lambeau. The one where the crowd just emits good energy no matter what the scoreboard says. That version only exists when the team gives them something to stand up for. Thursday night the Packers gave them 17 rush yards and a 21-point home loss to an 0-2 opponent. The crowd answered honestly. The money already hit Kraft’s account. The expectation that comes with it hit the field and bounced.
If 17 yards and a 498-yard beatdown still feel like a reason to lecture the people who pay the freight, the problem is not the volume in the stands.
