Week 15 @ Rams
The announcement before today’s game should have gone a little something like this; “Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Lambeau Field here in St Louis, I mean the Lambeau Dome. I mean the Edward Jones Dome”. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, if you follow the Packers and read anything online or in the print over the last few days you’d be familiar with the pilgrimage of Packers fan to St Louis today. The poor city was completely over-run.
For the first time in my 15 week season so far I was being approached by fans wanting to sell me tickets. That’s right, not just scalpers, actual fans trying to offload them to anyone wearing green and gold. Fans that were more worried about getting their money back, at face value I might add, than sitting through another annihilation at the hands of a visiting powerhouse. Whilst this made for great entertainment I did wonder to myself where these guys were in KC, Denver and Dallas when I needed them.
The morning started later than Steve and I had hoped. The original plan was to leave home at 8, get to the stadium surrounds by 9 and do some serious tailgating beforehand. With the snow topping 8 inches those plans went out the window and we left at 10 for a leisurely beer before the game. (Yes it was Leinenkugel’s for all of those wondering).
We met up with Steve’s brother, his mate Marty and their other friends not far from the stadium and made our way there in good time. My first impression of the stadium, from the outside at least was interesting. It didn’t at all look like a football stadium. If I didn’t know better I would have thought it was a shopping centre or a theatre. It was so unimposing, so building like. It was just like every other building in the city. Apart from the arched roof and sponsors logos, nothing about the exterior of this building said “football stadium”.
When we got inside it was much the same. Very clean, spacious and well lit. You could tell it was only 10 years young. In talking to some of the locals though you would have thought the place was a complete dive. Seems alot of people from the St Louis area don’t like it. They certainly don’t like the fact that it’s a dome. All in all I thought it was great.
We took our seats and they were awesome. Behind the end zone right at the corner, front row of the second tier. It meant that there was nobody in front of me for the first time this season so stretching my legs, leaning forward and getting up and down as often as I liked became the order of the day. Plus, thanks to most of the St Louis fans being missing in action there were a few empty seats beside us so the “Lambeau crush” that I experienced against the Raiders was nowhere to be seen.
The first drive of the day was ours and thanks to another stellar return by Koren Robinson we started at the 48 yard line. 5 minutes and 51 yards later Ryan Grant took it to the end zone for our first score. If this is how the day was going to go then I was all for it. Unfortunately it wasn’t.
The Rams punted their first possession, we fumbled our second and they capitalised by taking the ball almost 70 yards over 7 minutes to tie the score.
After that we traded scores again before Mason kicked a field goal to have us leading 17 – 14 at the break. After the first possession I was thinking that we could have run up a basketball score on these guys today. By the time the half rolled around I was hoping that we’d at least get out of there with a win.
My friend Don was at the game today and being from New Mexico he asked that I take him down a Packers “Divisional Championship” hat. I obliged and we met at halftime. In doing so I learned that he, again, had managed to find seats right on the 50, right behind the Packers, only 20 odd rows back. If anyone ever needs those sorts of tickets at an away game ask Don. He seems to have a great nack of finding them.
With Brett nearing Dan Marino’s all time record for passing yardage Don’s seat gave me an idea. That was to hang out with him for a while, wait for the record to be broken and get some awesome shots of the celebration. The thing is, there was no yardage counter on the scoreboard, there were no announcements at the half to say how close he was and I hadn’t been keeping my own stats.
Afraid that I, like the rest of the stadium, might have missed the moment I went back to my seat with Steve and the guys only to hear the crowd go nuts about three minutes later. Up to my feet, taking video, photos and anything that I could I quickly made my way back to the 50 to get the best vantage point. After a very short on field celebration the boys got back to playing. It was 2nd and 3 after all.
That’s when it all dawned on me. In Minnesota, when he broke the TD record he came to the sideline because the drive was over. Here, despite me waiting 3 quarters for it and wanting to capture it as close as I could there was no point. He wasn’t coming off, the drive hadn’t finished and the game wasn’t close to being over. A little sheepish in my oversight I took my seat next to Don and waited for the drive to finish (Mason kicked his 3rd field goal).
The crowd went totally nuts when he did come to the side. Once his sideline celebration was over (above with DD and THE ball) he looked up in our direction and gave a wry smile. This sent everyone even more berserk.
Personally, I was happy that Donald caught the ball this time. I think it was great that Greg shared the love and allowed him to take one of the milestone balls for once.
As for the rest of the game, we won 33 – 14 and with Seattle losing we guaranteed ourselves a bye in the first week of the playoffs. Add to that the fact that Dallas lost and we could still take that home field advantage back like I have always said. The fact that Detroit couldn’t hold on over them 2 weeks ago hurts even more now. Go Panthers, Go Redskins.
In reading the St Louis Post Dispatch on Monday morning it seemed I wasn’t the only one that noticed the green and gold on display at the game. Here are a few quotes from some of the Rams players:
Rams, Running Back, # 39, Steven Jackson – “It was a joke, it’s as simple as that. The whole (lower) level was Green Bay Packers. We were at Lambeau Field. We allowed them to put signs up. It’s a joke.”
Rams, Centre, # 67, Andy McCollum – “That was the worst, as far as the other team’s fans. There was way too much green in there but what are you going to do? It was almost like Lambeau.”
Rams, Linebacker, # 51, Will Witherspoon – “That’s a sad story”
The writer of the article was Bryan Burwell. Some of the things he had to say were:
“No fewer than 30,000 Packer loyalists had invaded the building.”
“Cheeseheads were the headgear du jour. Every corner of the place was green and gold. Signs, painted faces and all manner of Packers gear, and every bit of full-throated emotional energy had spread throughout the Dome, drowning what faint signs of Rams life remained.”
“At the end of another Sunday disaster the hometown Rams trotted off the field like it was another uncomfortable road game, while the Packers left the premises bathed in deafening cheers.”
I think the best thing that I read after the game, and I’m sorry I didn’t see it myself, was a sign made by one Packers fan that truly defined the day. It read “Silence of the Rams”. As a Packers fan in the stands, looking upon some 30,000 other Packers fans, watching the team win big again, seeing them go 12 – 2 and witnessing THE pass that broke one of the most prolific passing records in the history of the game I can say, it certainly did feel that way.
At no point did we worry about the noise that their fans were making. The noise that we made and the presence that we had was enough to keep them quiet from the start.
Today in history:
Packers
- Brett Favre broke Dan Marino’s record of 61,361 all time passing yards. Needing just 184 to start the game he completed to Donald Driver for 7 yards in the 4th quarter. Brett finished the day with 61,405.
Others of notable interest
- Not since 1968 have 4 teams started the season with 12 wins from the first 14 games. (New England, Indianapolis, Dallas and Green Bay.) Interesting huh?
- The Indianapolis Colts are the first team in the history of the game to have 5 successive seasons with 12 wins or more
- Isaac Bruce of the Rams moved to 4th on the all time list of receiving yardage behind only Jerry Rice, Tim Brown and James Lofton.
- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers returned a kickoff for a touchdown for the first time since joining the league in 1976. It was the 865th kick off they have received in 31 years.
