Lambeau magic is gone

The Lambeau magic is over. The unfathomable happened Saturday night. The Packers ended their season in pitiful fashion on what should have been a classic Lambeau Field night.

It was snowing. The temperature was below freezing. A packed house whooped it up for a national TV audience. It should have been the latest chapter in the Lambeau legend -- the 14th straight playoff win at home, ninth win this season at home and 36th win for Brett Favre in temperatures below 34 degrees.

But, the Falcons scored with ease on the first series of the game. Favre's first pass was intercepted. The Packers lost the ball on what was ruled a fumbled punt.

Michael Vick and the Falcons led 24-0 before you knew it. The sellout crowd of 65,258 -- a Lambeau record -- booed the Packers off the field at halftime.

"We have the greatest fans in football. Nothing will make me think otherwise," coach Mike Sherman said after the press conference. "They deserve the right to express their frustration. I was frustrated too."

Sherman obviously was crushed. "Losing takes a little piece of you with it," he said. Favre was so disappointed he blew away the post-game press conference for the first time in this veteran reporter's memory. He was expected to address the media Monday, amidst rumors about his retirement.

Safety Matt Bowen put the loss into some historic perspective: "There are a lot of guys who put that streak together, guys that were playing here when I was in Little League. It's important to a lot of people, and I'm sure we let some people down. Hopefully we can make it up to them some day."

This reporter was as surprised as anybody about the loss at Lambeau. It blew my first prediction for 2003 in last Friday's Sports Buzz column. I thought the Packers would beat the Falcons and then lose at Tampa Bay.

Sherman said the Packers had to take stock of what went wrong. Here are some observations:

• The Packers' defense went full circle. It allowed 100 points in the first three games, then tightened up significantly in mid-season, but gave up 69 points in the last two games. The Pack couldn't stop the run against the Jets and Falcons.
• Special teams were inadequate all season and hurt the Pack again in the loss to the Falcons.
• The injuries finally became too much to overcome. Sherman said, "Injuries are like tackling and blocking to football. You have to overcome them." But, the loss of both tackles on offense, a veteran defensive end in Joe Johnson, Darren Sharper for the last two games, and Terry Glenn, Gilbert Brown and Donald Driver in Saturday's game just became too much. The reserves looked like reserves on Saturday.
• Brett Favre is showing signs of slipping. Certainly some of the passing problems Saturday can be attributed to inexperienced receivers, but Favre also threw some very poor passes. The Packers can't rely as heavily on him forever.
• Sherman made a couple major errors during the game. For more on them, see the Plays of the Game section of this column.

Michael Vick ran for 64 yards and passed for 117 more. He truly is the heir apparent for Favre as the supreme quarterback in the NFL.

"I feel great," Vick said after the game. "This is the thing we've been talking about all week -- the winning streak in the playoffs and one day it had to come to an end. Why not let us be the team to do it?"

The muffed punt was a big play, in part because Sherman did not challenge the play. A Falcon pushed a blocker back into return man Eric Metcalf. Replays showed the ball bounced off the shoulder pad of the Falcon.

That means it should have been a dead ball, with the Packers getting the ball. But, the refs whistled it a fumble, and Sherman did not challenge it.

"I asked the official what happened and he told me that we got overpowered," Sherman said. "He got into the returner and it was what it was. I never saw a replay. I asked him `what happened?' He led me to believe it was not reviewable."

Official Bernie Kukar said nobody in his crew told Sherman the play was not reviewable and that the only discussion on the field was among the officials.

The score was only 14-0 at the time. After the fumble, Atlanta scored to pull ahead 21-0.

A blocked punt that led to one of the Falcons' touchdowns also was very big. So was a fourth and goal play, on which Ahman Green was stuffed. Many observers thought Sherman should have opted for a field goal rather than try for a touchdown on the fourth down play.

"We didn't slide into the A gap (on the blocked punt)," Sherman said. "We didn't slide into the gap and occupy well enough.

"On the fourth down, we had passed on the two previous plays and were ineffective. It was a good play. We just didn't make the block on the back side."

The entire defensive unit and special teams get sets of horns. So does Sherman, and his coaches in the booth, for not challenging the muffed punt play, no matter what the refs did or didn't say.

Ryan Longwell missed two field goals, which earns him a set. Finally, you also have to give a set to Favre, who completed 20 of 42 for 247 yards, but failed to make several key plays.

Sherman might have summarized the season best when he said, "I'm not going to jump ship on a team that won 12 games for me, won a division championship and won every home game. We did a few things right this year in the regular season, but we didn't do things right in the postseason. In Green Bay, you are measured by championships, not wins."