Being Home Might Not Matter for Packers

There was no homefield advantage during the regular season and no home edge this past weekend, either. Will Mother Nature at least lend a helping hand?

GREEN BAY, Wis. – There’s no place like home.

Unless it’s the NFL during a pandemic.

Teams work all season in hopes of getting a home playoff game or perhaps even homefield advantage. However, with no fans or limited fans, playing at home hasn’t meant much this season. After home teams went 127-128-1 during the regular season, they went only 2-4 on Super Wild Card Weekend.

The Green Bay Packers, who went 7-1 at home this season to earn the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs, will host the Los Angeles Rams in Saturday’s divisional playoff game. The Rams, taking advantage of the absence of the Seahawks’ renowned fans, advanced with a 30-20 victory at Seattle.

The Packers will have 6,000 ticketed fans in Lambeau Field for Saturday afternoon’s game, though that’s a far cry from the 78,998 fans that filled the stadium for last year’s divisional victory over Seattle.

Without an abundance of fans, the Packers will be hoping for help from their loudest fan of all this time of year: Mother Nature.

“It gives us that opportunity,” Rodgers said after clinching the No. 1 seed with a win at Chicago. “Different year, so the homefield advantage might not mean exact same as years past with how the homefield crowd can make a difference at certain times in the game. It’s important. We’ll definitely be hoping for some cold, frigid temperatures in a couple weeks.”

Over the past decade of playoffs, there have been 29 games played with a kickoff temperature of 32 or colder. The home team’s record is 16-11, including 4-2 for the Packers. In games with what should be a pronounced advantage – a warm-weather or dome team playing in the cold – the home team is 9-3.

It won’t be miserably cold for the Rams. Weather.com is calling for a high of 32 with no precipitation on Saturday. Since moving from St. Louis to Los Angeles in 2016, the Rams have played in only two freezing-weather games. Those came in 2018. The Rams went 1-1 and quarterback Jared Goff was not good.

“It’s a world of difference,” receiver Davante Adams said. “People play different, people act different, they talk different. Everything [is different] coming through Lambeau. 

“You can come in and try to bark and be barefoot pregame, shirt off and do whatever you want to do but, at the end of the day, it’s a beast playing in that snow, it’s a beast playing in that weather. Just being in that environment, it takes people’s confidence away. It’s not going to be easy but it gives us a tremendous amount of confidence knowing we’re at home. And from what I’ve seen in the past, it’s taken that confidence away from our opponents.”