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PACKERS 2002 SCHEDULE INCLUDES THREE PRIMETIME GAMES; TEAM OPENS IN LAMBEAU SIXTH STRAIGHT YEAR
posted 03/28/02
 | | The Packers will travel to Champaign, Ill. on Oct. 7 to square off with the Bears on 'Monday Night Football.' |
Three primetime appearances, two on Monday Night Football, a Lambeau Field opener for the sixth consecutive year and three of their final five games at home in December highlight the Green Bay Packers' 2002 regular-season schedule, announced today by the National Football League.
The Packers also will face the reigning Super Bowl champion New England Patriots on the road and five other playoff teams -- Chicago (twice), Miami, San Francisco, Tampa Bay and the New York Jets -- over the course of a season which will find the NFL embarking on its new divisional and scheduling format and the Packers competing in the newly-named NFC North Division.
The first of their two Monday Night Football matchups will be a history-making event, taking the Green and Gold to Champaign, Ill., Monday night, October 7, for the first time ever -- for a 163rd meeting with the Chicago Bears, who will be playing their '02 home games in Illinois Memorial Stadium while their Soldier Field home is renovated. It also will mark the 10th consecutive year that the Packers have appeared on Monday Night Football.
Their other Monday night assignment, vs. Miami November 4, marks the first time in the 33-year history of the prime time showcase that the Packers and Dolphins have met in an "MNF" contest.
Additionally, the Packers will entertain their longtime neighborhood rivals, the Minnesota Vikings, on national television Sunday night, December 8, which will represent the latest date on which the they have hosted a prime time contest in Wisconsin. The latest such date previously had been November 6, 2000, a night which saw the Green and Gold pull out a dramatic, 26-20 victory in overtime.
The Packers, who have opened at home every year since 1986, with the exception of the Super Bowl year of 1996, will make their regular-season debut Sunday, September 8, against the Atlanta Falcons, making their second consecutive visit to Lambeau Field after not having appeared on Green Bay turf since 1992.
The Green and Gold, who will be launching their 82nd NFL season, have won five of their last seven season-opening home games, including a 28-6 conquest of the Detroit Lions in their 2001 opener.
The inaugural contest will launch a challenging stretch for the Packers, who will find themselves playing four of their first six games on the road. Following the Atlanta contest, they will play back-to-back games on foreign fields, visiting New Orleans Sunday, September 15, and invading Detroit Sunday, September 22, for their first appearance in the Lions' new venue, Ford Field.
The trip to New Orleans will end the Packers' longest active series interruption, seven years. The Packers last met the Saints on December 16, 1995, at New Orleans, with Green Bay emerging, 34-23. Their September visit to the Big Easy, which will see defensive end Joe Johnson returning to New Orleans as a Packer, will mark Green Bay's first appearance in the Louisiana Superdome since Super Bowl XXXI (January 26, 1997), in which the Packers defeated the New England Patriots, 35-21.
The Packers will return to Lambeau Field following that contest to host the Carolina Panthers in a 12 noon contest, before getting back on the road for another two-game stretch, against the Bears at Champaign, Ill., for the Monday night date with the Bears, followed six days later by their (Sunday) October 13 showdown with the Super Bowl champion Patriots.
The former will find the Packers meeting the Panthers for the seventh consecutive year (including their 1996 NFC Championship Game encounter, which saw the Packers triumph 30-13 en route to Super Bowl XXXI) and the latter will mark the Packers' ninth meeting with the Patriots since 1993--the eighth of those games on the road.
The New England visit, which will see the Packers' newly-acquired Terry Glenn returning to Foxboro as a member of the opposition, also will find the Packers making their first visit to the Patriots' new CMGI Field in Foxboro, Mass.
The Packers will be back in "Lambeau" Sunday, October 20, to take on the Washington Redskins--currently under the direction of Steve Spurrier, the legendary former University of Florida mentor who succeeded Marty Schottenheimer as the Redskins' field leader in the offseason -- in the first of three consecutive home appearances.
The sequence, however, will be interrupted by their annual bye, scheduled Sunday, October 27, which will be followed by their second and final "Monday Night Football" matchup, bringing Miami to Green Bay for the first time since 1997 -- for the first time under Head Coach Dave Wannstedt, formerly a Lambeau Field visitor as field leader of the Chicago Bears.
The Green and Gold then will make their third consecutive home appearance, hosting the Detroit Lions in a noon contest Sunday, November 10.
The Packers next face another imposing, two-game road trip before getting into their favorite month of the year -- December -- a parlay which will find them paying their annual visit to the Minneapolis Metrodome for a showdown against the Vikings Sunday, November 17, followed by a trip to Tampa for a matchup with the Buccaneers, now members of the NFC South Division under the NFL's new 8-division format, Sunday, November 24.
Owners of the league's best December home record (18-2, .900), the Packers launch the final month with a pair of home dates-- entertaining the Bears in a 164th meeting at noon Sunday, December 1, in the first of them.
A week later, they will host the Vikings in their final primetime contest of the season, Sunday night, December 8, with kickoff set for 7:30, CST. It will be the Packers' first Sunday night appearance in Lambeau Field since 1999, when they entertained the Tampa Bay Bay Buccaneers (October 10).
With the season heading into the decisive stages, the Packers will play two of their last three games on the road, launching the stretch with a Sunday, December 15, invasion of San Francisco, for their 10th meeting with the 49ers in the last eight years, including playoffs.
They then return to Lambeau Field Sunday, December 22, for their regular-season home finale against the Buffalo Bills, who will be making their first Green Bay appearance since 1997, before closing out the season against the New York Jets on the road in a 3:15 (CST) contest at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N. J., Sunday, December 29.
Under the scheduling rotation, which will find each of the 32 teams meeting every other team in the league in the first four years of the new format, the Packers will be playing four teams from the NFC South Division -- Atlanta, Carolina and Tampa Bay -- and four interconference opponents -- Buffalo, Miami, New England and the New York Jets of the AFC East -- in addidtion to their home-and-home series with the other members of their own NFC North Division, Chicago, Detroit and Minnesota.
As a second-place finisher in 2001, the Packers' two conditional intra-conference games have matched them against fellow second-place finishers Washington (NFC East) and San Francisco (NFC West).
In addition to the aforementioned Steve Spurrier, the Packers also will be facing three other coaches who are in their first years with their teams as head coaches -- Carolina's John Fox, Minnesota's Mike Tice and Tampa Bay's Jon Gruden.
Overall, the '02 schedule includes nine 12:00 kickoffs, 5 of them at home, 4 at 3:15 p.m., 2 at 8 p.m. and one at 7:30 p.m.
| 2002 Preseason Schedule |
| Date | Opponent | Time | TV |
| Sat., Aug. 10 | at Philadelphia Eagles | 6:30 p.m. | state |
| Sat., Aug. 17 | at Arizona Cardinals | 9 p.m. | state |
| Mon., Aug. 26 | Cleveland Browns
(Bishop's Charities Game) | 7 p.m. | ABC |
| Fri., Aug. 30 | Tennessee Titans*
(Midwest Shrine Game) | 7 p.m. | state |
| |
| 2002 Regular Season Schedule |
| Date | Opponent | Time | TV |
| Sun., Sept. 8 | Atlanta Falcons | 12 noon | FOX |
| Sun., Sept. 15 | at New Orleans Saints | 12 noon | FOX |
| Sun., Sept. 22 | at Detroit Lions | 3:15 p.m. | FOX |
| Sun., Sept. 29 | Carolina Panthers* | 12 noon | FOX |
| Mon., Oct. 7 | at Chicago Bears (@ Champaign, Ill.) | 8 p.m. | ABC |
| Sun., Oct. 13 | at New England Patriots | 12 noon | FOX |
| Sun., Oct. 20 | Washington Redskins | 3:15 p.m. | FOX |
| Sun., Oct. 27 | Open Date | | |
| Mon., Nov. 4 | Miami Dolphins | 8 p.m. | ABC |
| Sun., Nov. 10 | Detroit Lions* | 12 noon | FOX |
| Sun., Nov. 17 | at Minnesota Vikings | 12 noon | FOX |
| Sun., Nov. 24 | at Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 3:15 p.m. | FOX |
| Sun., Dec. 1 | Chicago Bears | 12 noon | FOX |
| Sun., Dec. 8 | Minnesota Vikings | 7:30 p.m. | ESPN |
| Sun., Dec. 15 | at San Francisco 49ers | 3:15 p.m. | FOX |
| Sun., Dec. 22 | Buffalo Bills | 12 noon | CBS |
| Sun., Dec. 29 | at New York Jets | 3:15 p.m. | FOX |
| |
| HOME | |
| AWAY | |
| All times indicated are Wisconsin |
| * Gold Package |
Printable 2002 Schedule (Printable PDF)
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