Aaron Rodgers wasn’t the only one happy to (not) hear the Superdome crowd Sunday night.
For Ty Summers, the lack of crowd noise was especially helpful, since the second-year linebacker played his first snaps of defense, and had to call signals after Christian Kirksey was injured.
“It definitely made the communication process significantly easier and if any of y’all ever have a chance to ever hear the speakers, those things are hard to hear if it’s completely quiet or if it’s loud,” Summers said, via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “It’s crazy static-y and all that. So, it’s definitely a benefit that there isn’t crowds there for that reason. Of course, it would be nice to have people there yelling and screaming and that energy, but one thing I will say is that I feel we as a team have done a great job of bringing that energy, bringing our own juice, as we like to say. And it’s translating into the way we’ve played.”
Summers has had defensive coordinator Mike Pettine in his ear during practices, but Sunday night was his first game action with the earpiece since the 2019 preseason.
“We’ve got them at practice so we can get acclimated to hearing that, what that sounds like and echoing calls and such,” he said. “It’s something that I’m used to hearing every day — coach Pettine in our ears — so it wasn’t anything that I was surprised by or didn’t know what to expect.
“The bottom line is I’m always trying to prepare like I’m going to play regardless of what ends up happening because I know I’m active, and as long as I’m active, there’s always a chance that something happens that I’m in there. Obviously now that I got a chance on defense and recognize there were areas I could have been more prepared in, I’m going to recognize that and put a little more emphasis on that this week to make sure I’m more fine-tuned just in case I need to be called upon again.”
The 2019 seventh-rounder led the team with tackles Sunday night, and since Kirksey is expected to miss some time with his shoulder injury, the play-calling responsibility will fall to him again this week.