NFL PLAYOFFS : This Negative a Big Positive for the Packers : NFC: Lions’ Sanders held to minus one yard as Detroit is stunned, 16-12.

It took 27 years, but the south end zone at Lambeau Field awoke again Saturday.

Its chunky turf overflowed with a giddy, hooting pile of green shirts. The bleachers behind it were awash in clouds of steam from the frosted cheers of thousands whose voices have had nearly three decades of rest.

Twenty-seven years ago, on the exact month and day, at almost the exact spot, those shirts belonged to the likes of Bart Starr and Fuzzy Thurston. Those cheers were for a last-second play that gave the Packers an NFL championship.

On Saturday, the revelers were George Teague, Terrell Buckley and Doug Evans. The cheers were for a last-minute play that saved a 16-12 first-round playoff victory over the Detroit Lions, giving football’s most venerable franchise another chance at a new era.

“We were reminded this week that by playing here, we carry a heavy burden,” said Don Davey, a Packer defensive end whose unit held the Lions’ Barry Sanders to minus one yard rushing.

That is not a misprint. The NFL’s leading rusher with 1,883 yards, carried the ball 13 times and gained . . . well, he gained nothing. He lost one.

“Today,” Davey said with a weary grin, “we tried to live up to that burden.”

Granted, this ending did not involve a quarterback sneaking into the south end zone from one yard away for the winning touchdown with 13 seconds remaining amid minus 13 temperatures. That was the scenario in the Packers’ “Ice Bowl” victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Dec. 31, 1967.

But, “We watched a film clip of the Ice Bowl all week after practice,” Davey said. “And today was almost the same thing.”

With 1:51 remaining in the game, the Lions’ Dave Krieg lobbed a ball from 17 yards away, receiver Herman Moore made a leaping catch above the back of the south end zone . . . but Teague nudged him out of bounds before he could hit the ground with what could have been the winning touchdown.

Moments later, Packer punter Craig Hentrich killed the clock by running out of the same end zone with a safety that finalized a score that kept 58,125 fans bouncing and hugging in their seats for the next 15 minutes despite temperatures in the low 30s.

Nobody wanted to leave before Reggie White did.

White, who moved from defensive end to tackle so Sanders couldn’t run away from him, inspired a unit that held Sanders to negative yardage eight of the 16 times he touched the ball.

If it seemed to Sanders at times that there were more than 11 men on the other side of the ball, the Packers behaved as if there were. Twelve defenders were involved in tackles on Sanders.

Linebackers caught him in the open field. Safeties and cornerbacks ran him down before he could turn the corner. Tackles caught him before he got started.

White, who laid a big hand on seemingly every play, celebrated afterward by marching around the stadium and pointing to the crowd that stood and cheered until he had disappeared through a tunnel.

Later, even White softly admitted he was amazed.

“That’s Barry Sanders ,” he said when told of Sanders’ rushing total. “Yeah, it’s inconceivable.”

Packer safety Leroy Butler said he still couldn’t believe it.

“Not even in your dreams would you ever figure to stop Barry Sanders like that,” he said, pausing. “Maybe it was a dream today.”

Leave it to the plain-speaking Sanders to confirm the existence of the lowest rushing total of his six-year career.

“They did a good job of pursuing,” he said. “When we tried to go outside, they were there. They did a good job of fighting off the blocks and closing up the holes.

“We’ve had a couple of games like that. We’re fortunate they’re few and far between.”

Here’s how few and far between: The only other time Sanders has been held to single-digits was the fourth game of his pro career in 1989, when he gained one yard in five carries against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Was it the Lambeau Field grass? Not likely.

Sanders’ statistics on grass are better than on turf. In one of the only two other times Sanders has played at Lambeau, in 1990, he gained 133 yards while averaging seven yards per carry.

Was it the scheme? The Packers say no.

“Except for putting Reggie inside, we didn’t do much different,” said Fritz Shurmur, Packer defensive coordinator and former Ram coach. “It’s really hard to use the word ‘stop’ with this guy and not smile a little bit.”

The best anybody can figure, it goes back to the only other thing that the Packer defense did differently this week. Those “Ice Bowl” clips.

“We ran them at the end of our regular films for a couple of days and then one of my coaches said, ‘Hey, maybe you better tell some of the younger guys what the heck it is because I don’t think they know,’ ” Shurmur said with a smile.

Thus educated, the Packer defense, already third in the league against the run, spent the next three hours paying homage, holding the Lions to a playoff-record minus four yards rushing.

“Things like this can happen when you are emotionally ready for every play,” Shurmur said.

Even without top receiver Sterling Sharpe, the Packer offense remained emotionally tuned because of matured leader Brett Favre, who threw for 57 of 76 yards on a touchdown drive at the beginning of the game.

Teammates feel that Favre, who finished with 262 yards and no interceptions, can give them hope in the second round against either Dallas or San Francisco.

“This is my best shot to go to a Super Bowl,” White said. “Because we got a quarterback who can take us there.”

That, and a defense, and three-decades-old itch.