Last season the Green Bay Packers went on a roll in the second half of the season that nearly took them to the Super Bowl. The Seattle Seahawks, on the other hand, seemingly struggled in every game thanks to lackluster offensive line play. Of Seattle’s 10 wins, five were by a touchdown or less. They had a 6-6 tie with the Arizona Cardinals, they lost to the Jeff Fisher coached Los Angeles Rams, the New Orleans Saints and the Arizona Cardinals in their second match up. It was a weird year.
The Game: Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers (-3)
The History
The Packers have a solid lead in the head-to-head history, 12-8. Green Bay has won the last two match ups convincingly, 27-17 and 38-10 last season.
Before that the Seahawks won three streak games over Green Bay including the infamous “replacement ref”game that was so horribly officiated that the NFL ended the referee lockout and crafted a new labor deal.
The teams have met three times in the playoffs, with the Packers holding a 2-1 advantage including a 33-27 overtime win in 2004. In fact, two of their three playoff games went into overtime with the Seahawks winning the last one on January 18, 2015, 28-22, in the extra period.
Green Bay has never won more than three games in a row over the Seahawks, with the first streak beginning with their first match ups after Seattle joined the league as an expansion team in 1976. Seattle too has never managed more than three consecutive victories over the Packers. Their most recent streak was from September, 2012 to January, 2015.
The last time the visiting team won a game in this series was October, 2008. The Packers beat Seattle 27-27 at then Qwest Field. Before that you have to go all the way back to 1990 for an away team win, with the Seahawks beating Green Bay 20-14 in December, 1990 at Milwaukee County Stadium.
SEATTLE SEAHAWKS
Seattle has made a solid effort at rebuilding its offensive line through the draft and with free agent signings. I’m not sure how much it will pay off early, but they should definitely be better.
A late in the preseason trade sent Jermaine Kearse to the New York Jets, but the Seahawks feel they already have his replacement on the roster in Tyler Lockett and/or Paul Richardson. They seem to be pretty good at using wide receivers the rest of us overlook so maybe we should give them the benefit of the doubt. I love rookie Amara Darboh and expect his role to expand before season’s end.
In the backfield, Thomas Rawls is still listed as the starter, but everybody thinks this job is really Eddie Lacy’s to lose. He’ll be rotated in quick and if he gets the hot hand (or foot, as it were), he won’t come back out. Russell Wilson still runs the show on offense and is, without a doubt, one of the Top 10 quarterbacks in the league. The fact that he could will this team to 10 wins last season behind its patchwork line just shows how physically and mentally talented he is.
As scary to other teams as it may sound, this may be the most talent the Seahawks have had on their defense since their Super Bowl runs in 2014 and 2015. The addition of Sheldon Richardson to the defensive line can not be understated as it allows Michael Bennett to stay out at his best position, defensive end, and not have to move inside. In the defensive backfield, 75 percent of the old Legion of Boom still roams free with Jeremy Lane filling admirably into the fourth spot.
GREEN BAY PACKERS
Aaron Rodgers is still the quarterback and as long as that’s the case, the Packers should be in every game and always a danger to reach the Super Bowl. The truth is, the only thing that’s held this time back over the last few seasons is bad offensive play design and playcalling and that all rests on the potato shaped head of head coach Mike McCarthy. As Green Bay reeled off six straight wins last year to make the playoffs (and eight straight if you count the playoffs), there’s a chance McCarthy finally pulled his head out of his ample ass and figured out how to draw up plays and call them in the right situations.
You see, as great as Rodgers is of moving around, keeping his feet and making those playground plays, understand something. He’s forced to do that because it’s a shitty play and when his back foot hit on his drop no one was open. Considering he’s throwing to an elite group of wideouts, I’d doubt it’s always their fault. The Packers were significantly better in the second half of last season and for Rodgers’ sake, I really hope McCarthy has figured this whole thing out.
On defense, Green Bay’s unit was in the bottom third in the league last season both in yards allowed (No. 22) and points allowed (No. 21). They made some solid draft picks to boost depth, but this will still be the same unit that took the field last year for a while. If the offense continues to play at its high pace, it won’t matter, but if there’s a championship in this team’s future, they really need to move up into the top half of the league in defense.
Clay Matthews isn’t what he once was as an outside pass rusher, but he’s still one of the three best players on Green Bay’s defense. The best? Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, who emerged as one of the league’s top safeties over the last couple of seasons.
The Pick
This has developed into a pretty solid rivalry in recent years, mainly due to that replacement referee game back in 2014. Seattle most certainly has the defense that can fluster Rodgers and if there ever is a good time to play in Green Bay, you definitely want it to be in September. Still, with the way Rodgers finished last season, I don’t feel brave enough to go against him at home. Packers 27, Seahawks 24
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