The NFC Championship game is an example of how things can come full circle. In week one of this season the Seattle Seahawks were hosts to a visiting Green Bay Packers team. Back in September, the Seahawks had a convincing 36-16 win over the Packers, but now the stakes are higher as these teams play again in Century Field for the NFC Championship and a trip to the Super Bowl.
Things have changed for both teams since week one. Most notably for the Seahawks, who in that victory unleashed the versatile talents of Percy Harvin. Harvin finished that game with 41 rushing yards, 60 punt return yards and caught 7 passes (on 7 targets) for 59 yards. The Seahawks have since traded Harvin away and haven’t exactly filled that “versatile” role, but have used their serviceable wide receivers Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse to the best of their abilities. Neither one has over a 1000 yards receiving and they combine for four total receiving touchdowns. Doug Baldwin spoke about Harvin’s departure briefly and how it affected the team moving forward: “I think when that situation occurred, we tried to do the best we could with what we had. . .We just kind of let the cards fall as they may and the pieces just fell into place.”
For the Green Bay Packers, things have changed but mostly for the better. Second year running back Eddie Lacy struggled at the start of the season but by November he seemed to get his confidence back and finished the season with over 1100 rushing yards. There were some new pieces added to this offense and it took some time for all of it to develop. One of those players is rookie wideout Davante Adams, who last week against Dallas had 7 catches for 117 yards and a touchdown. When asked if the Seahawks have taken time to examine Adams’ game, Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright said: “We’re going to treat him like Nelson and Cobb, he is looking really good.” Meanwhile when Seattle’s Richard Sherman was asked about what he saw in Adams’ performance last week, Sherman answered in pure Richard Sherman fashion: “They threw him the ball and he caught it. That’s pretty much all I saw.”
Many people want to use the first meeting as a point of reference for this game, but the truth is, this is a different and more improved Green Bay team this time around. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Seattle brings a defensive presence to the field that hasn’t been seen in years, but coach Mike McCarthy of the Green Bay Packers is one of the brightest people in the NFL. Things that were wrong with his team early in the season – run defense, run offense, pass rush – he helped each of those aspects of their game improve week by week. The hurdle that McCarthy will have to try to clear this week is the calf strain of his quarterback Aaron Rodgers. It was clear that his mobility was limited last week against Dallas, but since it was Dallas‘ defense, he didn’t feel much pressure and even completed his last ten pass attempts in that game which helped to close it out. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll spoke tongue in cheek about the quarterback’s injury: “Yeah, he only threw for 316, jeez.”
Surprisingly, as defensively fierce as they are, the Seahawks aren’t among the NFL lead in sacks. They’ve accounted for 37 sacks, but they legitimately live in the oppositions backfield, only allowing 81.5 yards a game on the ground. Usually, that means a teams pass defense suffers because teams end up giving up on the run early – but not Seattle’s. The Seahawks allow an NFL best 185.6 passing yards a game.
The Seahawks are a run heavy team and don’t rely much on the passing game which reflects in their passing yards per game average of 203.1. Considering Green Bay has corners that can handle the outside one on one coverage – expect them to load the box in an attempt to slow down Seattle running back, Marshawn Lynch. Good luck to Green Bay with that one though – they are not the first team to try that strategy, many have tried and many still find it impossible to tackle the man they call “BeastMode.” When Clay Matthews was asked if he is one of the few folks in the league who can tackle Marshawn Lynch one-on-one, Clay responded in tongue-in-cheek-fashion: “I’m confident in myself but I’d rather have my teammates by me and hopefully they’ll be there on Sunday.”
When fourth year linebacker K.J. Wright was asked if the word “repeat” is allowed to be used in the locker room – he laughed and replied : “Definitely not. We try to focus on the task at hand, we don’t look ahead of ourselves.” While K.J. might say that out-loud, deep down every player in that locker room knows that winning this Sunday brings them one step closer to repeating as Super Bowl champions.
Vegas has the Seahawks sitting as a seven point favorite, with the over/under stet at 47. Smart money would be on the home team giving points and the total at the under. Seattle is the best team there is when it comes to field position battles and they are one of the few teams in the league that have a secondary to match this Green Bay aerial assault.
