Packers take out Seahawks, seize early control of the NFC
Sure, it’s Week 2, but it’s never too early for the NFL’s alpha dogs to start asserting dominance.
In a matchup that could have substantial ramifications after the holidays, the Green Bay Packers defeated the Seattle Seahawks 27-17, wrestling control of the NFC away from the Pacific Northwest. It’s early, but Green Bay (2-0) now has a two-game lead plus a tiebreaker over Seattle (0-2), meaning that the road to the Super Bowl may very well go through Wisconsin in January.
This was an ugly night with pretty moments. The Packers began Sunday with an 80-yard drive that included three Seattle penalties (one accepted) and culminated with a 29-yard frozen rope from Aaron Rodgers to James Jones, a drive so relentless and measured that you could feel the balance of power in the NFC shifting beneath your feet.
But slowly, slooooowly, the power shifted back. Green Bay stalled out on drive after drive following its hot start, including an end-of-the-half first-and-goal situation in which the Packers, crunched by the clock with no timeouts to save them, settled for a field goal. Green Bay would have four field goals in all, the only saving grace of which being that they allowed kicker Mason Crosby to pass Ryan Longwell for the all-time Packers points lead.
Seattle scored on the opening drive of the second half when Russell Wilson found older-than-dirt Fred Jackson on a 5-yard interior cut, culminating a 10-play, 80-yard drive. Midway through the third quarter, Wilson found Doug Baldwin in the back of the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown. That put Seattle one point ahead of the Packers. It was a lead that wouldn’t last.
The Packers finally reasserted themselves with a touchdown with about 9:25 left in the game, when Rodgers found Richard Rodgers both for a touchdown and the ensuing two-point conversion. Two and a half minutes later, Wilson threw the first interception of the game, and it was a crucial one, giving Green Bay the ball deep in Seattle territory. A fight on the first play from scrimmage after the interception resulted in the ejection of Seattle linebacker K.J. Wright, and that, combined with the ongoing holdout of Kam Chancellor, was enough to weaken the Seattle defense to the breaking point.
Granted, much of Seattle’s play-calling seemed bent on demonstrating that handing off to Marshawn Lynch (41 ineffective yards total) in last season’s Super Bowl would have been the wrong play. And Russell Wilson was as elusive as ever, but he was the on-foot equivalent of a NASCAR race: plenty of ground covered, but not a whole lot of distance. The threat is there, but Seattle couldn’t break through other than those two third-quarter touchdowns.
Still, this is the difference between these two teams and other would-be contenders (hey there, Dallas and Philly) in the conference: both the Packers and Seahawks have stretches, long stretches, where they play like garbage, but both teams can reassert themselves in the course of the game. They don’t let poor play over several series infect them. Seattle is 0-2, yes, but they’re not an 0-2 that has you concerned … not yet, anyway.
Rodgers finished with 25 completions on 33 attempts with two touchdowns and 249 yards, and afterward tried to play down the significance of the game … which is exactly what he was supposed to do.
“It’s the second game of the year,” Rodgers said afterward. “We’re not going to make a big deal about it, because we’ve got 14 games and hopefully the playoffs. But it’s a good win for us.”
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter.
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