Seahawks, Packers bring plenty of recent history into prime-time rematch

After three meetings in the span of three seasons between the Seahawks and Packers - games that have ranged from controversial calls to unbelievable comebacks - Green Bay gets to host Seattle at Lambeau Field with the rest of the country watching.

BY DANNY O

Sep 20, 2015, 8:41 AM Updated: 9:07 am

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The Seahawks have beaten Green Bay three straight times, including in last season's NFC title game. (AP)

(AP)

MILWAUKEE – The tundra is not yet frozen. In fact, there’s only a hint of fall in the Wisconsin air.

The stakes are not nearly as high as they were eight months ago, either, when the Packers and Seahawks played for the conference championship.

But after three meetings in the span of three seasons between the two teams – games that have ranged from controversial calls to unbelievable comebacks – Green Bay gets to host Seattle at Lambeau Field with the rest of the country watching.

This game isn’t going to be a test of strengths, though, so much as two heavyweights probing each others weaknesses. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers hasn’t been picked off at home in the past two seasons, and Seattle’s defense gave up four games’ worth of big plays in last week’s opener.

Seattle’s offense, on the other hand, is built around the power running game of Marshawn Lynch, and the Packers gave up the second-largest rushing total to any single player last week in Chicago.

Who’s more vulnerable: Seattle’s Kam Chancellor-less secondary or the Packers’ run defense? Something is going to give tonight between these two teams that have an awful lot of history and some decidedly hard feelings on the part of Green Bay.

It started on a Monday night in 2012 when a replacement official awarded Golden Tate a touchdown catch on what certainly appeared to be an interception on the final play of the game. The Seahawks won the regular-season opener in 2014 rather handily, raising their Super Bowl banner before the game and then winning by double digits. The two teams played again for the conference championship five months later, and Green Bay felt it blew the game, letting a double-digit lead evaporate in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

“We were the better team today,” Rodgers said after the Seahawks beat the Packers in overtime. “We played well enough to win and we can’t blame anybody but ourselves.”

Green Bay has felt robbed in Seattle and the Packers have felt let down. That history serves as the backdrop to Sunday’s game, not the motivation.

“I don’t see it as a revenge,” Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett said. “I see it as a new game. We come in with new players.”

Sunday night is the Packers’ chance to prove it. They’re at home, a place where Rodgers is 45-10 as the starting quarterback and where he hasn’t been picked off since 2012.

The Packers are missing wide receiver Jordy Nelson, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in the preseason. The Seahawks are missing Chancellor, who remains a holdout for a team whose defense looked vulnerable on the back end without him last week.

The secondary that has been Seattle’s strength over the previous three seasons is trying to reestablish the lines of communication. Earl Thomas missed all of the preseason coming back from shoulder surgery while Richard Sherman played only one game. Cary Williams is starting at right cornerback after Byron Maxwell’s free-agent departure, and Dion Bailey is filling in for Chancellor.

Last week in St. Louis, the Seahawks allowed eight plays of 20 yards or more. The Seahawks only gave up 32 such plays all of last season. Now, the secondary wasn’t responsible for surrendering all those plays. In fact, the secondary might not have been to blame for most of them, but it was an ominous sign heading into a Week 2 game at Green Bay.

“Where we lacked last week was communication,” Bennett said. “Even in a marriage, if you don’t communicate, some good things don’t happen. In the game we don’t communicate, people score touchdowns, and people lose their jobs. At the end of the day, it’s about communication in big games.”

And while it’s only September, this is certainly a big game. For both teams.