Before getting into a look at tonight's game in Seattle, a quick reflection on the Week 14 Thursday night game in Detroit: dang it!
Admittedly, it was a great game to watch, for sure, between two of the NFL's heavyweights. It definitely had the feel of a "Whoever has the ball last..." type game, didn't it? And that's how it went. Close. But the "W", regrettably, went to the Lions. They just keep finding ways to win...a mark of a very good team. Kudos to them. We would note, however, that we were nearly spot on on our final score prediction, albeit with the teams reversed. Again, close. But not good enough.
Anyway, the Packers have had an extended mini-bye to prepare for this road game against the Seahawks. Let's have a closer look.
A blast from the past: The "Fail Mary" at the end of the Packers-Seahawks game on Sept. 24, 2012.* Note the contradictory signs from the two officials standing right on top of the play. For more details, please see the notes following the Prediction section of this post.
(Photo by Rick Wood / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
The Preview
Seattle has been the site of some horrible memories for the Packers and their fans over the years (see above photo and related notes below for just one such occasion). The stadium is one of the loudest in football, the fans are rabid, and, for whatever reason, Seattle has at times seemed to be a black hole for Packers' Super Bowl aspirations. Hopefully, not tonight.
But the Seahawks are coming in on a roll having won their last four games and sit atop, barely, the rather so-so NFC West at 8-5. QB Geno Smith has been a successful reclamation project with an excellent running game to support him and some outstanding receivers to which to throw. But, Seattle's top back — Kenneth Walker III — is listed as doubtful for this game, which would certainly be to the Packers advantage. He did not practice all week after sitting out Seattle's win at Arizona with a calf injury. If Walker doesn't play, second-year player Zach Charbonnet, coming off his best game, will get the start. And like every team at this point in the season, the Seahawks have some other players with various injuries, but Walker is the biggest name to keep an eye on at game time.
Seattle's defense? More than capable. What more to say?
For the Packers, the team will yet once again be without CB Jaire Alexander who, after practicing fully on Wednesday and Thursday did not practice on Friday. A theme for the season in regard to Alexander. TE Luke Musgrave will also once again not be on the field. S Javon Bullard is also listed as out. The good news is that WR Romeo Doubs has cleared concussion protocol and will be available, giving QB Jordan Love another one of his favorite receivers.
As has been the case throughout the season, especially as head coach Matt LaFleur has been able to see what he's got offensively, and after Love is now seemingly fully recovered from his early-season lower body injuries, the Packers will need to run first and throw second. They will need to get RB Josh Jacobs going early and often to allow Love to exploit the air game with his plethora of more-than-capable receivers, including TE Tucker Kraft, of course.
We also assume that the Packers are able to get some pressure on Smith tonight. QB pressure has been hit or miss for the Packers defense all season and it's about time that things get more consistent. We think you'll agree. Case in point: Smith completed 80% of his passes in his last game against the Cardinals, if memory serves (and if not, sorry). Given time, Smith, as the season has gone on, can be as good as anyone. The Pack can't let him sit back in the pocket and nickel-and-dime things down the field.
And some way, somehow, the Packers need to do a far better job getting coverage over the middle than they have done in recent weeks. That element of the pass defense has been abysmal, let's be honest. Yes, missing Alexander has been a part of that. But someone — anyone! — needs to step up...either on the defensive line to generate pressure or over the middle to upset routes and not let receivers run wide open. Aaargghhh!
Combine what we expect to be another solid offensive game plan from LaFleur with a hopefully amped up Packers pass rush and this all works toward bringing a "W" back to Green Bay on the red eye flight tonight.
The Prediction
It seem as if we may have tipped our hand in the preceding sentence. Ah, well. The Packers are favored by 2-1/2 points at the time of this writing. The over-under is currently set at 46-1/2 points.
This is one of those games which could go either way...but not in the same sense as we felt about the last game vs. Detroit. This is a game where the Seahawks are playing for their playoff lives at home and to stay atop their division. The Packers are playing for playoff seeding position, currently sitting at the sixth seed. Picking up a win here, with the Saints coming to Green Bay next weekend, followed by a trip to take on the ViQueens, and finally closing out the regular season at home against Da Bearz, would put the Pack in very good stead for the playoff scenario and, dare we say, perhaps with a 12-5 record. (We should note that in our preseason preview and prediction, we had the Packers at 8-5 at this stage of this season, so the actual current record of 9-4 allows a bit of a margin of error...although we hope it's not needed!)
We're calling this game Packers 34 - Seahawks 24.
Go Pack Go!!!
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* Notes on the "Fail Mary" game referenced in the earlier photo, courtesy of Wikipedia...
"The Fail Mary, also known as the Inaccurate Reception or the Intertouchdownception, was a play in the National Football League (NFL) game played between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks on September 24, 2012, at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Washington. In a nationally televised game on ESPN's Monday Night Football, the Seahawks defeated the Packers, 14–12, in controversial fashion.
On the final play of the tightly contested game, Seattle rookie quarterback Russell Wilson threw a Hail Mary pass into the end zone intended for wide receiver Golden Tate. Both Tate and Packers defender M.D. Jennings got their hands on the ball while both players were still in the air and attempting to gain possession. The two officials near the play initially gave separate signals of touchdown and touchback, before ruling the players had simultaneous possession, resulting in a Seahawks game-winning touchdown. Prior to the catch, Tate shoved Packers cornerback Sam Shields with both hands, which the NFL later acknowledged should have drawn an offensive pass interference penalty that would have negated the touchdown and resulted in a Packers victory. The lack of a pass interference penalty and the ruling of a touchdown via simultaneous catch were widely questioned in the aftermath of the game, drawing comments from the game's announcers, NFL players, and the media. The NFL subsequently released a statement defending the touchdown ruling, while conceding that offensive pass interference did occur, which would have resulted in a Packers win.
The controversial ending followed weeks of criticism regarding the quality of officiating by replacement officials employed by the NFL during the 2012 NFL referee lockout. Two days after the game, the NFL and the NFL Referees Association (NFLRA) announced that they had reached an agreement to end the lockout. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged that the negative attention the game drew to the referee situation was an impetus for ending the labor dispute."
