(Photo: Peacock)
NFC Game Of The Week
Green Bay Packers at Seattle Seahawk
Packers: They did all they could to climb themselves back into the game, but fell short to the Detroit Lions on Thursday Night Football. It was a tough loss, but here they are with a 9-4 record with four games to play. There’s no way they’re winning the division now, the Lions have been just that good. Can we give Matt Lafleur some love? He has been able to keep this Packers team afloat, even after injuries to Jordan Love earlier in the year. What makes a great coach is being able to work with what you have around you and Matt has shown you just that. I mentioned last week that all of their losses have come against the elite teams in the conference, week one against the Philadelphia Eagles, week four against the Minnesota Vikings and two losses came at the hands of the Detroit Lions. I’ve already talked about the godsend that Josh Jacobs has been for this football team. When they run the offense through him, good things will happen. Despite that, they are still in the mix in the NFC playoff picture and come postseason time, they could be a tough out. The playoffs don’t always fall in favor to the best teams, it’s who plays the best when it matters most. The Packers will look to bounce back on Sunday night against the leaders of the NFC West.
Seahawks: The NFC West has been such an up and down division this year and you can say it’s been wide open. There’s Arizona Cardinals were a nice story, but have come back crashing down to reality, the San Francisco 49ers have been decimated by the injury bug and have been inconsistent all year and the Los Angeles Rams are never out of it. Even when it looks as if they are, they find a way to stay in the race. Then, you have the team in Seattle, Washington that’s playing their best football as we speak and have won their last four games. The Seahawks have a “quietly explosive” offense meaning you may not hear about it, but they have weapons in Tyler Lockett, Noah Fant, Jaxson Smith-Njigba and of course, DK Metcalf. I feel this Seattle offense is better when they are running the ball and establishing Kenneth Walker III. I’ve liked what I’ve seen from them as of late as they play with a lot of grit and toughness. I noticed more of that toughness a few weeks ago in East Rutherford when they played the New York Jets. Even when they were down by two touchdowns, they didn’t quit or throw the towel in and instead, they fought and came back to win the football game. They will look to extend their winning streak to five games on Sunday night as they return home on Sunday night after back-to-back road games.
Packers X-Factor: Rashan Gary– The more I watch him, the more of a force I see he’s becoming. If you watch the film on Rashan, the first thing you notice is his relentless motor and how he doesn’t let up until he gets where he wants. He plays that physical brand of football and plays with a mean streak. Rashan is an effort guy that’s going to get to the ball and give all he has in doing so. At first, he was just a pass rusher, now, he’s added running stopping to his arsenal.
Seahawks X-Factor: Zach Charbonnet– The former Michigan and UCLA Running Back has fit in nicely in Seattle. Zach is James Conner 2.0 and I say that because he’s fast, smooth on his feet, catches the football well and he is a nice asset alongside Kenneth Walker III who brings the violent and explosive running style. He does a nice job of using his body and strong frame to force a defender to arm tackle you. Zac has stepped up in the absence of KW3 in a big way.
Final Thoughts: Anytime I think of these two meeting up, I always think of the infamous “Fail Mary” in 2012 and the NFC Championship game when Seattle won the NFC in back-to-back years. Now, these two will meet again in a huge game in the NFC. If the postseason were to start today, the Seahawks would be the three seed on the bracket. The Packers are just focused on the Wild Card at this point. As always, there’s a few matchups that catch my eye with the first being this Packers rushing attack against the Seattle defense which has been stout against the run this season. The other is the Seattle front against the Packers Offensive Line and can they affect Jordan Love the same way they did Kyler Murray last Sunday? We also have contrasting styles of football in this game. The Packers have been very run centric and Seattle plays a classic drop back game without much leeway for the Quarterback. Seattle will do all they can to lure Jordan into throwing sloppy passes as he’s been prone to turning the ball over this year. This means bringing pressure from the edge guys or up the middle attacking the a gap. They biggest key for the Packers will be holding onto the football and also, attacking this Seattle defense with mobility from Love and Josh Jacobs’ running game. The Packers need this game to keep pace with both Minnesota and Detroit and I think they win a big game on Sunday night in Seattle.
Prediction: Packers 28, Seahawks 21
