The Seattle Seahawks (4-5) and Green Bay Packers (4-4-1), two former powerhouses of the 2010s, are skating on thin ice ahead of a do-or-die matchup on Thursday Night Football at 8:20 p.m. EST.
Seahawks Host Packers For TNF
Much like their domination over the league in the early portion of the decade, the playoff hopes of these two teams are fading to black in the shadows of stellar NFC peers. The two teams have seen abrupt role reversals with the little brothers of their respective divisions, as the Bears (6-3) and Vikings (5-3) have hoisted themselves atop the peak of the NFC North, and the arrival of the Rams (9-1) in Los Angeles has seen a resurgence in the form of the “Greatest Show on Turf”.
Hobbled quarterback Aaron Rodgers will need to find a way to negate the similarly wounded roster of the Pack, as he often does, although this time it won’t be in the comfort of Green Bay. Seattle’s famously dubbed “12th man” home-field advantage has remained a force, one that Rodgers and the Pack know all too well. The history of these two teams runs as deep as their reigns over the early 2010s, and this season, one of those teams will see a dwindling conclusion to those days of triumph.
Although they’ve won three straight victories over three straight years against the Seahawks, the Packers have yet to redeem themselves from that infamous 2015 NFC Championship game where they saw an ensured fourth-quarter lead slip through their fingers and a trip to the Super Bowl followed. The last three times the Packers have faced the Hawks in Seattle have all ended in losses, including none other than the “Fail Mary” game back in 2012.
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“Yeah, there is an advantage,” said Seahawks coach Pete Carroll on the significance of playing at home. “The short week is hard enough as it is but these guys are going to probably travel on Tuesday night. I think they’re on the road so soon. That’s their day off, generally. It’s a big challenge. The good side of it is that you get the bigger break on the weekend and we all benefit from that, but it does help us to be at home and we’re ready to get in there and get mixing up with the 12’s. It’ll be a fun Thursday night.”
Packers coach Mike McCarthy admitted that the short week and laborious travel will inevitably affect the way the team plans. “Well, the travel part of it impacts it as much as anything just because everybody has a schedule that they’d like to stick to,” McCarthy said on Tuesday. “We’ve been fortunate in the last couple of years.”
The two teams, both bolstered by future Hall of Fame quarterbacks and experienced coaching, are rather evenly matched considering the pedestrian talent surrounding them. The one distinction here, as often is the advantage in Seattle, are those who will be in the seats, rather than on the field.
Thursday’s game in Seattle will air on FOX, NFL Network and can also be live-streamed on Amazon Prime.
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