Seahawks-Packers Post Game Thoughts

Parity. That word is one of the main reason why NFL fans claim their league is the best of them all. One never knows who will succeed as they did the year before, or who will fall into mediocacy. The Seattle Seahawks are example 1A of the parity the NFL has, unfortunetely it is largely in part due to injury, and did Green Bay take advantage of it. It doesn't take the second coming of Lombardi to figure out that the once NFC West dominating Seahawks miss their three-time Pro Bowl QB Matt Hasselback. Kampman had himself one heck of a day chasing down Charlie Frye, all the while probably giving Seattle's poor right tackle Locklear nightmares about the defensive end for many weeks to come. Granted Frye held on to the ball way too long on many of those sacks, but you also have to credit Green Bay's banged up secondary for shuting down Seattle's even more banged up receiving corp.

Seattle's defense looked, at times, in good shape. But due to a lack of offensive production, a defense that is on the field that long is bound to give up some points. I liked the way they attacked Trufant with two different receivers, Greg Jennings the speed guy (huge man-crush), and Jordy Nelson a big physical guy (man-crush developing). Giving Trufant two different styles of receiver to match up with keeps him off balance, with his clubbed hand, and assuming that they were going to pick on their third string corner all day I'm thinking lead to Trufant's inconsistent day. Which bye the way, how many Seattle's defenders have casts on their hands? I'm suprised the merchandise stands haven't started to sell some of those by how popular they are among their high profile defenders (Trufant, Tatupu, and Kerney). Overall I liked the way Rodgers threw the ball, especially with the bum shoulder. I do credit the offensive staff by rolling Rodgers out as much as possible to not only let him throw on the run, which he does very well, but to also avoid some inevitable hits you take in the pocket (although it didn't stop Kerney from RAILING Rodgers one play. It was such a hard hit, Bart Starr felt it wherever he may be). The one concern I do have is the running game. It just doesn't seem to be clicking, and I don't know if you blame that on Ryan Grant not being in fall camp the entire time, or defenses are game planning to stop the run and force Rodgers to beat them. Regardless, there needs to be an improvement for balance sakes if they want to repeat as NFC North champs.

It was nice to actually get a Packers game on the West Coast for a change, and they did not disappoint my long waiting period from that debacle against the Cowboys.