The Seahawks certainly know how prolific Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers passing offense can be.
However, Seattle isn’t forgetting about Eddie Lacy either.
The Seahawks know that to have a chance to keep Rodgers in check, they must be able to stop Lacy, James Starks and the Packers rushing attack to make their offense one-dimensional.
“If the offense can run the ball, anybody can beat us,” linebacker K.J. Wright said on Wednesday. "...It don’t matter who’s back there at quarterback, stop the run first and everything else, you can play ball from there.”
Teams that have been unable to run the football against Seattle fall behind and typically get stuck in passing situations where the defense knows a pass is coming on virtually every play. That plays directly into Seattle’s hands as it allows their pass rush to forgo run responsibilities and just attack the quarterback. And with the strength of Seattle’s secondary, the Seahawks have the players to cover receivers in the back end as well.
Seattle kept the Packers in check in their 36-16 win over Green Bay in Week 1. Eddie Lacy was held to 37 yards on 12 carries before leaving with a concussion in the fourth quarter, and the Packers had just 80 yards on the ground overall. However, the Packers rushing attack is much-improved since then. Over their final eight games (seven regular season games and last week’s playoff game against Dallas), the Packers averaged 137.25 rushing yards per game. That rate would have put Green Bay fourth in the league in rushing if extrapolated over a full season.
“From the first eight games to the second eight games, their rushing stats have flip flopped and that’s a big change in their approach,” head coach Pete Carroll said.
The Seahawks and Packers have met twice in the last three years. Seattle has kept the Packers under 85 yards rushing in both games and limited Rodgers 223 yards and 189 yards passing with only one touchdown pass in the two meetings.