We might not be ready to move onto next week yet, but next week isn’t any normal week, so you’ll understand if we move away from the eternally hapless Chicago Bears quicker than usual.
Next Sunday night, the Green Bay Packers welcome the Seattle Seahawks to Lambeau Field. You, me, and the Packers have all been waiting for this game since the schedule came out. As it turns out now, the Seahawks themselves are probably chomping at the bit to get to Sunday. A loss in week 1 will do that to you and with the Packers coming up next, the Seahawks are probably pretty confident they can get back on track this weekend.
Sport books are not as confident, but they aren’t exactly showing a lot of confidence in the Packers either. The early betting line at most sport books has the Packers favored by 3.
Considering every home team is granted 3 points, this essentially means the oddsmakers believe that bettors will be evenly split in this game. That might be surprising considering the Packers haven’t lost at Lambeau since the 2013 playoffs, dominated most of the NFC Championship game at Seattle, and Seattle is still without safety Kam Chancellor, who’s holding out.
The lack of Chancellor was felt in devastating fashion when the offensively-challenged St. Louis Rams put up 34 points to beat the Seahawks in overtime in week 1. The Seahawks’ vaunted defense looked confused several times during the game, including on Tavon Austin’s 16-yard run to put the Rams on the board. In addition, Chancellor’s replacement fell down and gave up the 37-yard touchdown catch by Lance Kendricks that tied the game near the end of regulation.
On top of the defensive issues, Seattle had problems along the offensive line. Neither Max Unger nor James Carpenter are part of that unit anymore and their replacements struggled to contain perhaps the best defensive line in football. Russell Wilson was sacked six times and Marshawn Lynch was dropped for a loss on the 4th and 1 in overtime that ended the game.
However, the Rams are a division rival that typically give the Seahawks a good game and there is a big difference between the Rams’ defensive line and the Packers’. It is possible that bettors are very aware of this and it is also evident that the last four minutes of the NFC Championship game weigh more in people’s minds than the first 56 minutes did.
The smart money says John Schneider gets Chancellor signed before Sunday. After all, losing to the Rams is one thing, but losing to the Packers is something else.
Last updated on December 21st, 2018 at 11:48 am
A win would be awesome, but without our D-Line back, Burnett possibly, and Chancellor back, we are not where we need to be yet to beat them
It wouldn’t surprise me if Chancellor signs this week, but it would speed up the collapse of the Seahawks. Chancellor wants money up front and the Seahawks have only $200K (yes thousand) in space left, so that can’t give him a pay raise for this year. In 2016, nearly every player they recently signed gets a substantial pay raise, so they will be unable to resign players and will probably need to dump players to stay under the cap. Signing Chancellor to a new contract just makes this bad situation much worse.
This is what happens when you have a GM that gives in to players demands for new contracts.
What’s the big deal about Seattle? Wilson threw FOUR interceptions last game against them and threw another one in the Super Bowl to seal their defeat. Then again it doesn’t matter if the Packers were 12 point favorites with five minutes left in the game, my confidence in them closing out games is long gone. This game is not going to make up for any “revenge” from last year. I don’t give a shit if the Packers blow them out of the water, it doesn’t erase the fact that they pissed away a guaranteed trip to the SB against a team they already beat. It just proves what we all knew all along- that the Packers should have won that game and seeing them try to make up for it with a regular season match up is bullshit.
No doubt. A win here doesn’t change what happened in January. There would be no revenge, and I doubt highly the players are approaching it as such. However, Seattle has won 3 in a row against the Packers, and that IS some extra incentive to get it done this time around. Of course, it is the home opener, so no extra incentive needed.
MM is not calling plays anymore. Slocum is gone. I have a feeling that that makes a difference. Shields will get back to form in lambeau. Barrington sucks and he’s out. Matthews is healthy. Seattle has no oline. We have hope.