Look, there’s a lot to like about where the Seahawks are headed.  If they had abnormally good luck in some of these 4th quarter comebacks, we might be in the driver’s seat for a wild card spot right now.  Instead, with some abnormally bad luck in those same games, we sit at 4-5 and clearly on the outside looking in.

I’ve successfully managed to avoid seeing much from the Packers this season, because I hate Aaron Rodgers and I’m just bored with their whole deal.  They struggle early in the season, and assuming A-Rod doesn’t suffer a devastating injury, they go on a late run to sneak into the playoffs (or sneak into a division championship, considering the teams they contend with are usually pretty mediocre).  R-E-L-A-X’s are bandied about, and we all have a good laugh.  A-Rod is usually good for a completed hail mary or two, because defenses are fucking stupid, and the world loses their collective shit.

Yawn.

The Packers are OVER-RATED.  And this year, they might legitimately be bad.  So bad that their head coach might finally get shit-canned.  Their offense is struggling, and this just so happens to coincide with them signing Jimmy Graham.  Coincidence?

I think the QB Wins stat is pretty funny, because people either put too much faith in those numbers, or people get so up in arms about rubes putting too much faith in them that they get their panties all in a wad.  Well, has anyone ever taken a look at Jimmy Graham’s TE Wins?

Well, for starters, he was drafted the year AFTER New Orleans won the Super Bowl.  They proceeded to go on an immediate decline that has only reversed course since they got rid of him.  On some pretty good Saints teams, with Jimmy Graham in the fold, they never made it beyond the divisional round.  Likewise, the Seahawks suffered the same fate, bringing him in immediately after a Super Bowl run.  Now, the Packers are learning what it’s like to have a creampuff as their tight end and #1 red zone threat.  Jimmy Graham is SOFT, and it’s been proven time and time again that he’s a loser to boot.

The Packers are 4-4-1.  They narrowly edged the Bears at home in week 1 and that’s pretty much their only impressive victory this season.  In a lot of ways, the Packers and the Seahawks are similar teams in that regard:  beating up on the chumps, and falling to the contenders.  This game is a Loser Leaves Town match – if I can quote Bill Simmons – in every sense of the phrase.

The Seahawks NEED to beat the Packers to stay relevant this year.  We’ve already lost to the Rams twice to blow the division, and the Bears have an edge on us in a potential wild card spot.  Falling to 4-6 would essentially mean we’d have to win out and get some help; that’s not gonna happen.

The good news is the Seahawks should have Fluker and Chris Carson back this week.  The Packers aren’t so great at stopping the run, so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to do to them what we’ve done to so many other teams the last few weeks.  My concern, with this being a short week, is that we see the return of all those mistakes that cost us the Chargers game.  Offensive penalties, breakdowns in coverage on defense, and so on and so forth.

The Packers are a slightly inferior team, but they’re smart.  And they have A-Rod.  A-Rod playing in a primetime game.

They’re also the Packers, and for no good reason whatsoever, their defense has dominated us in the last few matchups.  They don’t generally stop the run all that well, but watch them muck it up tonight.  They do rush the passer pretty well, and I would expect that to continue.  Wilson will be running for his life, but he’ll be contained, and thus forced into some ugly sacks and/or turnovers.

On the flipside, A-Rod was already getting used to playing against our elite defense, because we face them damn near every fucking year.  Now, our talent is pretty well depleted, and he should have a field day accordingly.  We can’t rush the passer without blitzing.  We refuse to blitz, because veteran quarterbacks love it when you do that and carve you up accordingly.  As such, expect A-Rod to have all day to throw on the regular, and expect him to use that time to his advantage.  Is it possible for the Packers to come into Seattle and never punt?  I’m not saying the odds of that are great, but I wouldn’t throw the idea out of bed either.

This Seahawks team with a much easier schedule would be a lock for the playoffs.  But, we have one of the more formidable schedules in all of football, and it’s killing us accordingly.  My fantasy team can relate.

Ultimately, I don’t see why the Seahawks shouldn’t at least keep this one close.  Hell, they might even have a lead heading into the final two minutes of the game.  But, my prediction is that the Packers nip us in a close one, as the city of Seattle burns to the ground.