The Seattle Seahawks will cap off the highly-anticipated divisional round of the NFL playoffs on Sunday when they travel to Green Bay to face the Packers. There, they will have to pull off a feat not many defenses are able to do – stop quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers isn’t just one of the league’s elite quarterbacks, he’s simply one of the best to ever play the position. His rare combination of otherworldly arm talent, surgical accuracy, and elusive athleticism make Rodgers remarkably difficult to defend against, which is something the Seahawks haven’t been able to do all that well.
In the last four games against the Seahawks, Rodgers has completed 71% of his passes for 1,138 yards and eight touchdowns against only a lone interception. It’s important to know three of these games were at Lambeau Field – the site of Sunday’s playoff game – and were against the original Legion of Boom near the height of their powers. Seattle lost all three of those games.
The Seahawks did manage to defeat the Packers the last time they played, which was in the 2018 season. However, that game was played at CenturyLink Field and Rodgers still carved up the Seahawks secondary with 332 passing yards.
But for nearly three seasons now, Rodgers hasn’t quite been the unstoppable force of nature he has been in years past. Rodgers only threw for 26 touchdown passes this year, which is actually the most he has thrown since the 2016 campaign. His completion percentage of 62% is the second-lowest of his career as a full-time starter for the Packers.
Unfortunately for the Seahawks, Rodgers slightly diminished is still more than good enough to be one of the best quarterbacks they’ll have faced this year.
Rodgers simply does not turn the ball over, as indicated by the fact he has six total interceptions in the last two full seasons. He is far more likely to simply throw the ball away than make a questionable decision. The trick to stopping Rodgers is getting consistent pressure.
The much-maligned Seahawks pass rush is coming off a seven-sack performance in the wild-card round. They will need to replicate some of the dominance, otherwise Rodgers will simply sit back and have little difficulty carving up Seattle’s secondary.
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