Four Seahawks that need to step up for Seattle to beat the Packers

The Seahawks play the Packers on Sunday in the NFC divisional round. For Seattle to win, these four players need to be great.

The Seahawks, even with all their injuries, have managed to find a way into the divisional round of the 2019 playoffs. Seattle travels to Green Bay on Sunday to take on the Packers. The Seahawks have not beaten the Packers since before any current Seattle player was part of the team, which means that fact is basically meaningless.

Seattle will be without Chris Carson, Rashaad Penny, Justin Britt and Will Dissly, among others. Still, Seattle seems to keep finding ways to win. And here are four players that need to be great for Seattle to move on to the NFC Championship game next week.

No. 4: Jadeveon Clowney

With Jadeveon Clowney in the game, the Seahawks have a pressure rate of around 24 percent. When he has been banged-up and out of the game, that number plummets to 18.4 percent. That number would be one of the lowest in the NFL. Clowney is incredibly important for Seattle, but not just pressuring the passer.

Seattle’s edge rusher is an incredible athlete and even playing with a core injury that will require offseason surgery he has been a force. Coming into the season, Clowney had graded higher as a run stopper than a pass rusher, even though he could do both. He still makes Seattle better against the run but 21 times he has dropped back into coverage and even had an interception.

Ken Norton, Jr. needs to find ways to get Clowney in different places and use him in different ways so that the Packers are never really sure where Clowney is going to be.