Seahawks playoffs: 5 questions about the Packers in the divisional round

To find out more about the Seahawks divisional round opponent, I asked 5 questions to Paul Brett of FanSided’s Dairyland Express.

The Seahawks travel to Green Bay on Sunday to battle it out for who will move on to the NFC Championship game. Green Bay might have the edge but Seattle has had success against the Packers this decade when things get weird. This game will be much more than Russell Wilson versus Aaron Rodgers too.

To get the lowdown on the Packers and this week’s matchup, I asked Paul Bretl of FanSided’s Dairyland Express five questions. Here is what he had to say.

Reasons for Packers success

12th Man Rising: Green Bay was 13-3 but doesn’t consistently put up tons of points like they used to. What are a couple of reasons for this team’s success?

Paul Bretl: There are a few things, in particular, that stand out as reasons for the Packers’ success in 2019. The first being their play in the red zone on both sides of the ball. While the defense has been prone to giving up large chunks of yardage at a time, once inside the 20, they lock down. Opponents are scoring red zone touchdowns on 50 percent of their visits, which is the 7th fewest in the NFL this season, and this number is actually higher than where it was for much of the year. Meanwhile on offense, despite the inconsistencies in the passing game, once in the red zone they are very effective, scoring touchdowns 64 percent of the time, which was 6th best.

Then there is the turnover battle, where Green Bay has the 3rd best differential at +12. This can be attributed to Aaron Rodgers carefulness with the ball, but this is also a very opportunistic defense as well with 25 takeaways. Not to mention that with the addition of Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith, along with Kenny Clark, they’ve really been able to pressure the quarterback this season. And overall, this team doesn’t have to rely on Rodgers to carry them to victory like they used to.