History of Seahawks and Packers features some ridiculously drama-filled games

The Seattle Seahawks host the Green Bay Packers, one of the NFL's most storied and historic franchises, on Sunday night. There will be huge playoff implications at Lumen Field as two teams look to further their path to the postseason. This is certainly not the first big game featuring the two teams, however. Not by a long shot.

The Seahawks and Packers have met 24 times throughout NFL history, including the playoffs. The Packers own a 15-9 advantage over Seattle. Their first meeting was in October of 1976, Seattle's inaugural season, a game in which Green Bay won 27-20. Their most recent meeting was in Green Bay in November of 2021, a real stinker of a game in which Seattle lost 17-0.

But between 1976 and 2021, there were some genuinely insane games. Let's look at some of the best between the two franchises.

The Seahawks and Packers have a history of drama-filled games

2003 Wildcard playoff game

Who could forget one of the goofiest, most Seahawk-y, and most embarrassing moments in the team's history? In 2003, the Seahawks finished with a 10-6 record and found themselves in the Wildcard round. Their matchup was the winner of the NFC North, the Green Bay Packers.

On a snowy January night, Seattle and Green Bay went at it for sixty minutes in frigid temperatures. Lambeau Field was electric all night and the two teams found themselves knotted up at 27-27 at the end of regulation. The two teams would meet at midfield for a second coin toss to determine who would receive the ball to start the overtime period.

Enter big, goofy Matt Hasselbeck. The Seahawks quarterback was sent out as a team captain for the coin toss. Hasselbeck, who played for Green Bay for three years prior to starting with Seattle, boldly called "heads" and won the toss. When the official asked Hasselbeck if Seattle wanted to receive, the cockiness took over. Hasselbeck exclaimed, "We want the ball and we're gonna score!".

Seattle went three-and-out on their opening drive. On Seattle's second offensive series of the overtime period, Hasselbeck threw a pick-six to lose the game.

Fail Mary

In 2012, things were pretty weird. The Seahawks had just signed quarterback Matt Flynn from (you guessed it!) the Green Bay Packers to a lucrative deal. But they had also drafted an undersized, overlooked quarterback out of Wisconsin in the third round of that year's draft. After four weeks of preseason, that rookie quarterback took over for the team. Russell Wilson was Seattle's starting quarterback.

Did I mention 2012 was weird? That was the year of the referee strike—yes, the NFL referees went on strike 12 years ago. Amidst the referee lockout, the NFL had no choice but to hire replacement referees, most of which came from the Arena Football League. And hilarity ensued. These men were not qualified to officiate NFL games.

In Week 2 of the season, Seattle hosted Green Bay on Monday Night Football, prime time for the replacement officials to flounder in front of the entire country. In a low-scoring affair for all of 59 minutes and 52 seconds, the Packers held a 12-7 lead with Seattle facing 4th and 10 on Green Bay's 24-yard line. Eight seconds remained as Wilson took the shotgun snap, ran backward to the 40-yard line, and heaved a Hail Mary into the endzone.

The ball was caught by Packers' defensive back MD Jennings, but Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate managed to touch the ball with both hands while it was in the possession of Jennings, which confused the replacement officials. One official signaled to stop the clock as if it was in interception. But the other official raised both hands to signal a touchdown. After some discussion, the genius squad of replacement officials ruled it was a touchdown. Seattle had won in walk-off fashion.

The following week, the NFL caved in to the referee's demands and the lockout ended.

2014 NFC Championship game

Seattle's only ever postseason victory came in 2014 in the most dramatic fashion you will ever see. In the NFC Championship game, Seattle hosted Green Bay for the chance for one of the two teams to punch their ticket to Super Bowl XLIX in Arizona. To say the game started rough would be an understatement.

By halftime, Russell Wilson had thrown three interceptions and Seattle was in a 16-0 hole. In the third quarter, it was desperation time. The Seahawks had gotten into field goal range and lined up for the short kick on fourth down. However, the holder, punter Jon Ryan, took off with the ball, scrambled left, and lofted a wobbler to a wide-open Garry Gilliam (offensive tackle!) in the end zone to finally get on the board.

However, Green Bay had a 99.9 percent chance of winning by the time Russ threw his fourth interception late in the fourth quarter as Seattle found themselves down 19-7 with just over three minutes left.

Seattle held on, the defense got the ball back, and quickly scored to make it a 19-14 game, in desperate need of an onside kick to have any chance to win. Stephen Hauschka popped up a perfect ball that bounced off Packers tight end Brandon Bostick's facemask and into the waiting arms of Seattle wide receiver Chris Matthews. Seattle was in business, and only a few moments later, Marshawn was casually walking into the end zone to take a 20-19 lead with only 1:25 left to go in the game.

To put the cherry on top, Seattle went for the two-point conversion and saw Wilson scramble backward about 20 yards and chuck up a moon shot to Luke Willson, who miraculously came down with the ball. Lumen, er, CenturyLink Field erupted as Seattle took a three-point lead.

Green Bay did march down and get the game-tying field goal, sending the game to overtime. And the overtime coin toss gave a lot of Seahawks fans anxiety. Matt Hasselbeck wasn't there in person, but the aura of Hasselbeck won Seattle the coin toss, and he may as well have said the infamous line, because, on the first and only possession of overtime, Wilson found Jermaine Kearse in the end zone for the walk-off NFC Championship touchdown, punching their ticket to the Super Bowl and leaving Green Bay stunned.

Other noteworthy Seahawks - Packers connections

Even if you set the big games aside, there's still a staggering number of connections you can trace back to the two franchises.

Let's start back in 1993. A young history major from the University of St. Thomas gave up on his own football career and sent the general manager of the Green Bay Packers, Ron Wolf, a letter begging for a scouting internship. Growing up in Wisconsin, and realizing he had a great football mind, he thought scouting for his hometown Packers was his calling. That summer, Wolf hired a 22-year-old John Schneider to intern as a scout for the Packers.

Fast-forward thirty-one years. That history major is now the general manager of the Seattle Seahawks and has built quite a storied history against the franchise that gave him a chance back in 1993. Schneider was instrumental in assembling one of the greatest teams in NFL history, leading to the franchise's first Super Bowl win in 2013. Schneider continues to find gems in the draft and free agency for Seattle, and we have Green Bay to thank for that.

Speaking of poaching influential members from Green Bay, Seattle hired then-Green Bay head coach Mike Holmgren in 1999 after Holmgren spent seven years as the Packers' coach. Holmgren went on to be Seattle's head coach for an entire decade, proving to be one of the most successful head coaches in Seahawks history, including the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance in 2005. Holmgren even brought over Matt Hasselbeck from Green Bay to Seattle, who turned out to be one of the best quarterbacks in franchise history.

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