The Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers count themselves among the lucky elite of the NFL, and they offer one of the most compelling early-season match-ups.
Now if they could just get over a couple of nagging issues.
The rematch of last year’s conference championship game could use a subtitle: Haunted by History. For the Packers, it is their agonising knack of losing in improbable ways to Pete Carroll’s band of magicians.
For the Seahawks, it is that one-yard thing – their inability to negotiate three feet of turf at a critical moment, resulting in defeats in their past two games.
Both teams had to deal with embarrassing questions ahead of the game. Green Bay may be atop many people’s “favourite” lists for a Super Bowl appearance, but they will never get there if they keep gumming up games against the Seahawks.
Last January it was a fumble of an onside kick in the closing minutes of the National Football Conference title game that led to Seattle’s overtime victory.
In 2012, a throw-deep-and-hope pass from Russell Wilson to Golden Tate turned another Packers victory to defeat on the final play of the game. The catch was hotly disputed, as confused replacement referees debated on the field. The result? Within days, the referee labour dispute was over, but the Packers still had a bitter loss.
The Packers have lost their past three meetings with Seattle, including a conventional, 20-point drubbing in last season’s opener. But coach Mike McCarthy told ESPN.com that trying to focus his team on revenge is the wrong way to go.
It is a mistake, he said, to “raise the emotions of the team too much. That’s not going to happen, I promise you that”.
He has his team tamping it down, too. Linebacker Clay Matthews said: “I’m sure there’s extra motivation for some, but the reality is, it’s a new season. It’s a good test to see where we’re at.”
The Seahawks have their own immediate hurdle. First, they failed to give the ball to powerful running back Marshawn Lynch at the goal line in the Super Bowl. Then, last week at St Louis, they gave it to him on a game-deciding fourth-and-1 play, but out of a shotgun formation, and he got stuffed.
Cursed either way.
Lynch may not communicate much, but his mother, Delisa Lynch, certainly does. She tweeted that Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell is “the worst play-caller ever” – among other nasty criticisms.
Bevell diplomatically praised “passionate fans” who like to “poke holes” in his strategy, but he said he was still “totally confident in what I’m doing”.
Carroll said it was just “a mom looking after her kid”.
As much fun as it will be for a nation of fans if the game comes down to a flukey play or a one-yard call by Bevell or Carroll, it may be more about the Seahawks’ ability to befuddle quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The Packers star has two touchdown passes and three interceptions in the three losses.
“I don’t know about the numbers,” said Carroll, in “aw, shucks” mode. “We’ve been fortunate at times.”
Fortune or fundamental football, either way, the Packers and Seahawks will be glad to get this one behind them.
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