How the Packers Beat the Seahawks to Advance to the N.F.C. Championship Game

Here is how the Packers beat the Seahawks:

Packers advance to the N.F.C. championship game.

Given a chance to ice the game, Green Bay took advantage, chewing up the final 2 minutes 22 seconds of the game and beating the Seattle Seahawks, 28-23.

Conservative approach? Not so much for these Packers.

Needing a first down early in the drive, Aaron Rodgers eschewed the running game and threw deep to Davante Adams on third-and-8, connecting for a 32-yard reception. Later, on a third-and-9, he connected with Jimmy Graham for a 9-yard reception that slammed the door on Seattle’s season.

So much of this Packers season was about Aaron Jones’s emergence as a major scoring threat, but when Green Bay needed him the most, Rodgers was Rodgers and Seattle simply could not stop him.

And now Rodgers will take his team into San Francisco next weekend with a chance at earning his third career trip to the Super Bowl.

Green Bay’s defense makes a stop.

Preston Smith and Za’Darius Smith — no relation — have been Green Bay’s twin towers of quarterback pressure this season, and Preston came up absolutely huge on a vital drive for Seattle, sacking Russell Wilson on a third-and-5 play and taking away an opportunity for the Seahawks to take the lead late in the fourth quarter.

It looked good at first for Seattle when Wilson’s first pass of the drive went for 14 yards to Tyler Lockett.

Malik Turner then dropped what would have been a second huge gain, and a nice catch by Jacob Hollister was limited to 5 yards thanks to a solid tackle by safety Kevin King, who returned from an earlier injury.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/12/sports/football/seahawks-vs-packers.html?emc=rss&partner=rss