Seahawks keep eyes on Grant
SEATTLE – Musing over whether Aaron Rodgers will practice. Mystery over whether the quarterback is taking painkilling injections. Marveling over his ability to play.
All that may not matter on Sunday, because the Packers have their remedy for Rodgers’ sprained throwing shoulder – one Seattle knows too well.
“They still have Ryan Grant,” Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said.
The last time these teams met, Grant tromped through a Wisconsin blizzard for a Green Bay playoff-record 201 yards rushing and three touchdowns in a 42-20 win.
“It should give you confidence,” Grant said of that game, while finally healthy after a hamstring injury that has helped limit him to 269 yards rushing and no touchdowns in five games. “But at the same time, this is a matter of now.”
Yet the now is in Grant’s favor, too.
Seattle’s undersized defense with 11 returning starters, including four Pro Bowl players, just got trampled by Brandon Jacobs. The Giants’ 264-pound bull ran through missed tackles for 136 yards and two scores on just 15 carries last week as New York gave Holmgren his worst loss in 17 seasons as a head coach (44-6).
That had the 60-year-old grandfather ripping into his four-time defending NFC West champions this week, a tirade he called a “truth session.”
Here’s more sobering truths for Seattle, which is trying to avoid its first 1-4 start since its last losing season in 2002: Grant is listed at 226 pounds and has the same rumbling, straight-ahead style that embarrassed the Seahawks last week. Plus, his offensive line is also getting healthier.
Grant showed signs of breaking out last week, when he had 83 yards on 18 carries.
“I know the line kind of felt they were getting into a rhythm and I felt like I was kind of getting into a rhythm,” Grant said.
Yes, one gets the impression Green Bay should run Grant so much on Sunday that the Packers (2-3) will forget Rodgers’ shoulder hurts or that Greg Jennings leads the NFL in yards receiving (569) and has three 100-yard games this season.
But one of the Packers’ biggest problems is they have to prove the same thing. This is far from the 13-3 team that rolled into the NFC championship game last season.
Green Bay’s defense has just three true tackles inside after recently losing run stopper Cullen Jenkins for the season to a pectoral injury. It has allowed an average of 190 yards rushing in each of three consecutive losses to Dallas, Tampa Bay and Atlanta. After Rodgers’ fourth interception of the season with 4:33 remaining last week, the Falcons ran three straight times for the decisive touchdown, then three more times for the clinching first down.
The Packers are allowing 161.4 yards rushing per game, 31st in the league.
That fits Holmgren’s West Coast offense that seems to suddenly be going the way of Woody Hayes.
Matt Hasselbeck is the lowest-rated passer in the NFC, thanks in part to six of his receivers having been hurt. About an hour after Bobby Engram and Deion Branch made their season debuts last week, Branch bruised his heel and is out indefinitely.
Hasselbeck may not play Sunday. He didn’t practice all week because of a sore right knee he injured last week and is listed as questionable. With backup Seneca Wallace out with a calf injury, No. 3 quarterback Charlie Frye is primed for his first start since the 2007 opener for Cleveland.