Larry Stone: Will Aaron Rodgers avoid Richard Sherman again? Don’t bet on it

RENTON, Wash. – One of the biggest plot points for Sunday’s NFC title game has become: “Will they or won’t they?”

More specifically, will the Packers target cornerback nonpareil Richard Sherman this time around, or do what they did in the season opener, which was avoid Sherman’s side completely?

Byron Maxwell, the Seattle cornerback who received the bulk of the Packers’ action when they shunned Sherman Island, has a hunch he knows the answer. If Green Bay chooses to eschew Sherman’s side again, Maxwell would be surprised.

“I would be, because we beat them by 20 points,” said Maxwell, who is healthy again after a bout with the flu that knocked him out of the game last week. “I think you should switch up your plan a little bit.”

But what if the Packers stick with Plan A?

“We would rock with that,” Maxwell said. “I would love as many balls as I got that game.”

Let’s face it – it was not a particularly good look for the Packers. By staying away from Sherman, as sound a strategy as that might be on paper, they appeared timid, if not intimidated. And Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has shown over a long, distinguished career that he need not back down from anyone.

Expect him to take some shots Sherman’s way this time, as the Chargers did the following week in a 30-21 victory. After that game, San Diego wide receiver Keenan Allen declared Sherman was “just a normal guy. We can go at him … He’s not really a shutdown corner.”

Those are fighting words that have been roundly disproved by Sherman’s body of work, and by statistics showing that opponents target him less than any other corner in the league.

Rodgers has said many times that throwing away from Sherman in Green Bay’s 36-16 defeat at CenturyLink Field was less an intentional strategy than just the reality of the situation: Sherman’s man was always covered.

But the Packers chose to keep their top receiver, Jordy Nelson, on the opposite side from Sherman. Nelson caught nine passes for 83 yards, but that 9.2-yard average was well below his career mark of 15.3. Green Bay was trying to coax Seattle into moving Sherman to the other side, but the Seahawks didn’t bite.

After the game, Rodgers said to Sherman, “I hope you get some work this year,” he revealed later on his ESPN Milwaukee radio show.

That’s Sherman’s desire as well. Before the first game with Green Bay, he had told reporters one of his biggest areas for improvement in the upcoming season was “not getting bored in ballgames.”

As flattering as it might be to have teams throw away from you, Sherman didn’t even hesitate when asked Wednesday if he preferred to have the action come his way.

“I like to play the game,” he said. “I like to play like everybody else. I guess everybody sees it a different way. But when you get balls thrown your way you get a chance to be involved and make plays. I mean, there’s also the chance for another guy to make a play as well. But it’s football.”

Which is why Seahawks coach Pete Carroll felt compelled to counsel Sherman after that earlier Packers game, reminding him that it was a sign of respect for teams to avoid him. Sherman says now that his frustration level during and after that game was “on a scale of 1 to 10, 12.”

Carroll reminded Sherman he was still contributing to the victory, even though Rodgers never threw to the receivers he was covering, Jarrett Boykin or Davante Edwards. (That didn’t stop Boykin from telling Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel after the game, “I mean, he’s a smart corner, but I don’t see him any different than any other corner. He’s beatable.”)

Regarding Carroll’s message of reassurance, Sherman said it was something he needed to hear.

“You feel like you haven’t contributed anything,” he said. “Everybody’s like, ‘That’s cool, nobody threw to your side.’ But if you’re a player, you want to make plays in the game. You feel you can help your team and you want the ball coming your way more.”

Carroll doesn’t expect Green Bay to stay away from Sherman entirely again.

Sherman said he has no idea what the Packers will do. But he’ll try, as always, to resist the temptation to gamble and go outside his realm of responsibility. That can lead to trouble.

“When I was younger, I used to do that a little more than I do now,” he said.

Asked if he would bring a magazine or book out on the field with him, just in case, Sherman laughed heartily.

“I’ll have to work on that,” he said. “Probably not (for) the NFC championship.”

Will they or won’t they? I’m guessing they will – enough to stave off any recurring bouts of boredom from Sherman, at least.

Whether the Packers live to regret or revel in that decision might go a long way toward determining which team goes to the Super Bowl.