Seahawks-Packers Bottom Lines

The Seahawks did it again as they celebrated their first football championship and then pounded the Packers in the so-called Fail Mary rematch.  There's plenty to dissect here.   Some bottom lines -


*****


Aaron Rodgers is a bigger fraud than he'd already proven - By now it is a fact that Aaron Rodgers cannot stage a comeback.   When he can't put a team away or he has to come back, he fails; his successes cannot come in any circumstance other than frontrunning.   The Seahawks exposed him and the Packers in 2012 and they did it even worse here.   Rodgers' self-destruction under comeback pressure showed in a decidedly petulant rant at his center when he almost blew a timeout call, then on the safety where he looked utterly confused and got strip-sacked.  


Matt Flynn needs to start over Rodgers - In 2013 Matt Flynn did what Rodgers continues to prove he cannot do - stage not only a comeback, but do it three times in four games. 


If you're a Packers opponent, run run run - The Packers thought they could stop the run; they found out in a hurry they can't.  The NY Jets - the Packers' next opponent - should feel good about their run game in Week Two.


Dom Capers needs to be fired - and perhaps also Mike McCarthy - Dom Capers with the Packers has done nothing but prove he can't coach, and the same problems the Packers have had for years continue under Mike McCarthy, and McCarthy is showing he can't solve them.  If anything, with all the motivation in the world to want revenge in Seattle, McCarthy didn't have his guys particularly ready at all.


Packers opponents should be licking their chops - The Packers haven't gotten better at all - if anything they look worse from 2013, and their opponents should all be feeling a little cockier about their chances.  


There are weaknesses in Russell Wilson's game - The Packers defense was at its best when it baited Wilson into trying to go deep.   It was somewhat reminiscent of Chad Pennington, an underrated quarterback whose big weakness was the deep ball.


Marshawn Lynch should rest during preseason more - Mr. Beast Mode looked fresher having missed part of camp and preseason.


Pete Carroll is on the way to becoming the next dynastic coach - He showed he had the answers on both sides of the ball - though special teams looked a little sloppy.  And to think twenty years ago this season Carroll looked to be going nowhere as NY Jets head coach. 


Despite the big win, the Seahawks defense can be pierced - Seattle is not invincible, and the Seahawks will by no means go 16-0.   They also still have to become the first defending champ since the 2005 Patriots to win a playoff game.  


The refs were not flag-happy - John Parry came under fire in the Patriots-Eagles preseason game because of the enormity of penalties.   In this game the flags were kept to a relative minimum - and hurt the Packers more than the Seahawks, against whom the league's new penalty emphasis was ostensibly made.



So that's it from the first official game of the 2014 NFL season.