Green Bay Packers vs. Seattle Seahawks Preview and Pick

The Seattle Seahawks, now featuring their All-Pro starting QB and RB, host the Green Bay Packers on ESPN’s Monday Night Football tonight at Qwest Field in Seattle.

The game also features the match-up of the former coach, Mike Holmgren, against his greatest project, GB QB Brett Favre. Sure, they shared some great times in Titletown back in the 1990s, but both have had their share of problems since Holmgren left Green Bay for the Great Northwest, although Holmgren made it back to the Super Bowl last season.

Seattle will have, for the first time since Week 3, QB Matt Hasselbeck and RB Shaun Alexander back in the starting lineup. Both have missed recent games with injuries, although Alexander returned last week. Neither player will be at 100% Monday night, but at this point in the NFL season, who is?

Seattle, at 6-4, leads the NFC West Division by a game and a half over the St. Louis Rams and the San Francisco 49ers.

Green Bay, at 4-6, sits in third place in the NFC North, 4 ½ games back of the division-leading Chicago Bears.

The Seahawks lost last week at San Francisco 20-14, allowing the Niners to run for an alarming 262 yards.

Green Bay, meanwhile, got bounced by the New England Patriots last week at Lambeau Field 35-0. Favre suffered an injury to his throwing elbow, and sat out the entire second half of the game. But he says he’s OK, and he’ll start Monday night.

The Packers started this season by losing four of their first five games, but they're 3-2 since then.

A healthy Seahawks teams started this season by winning its first three games. But the injury bug began to bite, and Seattle is just 3-4 since then.

Green Bay is 4-6 against the spread this season, while Seattle is just 3-7 vs. the number. But the Packers are 3-2 both straight up and ATS on the road this season. The Seahawks, meanwhile, are 4-1 straight up and 3-2 against the spread at home this season.

Favre has completed 57% of his passes this season for a 13/7 TD/INT ratio and an 80.1 passing rating.

Hasselbeck, who’s missed the last four Seahawks games with an injured knee, has hit on 59% of his passes this season for a 10/7 TD/INT ratio and an 82.8 passing rating.

Green Bay is outrushing opponents this season by a 104-100 yards-per-game average.

Seattle is getting outrushed this season by a 118-108 YPG margin.

These two teams have played five common opponents already this season. The Packers have beaten Minnesota (23-17), Arizona (31-14) and Detroit (31-24), while losing to St. Louis (23-20) and Chicago (26-0). On the other side, Seattle has beaten the Cardinals (21-10), the Lions (9-6) and the Rams twice (24-22 and 30-28), while losing to the Vikings (31-13) and the Bears (37-6).

Green Bay ranks 15th in the league in average time-of-possession at 30:06, while the Seahawks rank 26th at 28:34.

The Packers rank 24th in the league in turnover margin at –4, while Seattle ranks 26th at –7.

The Sagarin PREDICTOR ratings at USAToday.com rank the Seahawks 23rd at 15.4, Green Bay 28th at 12.0.

The Packers beat Seattle in the regular-season finale last year 23-17 at Lambeau Field. But neither team had anything to play for that day. Green Bay owned a 3-12 record coming into the game, while the Seahawks had already clinched home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs, and sat many starters.

The O/U is 4-5-1 in Packers games this season, 6-4 in Seattle games.

Green Bay’s injury list is about a mile long, but most notably includes LB Nick Barnett, who will probably miss Monday night’s game because of a broken hand suffered last week.

The Seahawks’ injury list isn’t as long as the Packers’, but Seattle will be without two starters on the offensive line.

The Seahawks are listed as 10-point favorites for Monday night’s game, with a total of 42. Seattle opened at right around 9 ½ at most sportsbooks around the Interweb, while the total started out at as much as 46. But that total is dropping by the hour, most likely because of the weather. It’s been snowing in Washington state the last 24 hours, and forecasts call for a good chance of rain and possibly more snow for Monday night in Seattle.