​The Green Bay Packers Finally Wake Up, Thrash Seahawks in Snow

When Green Bay Packers backup quarterback Brett Hundley flipped the ball to small-school special-teamer Jeff Janis, and Janis weaved through the Seattle Seahawks defense for a 19-yard touchdown run, it sure seemed like the Seahawks had been put out of their misery. But this was not that type of game.

The video board at a snowy Lambeau Field updated the score to 38-10 and Janis took a well-deserved Lambeau Leap. But there was still time for the Seahawks to turn the ball over one more time. That's the type of game it was.

Rookie Alex Collins did the honors for Seattle, stripped by Packers lineman Christian Ringo; that blessedly lowered the curtain on an every-phase shellacking that announced to the rest of the NFL that the Packers are back.

Green Bay's pass defense, a much-maligned unit that had battled through injuries and poor play all year, picked Russell Wilson off an incredible five times. Not all of those were bad throws; a few bounced off his receivers' hands. But there's no getting around the fact that Wilson had the worst statistical game of his career on this frozen Wisconsin evening.

The Seahawks defense struggled all game to get any kind of heat on Aaron Rodgers, giving him time to pick the vaunted Legion of Boom apart. As dominant as the Dallas Cowboys have been in run-blocking, the Packers have been at least that good at keeping Rodgers clean; he made the most of it. The absence of free safety Earl Thomas hurt Seattle, but couldn't account for all of the Packers' dominance.

The result was the game that Packers fans (and fans of the Packers' opponents) have been waiting all year for: the one where the other shoe drops, and the Packers finally looked like the Packers. The one where Rodgers not only overcomes the deficiencies of his skill-position teammates and near-total lack of running game, but gets help from a defense that just had too much talent to be ranked 23rd in scoring defense, as they had been before Sunday's game. It's a statement win for Rodgers, head coach Mike McCarthy, and the entire Packers team. If the Packers are this good down the stretch, they're going to be incredibly tough to beat.

And yet, it may be too little, too late.

With wins by Detroit and Minnesota, the Packers have no room left for error. To make the playoffs, they'll likely have to beat all three NFC North teams over the last three weeks. Even that might not be good enough, as the Lions can get to 11 wins before going head-to-head to the Packers in Week 17.

It goes without saying that if these Packers had filled out the green-and-gold uniforms all year, they wouldn't need to win out and get help in order to make it to the postseason. But now that they've finally shown up, they have a chance. They're more than good enough to pull it off.