Packers seek to turn the page against Seahawks

The Green Bay Packers say their NFL Sunday showdown with Seattle is more about setting a tone for 2015 than avenging the devastating defeat that ended their Super Bowl bid last season.

But there's no denying that after three straight losses to the Seahawks in Seattle, the Packers are looking forward to turning the tables on their National Football Conference rivals at Lambeau Field.

The Packers went 9-0 at home last season, including the playoffs, before falling at Seattle in the NFC title game -- surrendering a 19-7 lead in the final three minutes.

"I can assure you, it's not something that's talked about much," Packers linebacker Clay Matthews said of the revenge aspect of Sunday's rematch.

"Ultimately, this is just the second game of the season."

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the reigning NFL Most Valuable Player, echoed that view, shying away from the idea that it could be a season-defining contest.

"Your identity as a team is formed throughout the year," Rodgers said. "You've just got to look at it as game two. Every one's important, especially with a conference opponent who is a talented team.

"But, yeah, we've got to take care of business at home."

The Pack has been pretty good at that. Rodgers, for instance, hasn't thrown an interception at Lambeau field since December of 2012.

He was efficient in a 31-23 season-opening victory at Chicago last week, while the Seahawks will be trying to bounce back from a 34-31 overtime loss to St. Louis.

Rodgers and the Packers offense will try to exploit the continuing absence of key Seahawks defender Kam Chancellor, whose contract holdout has kept him away from the team since June.

Seattle's defense gave up eight passing plays of at least 20 yards to the Rams -- the most of any team last week.

"It was a few communication errors," cornerback Richard Sherman said of the Seahawks' failures to read and adjust to the opposing offense. "It's things like that that are easily corrected."

- Cowboys v Murray's Eagles -

 Along with the NFC grudge match the second week of the season features a string of enticing division match-ups, including the Dallas Cowboys' clash with a Philadelphia Eagles team that now includes former Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray.

Murray ran for a league-best 1,845 yards and 13 touchdowns last season for the Cowboys and caught 57 passes. But the Cowboys opted to use their "franchise tag" on team-mate Dez Bryant, and a five-year deal worth $42 million from the Eagles proved too good an offer for Murray to pass up.

The Cowboys say there are no hard feelings -- and no especially friendly ones either.

"That's the business of the NFL, guys move on to other teams," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. "Now he's a competitor. We're focused on ourselves, that's what we need to do."

The Cowboys have already bested one division rival with a 27-26 victory over the New York Giants. But their task of building on that dramatic victory against a Philadelphia team that fell 24-26 to Atlanta on Monday night will be harder after Bryant suffered a broken foot that will see him sidelined up to six weeks.

"They have weapons besides Dez Bryant," Eagles coach Chip Kelly said. "It's always a difficult time when you lose a player like that, but it's not like they don't have anybody else."

In other division match-ups, Minnesota host Detroit with both teams seeking a first win of the season and New Orleans host Tampa Bay with Saints quarterback Drew Brees needing three touchdown passes to join Peyton Manning (530), Brett Favre (508) and Dan Marino (420) as the only players in NFL history to reach 400 career touchdown passes.

Tom Brady, quarterback of the Super Bowl champion New England, is closing in on the same milestone, with 396 career touchdown passes going into the Patriots' division clash with the Bills at Buffalo.

Source: AFP