Pressure mounts for Green Bay

KIRKLAND, Wash. – At a time of year when the heat gets turned up on NFL players and coaches, the NFC’s recent participants have been an acupuncturist’s dream in terms of pressure points.

There were, of course, the 2005 Seattle Seahawks, who entered that postseason with not only a No. 1 seed but also the baggage of not having won a playoff game in 21 years.

The 2006 Chicago Bears welcomed the Seahawks into town while carrying the weight of three consecutive home losses in 16 years of playoff futility.

This year’s candidates for the Marty Schottenheimer Award of Playoff Underachievement may well be the Green Bay Packers.

After winning their first 13 home playoff games, the Packers have struggled in recent years. The Atlanta Falcons ended Green Bay’s 66-year unbeaten home streak in a 2002 wild-card game, the Packers barely beat the Seahawks at Lambeau Field the following year, and the Minnesota Vikings won a playoff game on the frozen tundra after the 2004 season.

Since Mike Holmgren led the Packers to a win at San Francisco in the 1997 NFC Championship game, the Packers are 2-6 in postseason games. During that span, quarterback Brett Favre has a pedestrian passer rating of 74.2, almost 18 points less than the rating he posted over his first 12 NFL playoff games.

Despite the recent past, Favre and the Packers aren’t heading into Saturday’s game against the Seahawks feeling like they have the weight of the world on their shoulders.

“There’s always a lot of pressure, and I don’t feel any added pressure,” Favre said in a conference call with Seattle reporters on Tuesday. “I want to win this ball game. I want to go deep in the playoffs, like I always have. But you can only do so much. And I’m going to make sure, from my standpoint, I do everything I possibly can. That’s all I can do.”

After twice considering retirement but eventually opting to return, Favre is back in a familiar spot on an NFC contender. It marks Green Bay’s first postseason appearance since 2004, when the Packers lost a wild-card game at home to Minnesota.

During the conference call, Favre provided several reasons for his decision to keep coming back, but getting another shot at the postseason was not among them.

“I didn’t wake up one day this past off-season and say, ‘I’m going back; I have to get this team back to the playoffs before I can walk away,’ ” he said. “No, it never really was about that. If I decide to come back, I want to come back and play at a level that is acceptable to me.”

Favre is one of the few experienced Packers when it comes to postseason play. Only five players – Favre (20), cornerback Charles Woodson (seven), tight end Bubba Franks (five) and offensive linemen Chad Clifton and Mark Tauscher (five each) – have started more than four playoff games in their careers. Mike McCarthy is making his debut as a head coach after taking part in eight games as an assistant.

Like Favre, McCarthy brushed off the talk of added pressure this time of year.

“I’m excited,” he told Wisconsin reporters. “This is what you work for. I think coaches, as a whole, you get caught up in the process. You get caught up in the journey. Just walking in here, I’ve never given any thought to this being my first game. I’ve moved past that.”

In 2005, when they were looking for their first playoff win since 1984, the Seahawks played down the pressure of their divisional-round game against Washington. But lately they’ve been more forthright about how important that game felt at the time.

Last week, quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said of the Washington game: “Super Bowl included, that was probably the game where everybody felt the most pressure.”

On Tuesday, wide receiver Bobby Engram admitted how big that game seemed at the time.

“You just kind of felt the weight of the whole organization,” Engram said. “You wanted to get that goose egg off. It had been years since they’d won a playoff game, and you wanted to be the first team to do it.

“There might be added pressure, but you look at it as a challenge as well.”

The Packers, who haven’t had a playoff bye since Holmgren coached them in 1998, aren’t looking at Saturday’s game as a pressure cooker.

“I have all the confidence in the world that we’ll be ready to go,” McCarthy said.

The Seahawks wouldn’t have it any other way.

“As a football player, you live for these kinds of moments,” defensive back Jordan Babineaux said. “It’s Round 2 of the playoffs, and you’re going against one of the greatest quarterbacks ever. It’s going to be a real challenge for us.”