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Coach Mike Holmgren was working on a game plan for beating Minnesota when he learned his Seattle Seahawks wouldn't be playing the Vikings after all.
Minnesota's last-second loss to Arizona on Sunday meant the Seahawks would be heading instead to Green Bay's Lambeau Field, where Holmgren coached from 1992-98. His 1996 Packers won the Super Bowl.
Lambeau also is the place where the Packers drubbed the Seahawks 35-13 this season.
``That's a great place -- always will be for me,'' Holmgren said Monday. ``I certainly trust we'll play better this time.''
Sunday's game also provides a shot at homecoming redemption for Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, Brett Favre's backup under Holmgren in Green Bay. But most of the Seahawks -- only a handful have been to the playoffs -- are looking at it as a chance to bring Seattle its first postseason win in 20 years.
The Seahawks last made the playoffs after the 1999 season.
``For Coach and for Matt, it might be something personal for them,'' wide receiver Koren Robinson said. ``For the rest of us, we just look at them as the Green Bay Packers.''
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The Seahawks finished 10-6 after winning 24-17 in San Francisco on Saturday.
They needed help from other teams to make the playoffs: a loss by Dallas, Minnesota
or Green Bay on Sunday would have done it.
They got two out of three. Green Bay whipped a team of Denver backups 31-3.
Holmgren told his assistants Monday to begin studying tape from the loss at Green Bay in October -- and to be ``brutally honest'' about what went wrong. The coach said he could immediately think of three things the Seahawks need to do better this weekend: limit turnovers, contain Green Bay running back Ahman Green and improve on special teams.
That's not to mention Favre, who passed for nearly 400 yards and four touchdowns against Oakland on Dec. 22, fewer than 24 hours after the death of his father.
``He's a unique guy,'' said Holmgren, who always found Favre loose and relaxed before big games. ``He had a way about him that really gave a coach confidence.''
Hasselbeck, who set a Seahawks passing record by throwing for 3,841 yards this season, was likewise reverent in describing Favre's performance against the Raiders.
``That Brett Favre was unstoppable,'' Hasselbeck said. ``That's one of the things you get when you play a future Hall of Famer. You have to just hope he doesn't have one of those days.''
When the Seahawks played in Green Bay in October, Hasselbeck was caught up in the homecoming and didn't focus on the game. This time around, he's not worried about seeing friends and family, and plans to do things differently.
For one, he plans to sit down with the Seahawks' defense Tuesday to review tapes of the October loss and to help pinpoint what they should expect from Favre. That's something he didn't do before the October game.
``Lambeau will be as loud
and as hostile an environment as you can play in, but anywhere you go in the
playoffs is going to be a hostile environment,'' linebacker Chad Brown said.
``It's amazing what you can do with your back against the wall and what you
can pull out of yourself when you need it.''