It was Green Bay’s defense that changed the tone of the game late in the third quarter. Seattle was leading by 3-0 and had the ball, but Mike Daniels was able to get to Russell Wilson for a sack and a fumble, setting up a 6-yard touchdown run by Ty Montgomery that seemed to wake up the Packers.

After allowing Seattle to respond with a field goal, the Packers took control of the game with a vintage Aaron Rodgers drive. He led the team 43 yards in eight plays before noticing the Seahawks had 12 men on the field. As he has done so many times before, Rodgers waited for the penalty flag to fly, then took advantage of the mistake and threw deep to Jordy Nelson, who beat the coverage for a 32-yard touchdown which essentially put the game out of reach for the struggling Seahawks.

The questions will be plentiful in Seattle. The Seahawks came into the game believing they were at full-strength with the return of Earl Thomas and the addition of Sheldon Richardson. If the team’s offense had not pulled a disappearing act, holding the high-powered Green Bay offense to 17 points would be considered a positive.

Despite a quiet first half, Rodgers ended up completing 28 of 42 passes for 311 yards and one touchdown. He saw the end of a career-long streak of 251 regular season passes without an interception but he easily outdueled Wilson, who completed just 14 of 27 passes for 158 yards.

The game was expected to be tight, but the intensity bubbled over early in the game on a bizarre play in the first quarter that resulted in the interception, a pair of questionable penalties, and an ejection.

Rodgers was picked off by Nazair Jones, a rookie defensive tackle out of North Carolina who ran the ball back 64 yards for what appeared to be just the second pick-six of Rodgers’s career.

A blocking penalty brought the ball back nearly the entire distance of the return, and in a separate incident, Jeremy Lane, a veteran cornerback for Seattle, was ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct. Lane had become entangled with Davante Adams of the Packers during the return, and was cited for throwing a punch even though Adams appeared to be the aggressor in the altercation.