Packers second-year running back Eddie Lacy could be the difference-maker Thursday at the deafening CenturyLink Field. Credit: Mark Hoffman

Seattle — Players screamed at the TV set in horror, one by one, flag to flag. The Golden Tate "touchdown" replayed inside the visitor's locker room and Aaron Rodgers turned around to shout "Awful! Awful!"

Ted Thompson stood quietly in a corner, barely showing any emotion. One veteran offered his analysis.

"They (expletive) up and they didn't want 80,000 people killing him on the way out," the player shouted above the anger. "They reverse that (expletive) and they have to worry about somebody killing him."

That player then went on to say Roger Goodell needed to show up in Green Bay to explain himself. ASAP. Through the chaos of this 14-12 loss at Seattle two years ago, Cedric Benson walked away from the scene completely. He couldn't stomach the sight of the replays — and he carefully bit his tongue about his usage, too.

Yeah, the so-called "Fail Mary" has dominated the pregame hype machine. The Packers had bigger problems than Lance Easley that day. In the first half, Rodgers was sacked eight times and Benson had two carries. Once Mike McCarthy started running the ball — instead of flexing out all receivers in a piercingly loud stadium — the Packers clawed back. Lesson learned. The team drafted Eddie Lacy in the second round the next spring, he won rookie of the year and now he's the player on Seattle's mind.

He's the player who poses the No. 1 threat to the champs in the NFC, a weapon who could potentially beat the Seahawks at their own "Legion of Boom" game.

"He's a hammer," coach Pete Carroll said. "He's a really good football player. All the stuff we saw in college, he could really dominate games running tough and physical, he has carried it over to the league."

The Seahawks brand themselves an ultra-physical, bring-the-hurt outfit capable of withstanding any league "emphasis" on illegal contact. Richard Sherman isn't changing his game. That defensive line, rotating fresh bodies in, is just as explosive as it was that day on Sept. 24, 2012. The linebackers? There's Bobby Wagner running up a hill behind the end zone after practice.

Seattle talks tough and backs it up.

And since bottoming out against the New York Giants as a 15-1 team three years ago, the Packers have fought the dreaded perception of being a finesse team. A team that's not tough enough to go the distance, to win in January. Mike Daniels himself said this off-season he was "tired of getting our face punched in by other teams."

Standing in the media auditorium at one point this summer, linebackers coach Winston Moss — stroking the beard he grew for "grit" purposes — wasn't happy with the notion that the team lacks a degree of toughness.

"Smart and tough." He said that's what the Packers covet.

"If you were to give me a person who has mental toughness," Moss said. "You give me a group of guys who are mentally tough, that understand what it takes, I like my chances.... Give me some guys like that, that's pretty damn good. You have guys who can really be special and I think we have those guys."

Yet "tough" can also mean replacing running backs past with a player slightly larger than what you see listed in your program.

Just as Packers offensive linemen have been working on finishing more runs because Lacy's legs keep churning, keep plays alive, the Seahawks are going back to basics on tackling.

"A lot of it's the yards after contact. This is a strong guy," Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn said. "I don't know what they list him at — 230, it doesn't sure seem like it the way he runs hard. I think there's a real power element to his game. He's not just an in-between-the-tackles guy. You can see him bounce out and create that way. He can get low.

"We have to have a really good tackling plan in terms of the way we attack him."

If McCarthy and the Packers started handing the ball off to Benson earlier that night in the Pacific Northwest, there is no Hail Mary, no pandemonium, no quick end to the replacement referees. Maybe Seattle's rise is even more gradual. A no-bull, north-and-south rusher can negate speed.

The Packers can do so out of their no-huddle, single-back look.

Nothing has changed more these last two years than Lacy replacing Benson and McCarthy warming up to the run.

Lacy admitted he was nervous Week 1 a year ago. He can't be in 2014. He has to be the difference.

"He's an obvious element now. He's a big deal now," Carroll said. "They have him throughout the early downs, and on third down he's a good player, too. They don't mind throwing it to him. He can get tough yards, he breaks tackles, he gets long runs, he does not go down easily.

"I think he's a big improvement — he'd be an improvement for anybody's offense. He's that good."

This column appeared in Packer Plus Magazine