Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers walks by Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman after Green Bay’s 36-16 loss on Thursday. Credit: Rick Wood

Seattle — If only Richard Sherman were mic'd up at all times.

After the Green Bay Packers' tail-between-the-legs, 36-16 loss to Seattle on Thursday night, Aaron Rodgers embraced cornerback Byron Maxwell, turned his head and — surprise! — there was Sherman.

The All-Pro cupped his hand, appeared to say something along the lines of "You avoid me?" and then tapped Rodgers on the shoulder. The quarterback mouthed "Yup" back and walked away.

Rodgers basically ignored Sherman then like he did all game.

Zero passes were thrown in his direction. Zilch. Green Bay treated Sherman like the plague.

No question, Sherman makes quarterbacks pay. But Rodgers also happens to be an MVP quarterback. Receiver Jarrett Boykin is no slouch. And Mike McCarthy is an innovative play-calling head coach. Yet this night — too often — the Packers played scared, hesitant against the big bad wolf of the NFC.

It wasn't only the passing game. Playing scared took many forms.

Brad Jones, for one, remains the starting three-down inside linebacker. Sam Barrington? Jamari Lattimore? Hard to imagine either player having a more brutal night than Jones, who missed three tackles, dropped an interception and committed two back-breaking penalties.

Faith in Derek Sherrod hasn't wavered since May. Green Bay refused to rethink the tackle position in August when Sherrod began to stammer, and it's not rethinking it right now.

Then, there's nose tackle. Going athletic, smaller, quicker was a fresh idea that might still work. But through the shift, the Packers always were armed with a 337-pound anchor in B.J. Raji for games like this, games he'd need to muck up the middle. Raji gets hurt. Nose tackle Ryan Pickett remains available...and the Packers aren't interested.

Peace, Marshawn Lynch.

The end of his 9-yard touchdown run was about as uninspired as it gets. Three of the 10 players on the field dived into the air as Lynch waltzed in.

"I don't feel very good about anything right now," McCarthy said afterward.

Seattle is a different animal. Players were all quick to praise the defending Super Bowl champion afterward. The defense. The atmosphere. The talent. This is as good as it gets on the Packers' 2014 schedule. Geno Smith is no Russell Wilson. Dee Milliner is no Sherman.

Asked why the no-huddle went from kaboom to kaput, Rodgers said plainly, "This is the Seattle Seahawks, a great defense." But these are also the games you learn a lot about yourselves, the games that expose teams for what they are. And right now, the Packers aren't ready to contend.

As McCarthy said to a question about tackling, "You are what you are....We've put out there our performance."

In Green Bay, dictate was the word of the summer.

On offense, the Packers vowed to dictate the pace via the no-huddle. Practices were faster, drill to drill. Coaches don't even dwell on teaching during 11-on-11 sessions in fear of slowing the hurry-up. On defense, as Julius Peppers noted, the Packers wanted to dictate the matchups by using roaming "elephants" throughout the front seven.

Yet the trepidation at CenturyLink Field was omnipresent. On defense, that soft spot in the middle hurt. Jones played 70 snaps; Barrington 0. And no backup on defense played better through the summer than Barrington. On offense, a third of the field was eliminated.

OK, so Sherman picked off 13% of the passes thrown his way last season. He's a 6-foot-3 wide receiver playing cornerback, capable of contorting his body at gravity-defying angles.

Neat.

Rodgers might have the strongest arm in the NFL. He may be the most insanely accurate passer of this generation, capable of needling a back-shoulder throw into slivers of windows other quarterbacks don't even see. Remember last season's opener against San Francisco? Against another stingy secondary, Rodgers went off for 331 yards and three touchdowns. He was fearless along the boundary, trusting his wide receivers.

Then, in Seattle, he's crossing the line of scrimmage before firing an errant incompletion.

McCarthy vows the Packers didn't consciously steer clear of Sherman, that they dictated the show by putting Jordy Nelson where they wanted. Yet as Thursday unraveled, safety Earl Thomas cheated Nelson's way and one side of the field was rendered a ghost town. Two or three throws might've at least loosened up the defense.

This is a hole the Packers are all-too familiar with.

"We're going to go up," tight end Andrew Quarless said. "That's how we're looking at it, and coach kind of said that. There's only one way to go and that's up. I think we're going to be alright, I really do. We've got to get momentum and jell a little more. It was a tough game, a tough game."

Odds are, Green Bay will roll past the New York Jets in Week 2 by 14, heck, 21 points. They typically bounce back from these gut-punch losses under McCarthy. But players won't be forgetting the bruises from Seattle. By the time the Packers run into Sherman and Co. again (or San Francisco), they'll need to be bolder on both sides.

Sherman, Cliff Avril, Bruce Irvin, the Seahawks were all about as unscared as you can sound those days leading up to the opener. They vowed to hit. Often.

As always, leave it to Sherman for postgame perspective on the tweet machine.

"When you are great," he wrote in quotes, "you make your opponent adjust to you. You don't adjust to suit them."

He may be arrogant, the most annoying pest of a pro on and off the field that the NFL has seen in years.

But here, he's right.

Send email to tdunne@journalsentinel.com.