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GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers walked slowly and with a pronounced limp through the locker room following Sunday's game. First, it was an injured left hamstring. Now, it's an injured right calf. In the Packers' uphill climb to an NFC playoff spot, it's just one more hurdle to overcome.
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"That's football. You deal with injuries," Rodgers said. "I'd like to talk about the win. You're talking about my injuries. I'm not missing games, so ... we've won three in a row."
This third consecutive victory was the most resounding, a 38-10 rout of the powerful Seattle Seahawks. Despite injuring the calf on the third play of the game -- a 66-yard touchdown pass to Davante Adams that got the Packers off and running -- Rodgers played a superb game against a defense that entered the game ranked No. 1 in points allowed. He completed 18-of-23 passes for 246 yards and three touchdowns for a passer rating of 150.8.
"Grit," Rodgers said of how he battled through the injuries.
Rodgers also threw a pair of touchdown passes to receiver Jordy Nelson, taking advantage of short fields supplied by the defense. Green Bay intercepted Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson five times in handing Wilson the most lopsided defeat of his superlative career.
"You know, there's too many there," Wilson said of the interceptions. "We don't have to talk about each play but I think we have to play better. Obviously, we can't turn the ball over. I put that on me. That game was on me. The great thing is, we play next week. We play Thursday (at home against Los Angeles). That's the thing we look forward to. That's our only focus right now. It probably would be even if we won."
Seattle (8-4) likely is headed to the playoffs, with Arizona (5-7-1) a distant second in the NFC West. Still, the Seahawks have a major problem on their hands. Can Seattle find enough offense to win a potential road playoff game? They are 2-4 in road games, having scored 10 points or fewer in each of the losses. After winning at New England 31-24 on Nov. 13, the Seahawks have lost 14-5 at Tampa Bay and now 38-10 at Green Bay, with their lone touchdown coming midway through the fourth quarter.
"We've got the right coaches, the right players, we believe, and we've had a great season so far," Wilson said. "We just want to keep going and play one game at a time. Unfortunately, we came here and had a tough loss. They played way better than we did."
The Packers did, but can they keep it going with Rodgers now battling injuries to both legs? And can they get the help they didn't get on Sunday? NFC North rivals Detroit (9-4) and Minnesota (7-6) used fourth-quarter comebacks to win, and Tampa Bay (8-5) and Washington (7-5-1) also won. So, the Packers made up no ground in the playoff race.
"We needed some help today, didn't really get it from some teams," Rodgers said. "Luckily, we did what we were supposed to do today and played well. But we've got to keep winning, and we need a little bit of help down the stretch."
Green Bay closes the season with games at Chicago next week, home against Minnesota and then at Detroit. If the Lions were to lose at either the Giants or the Cowboys the next two weeks, the Packers could be playing for the NFC North crown on New Year's Day.
"Like I said at 4-6, I felt like we had a lot of confidence and it was close to clicking for us," Rodgers said. "Most of the people in this room probably didn't believe when I said I think we can run the table, but I was confident in our abilities and getting guys back from some injuries that we were going to start playing a little bit better and more of a complete game in all three phases. And we've done that, especially two of these weeks, I think.
"This was an important win for us confidence-wise, and then I think it was a good statement to our fans as well (to), 'Stick with us because there's a lot of football left.'"
