Seahawks vs. Packers: From a failed called shot to an improbable comeback

Something memorable likely will happen when the Green Bay Packers host the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday (6:40 p.m. ET, Fox) in the divisional round of the NFC playoffs at Lambeau Field.

At least that's been the case on past occasions when they've met in the postseason. And we're not even addressing the "Fail Mary" game from Week 3 of 2012.

There was the 2003 wild-card game when Matt Hasselbeck tried to call his shot -- only to throw an overtime pick-six -- as well as another Packers win in the divisional round in a snowstorm four years later after Seattle blew a 14-0 first-quarter lead and, of course, the 2014 NFC Championship Game in which the Seahawks staged an improbable comeback.

Here are a couple of the memories associated with the rivalry:

Ever since Hasselbeck's infamous "We want the ball and we're gonna score" line after his Seahawks won the overtime coin toss at Lambeau Field on Jan. 4, 2004, he has heard the phrase that backfired repeated to him too many times to count.

"We want the ball and we're gonna score."

On this day in 2004, Matt Hasselbeck's words came back to bite him. #WildCardWeekend @packers pic.twitter.com/ggYV0TYSDX

— NFL Throwback (@nflthrowback) January 4, 2019

He thought he had heard and seen it all as it pertained to the interception Packers cornerback Al Harris returned for the winning touchdown. Until, that is, he checked into his hotel room at Lodge Kohler, the luxury resort that opened in 2017 across the street from Lambeau.

A photo of Harris hung on the wall of his room.

At first he thought it was a coincidence. But when he returned for a second visit as part of ESPN's Monday Night Countdown pregame show crew, the same photograph hung on the wall. Either every room in the hotel had Harris' picture or someone was pranking him.

"I found out later that they put me in that same room on purpose," Hasselbeck said. "The guy [from the hotel] came clean to Randy Moss, and Randy told me. That's how I know. It's a great room, it's a great hotel."

But you can't prank a prankster, so Hasselbeck, of course, had a response.

"You know what I did? I autographed it," Hasselbeck said.

"I wanted to do it the first time, and then I was like, 'That might be weird and maybe they wouldn't see the humor in that.' And then when they gave me the same room the second time, I was like, 'All right, I'm going to embrace this.'"

Hasselbeck and the Seahawks looked like they were on their way to avenging that loss when they returned in January 2008. A pair of fumbles by Packers running back Ryan Grant helped Seattle take a 14-0 lead after four minutes.

It all came undone from there.

Grant scored three touchdowns and set a franchise postseason record with 201 rushing yards. Quarterback Brett Favre threw for three touchdowns and provided the game's lasting image when he spun out of a sack, stumbled out of the pocket and stayed on his feet just long enough to hit Donald Lee with a wobbly, underhanded toss before falling to the snow.

It became such a runaway for the Packers that Favre and Donald Driver started throwing celebratory snowballs at each other in the closing minutes of Green Bay's 42-20 win.

Instead of a redemptive victory for Hasselbeck, the Packers won in coach Mike McCarthy's postseason debut and advanced to the championship game for the first time since the 1997 season.

Blowing a two-score lead in the first quarter is one thing. Doing it with five minutes left -- and with the ball -- is another.

The Seahawks needed so many things to go their way to come back from being down 19-7 late in the fourth quarter of the 2014 NFC title game at CenturyLink Field.

Everything did.

The Seahawks recovered an onside kick that went right through Brandon Bostick's hands, allowing them to score two touchdowns in less than a minute. Quarterback Russell Wilson had already thrown four interceptions when he heaved an off-balance, desperation floater back across the formation on a 2-point try following the second touchdown.

It looked like it too would be picked off, but it somehow landed in Luke Willson's hands instead of the hands of the two Packers defenders who were in the area, giving Seattle a 22-19 lead. And they still needed Richard Sherman, who was playing with an elbow injury suffered earlier in the game, to stop Jordy Nelson short of the sticks on third down to keep Green Bay to a field goal that forced overtime.

Tramon Williams is one of seven Packers left from the 2014 team that lost that title game despite the 12-point lead late in the fourth quarter. Williams, who gave up the game-winning touchdown (a 35-yard catch by Jermaine Kearse in overtime), probably never thought he'd be in a position to play the Seahawks again in the playoffs.

Williams left Green Bay the following offseason in free agency for Cleveland (where he played in 2015-16). After a year in Arizona (2017), he rejoined the Packers in 2018, and this season, at age 36, he was the oldest cornerback in the league to start this season.

He said this week the last play of the NFC title game in Seattle doesn't stick in his mind.

"It don't stick at all," Williams said. "It's a new year. A new years. That was [five] years ago. It doesn't stick in my mind at all. It's one of the opportunities that you live and you learn from. New year, new team, new energy to it. Looking forward to it."

When reminded that, upon his return to Green Bay, he said he had "unfinished business" because of the way his first go-round ended, he caved slightly: "Y'all been doing y'all homework, man."

He added: "Like anybody, when you establish yourself in a certain position with a certain team, you want it to go out ideal. And ideally, that wasn't he way that I wanted to go out as a Packer. If I did, then I would live with it. No doubt about it. But I was thankful enough to get another opportunity, and I will forever be grateful for that."