Green Bay Packers vs. Seattle Seahawks: Twitter Reactions and Quotes

After seven long months without football, the Green Bay Packers finally stormed the field for a Thursday night opener in Seattle. With two injuries to starters behind them, one of the points of emphasis in the game was how the replacements to B.J. Raji and J.C. Tretter would hold up against the returning Super Bowl champion Seahawks.

At least publicly, the Packers had shown optimism in Corey Linsley, the rookie center, and Letroy Guion, the newly acquired nose tackle. Gamblers weren't as optimistic about the Packers' chances of winning their opener, though. Opening up as a 3.5-point underdog, according to Odds Shark, the Packers were bet down to 6-point underdogs before the game had kicked off.

Unfortunately for Packer fans, the experts were correct. After being out gained by the Seahawks 398 yards to 255 yards, Green Bay swallowed its first defeat of the season. Considering that Seattle more than doubled the Packers' rushing yard total (207 to 80), it is no surprise.

If you were glued to the television from kickoff to kneel downs, we have you covered on what you missed on Twitter.

According to Cheesehead TV's Aaron Nagler, the ESPN prognosticators stood with Vegas on the opening game. Only Seth Wickersham, an NFL writer for ESPN The Magazine, believed Green Bay could come out of Seattle with a victory. Chris Mortensen, Adam Schefter, Mike Ditka and Co. had a strong case for their selections of Seattle: In the past two seasons, the Seahawks had lost a total of one game at home.

The loss came last season in Week 16 against the Arizona Cardinals. Michael Floyd scored a go-ahead touchdown with five minutes and change left on the scoreboard, and the Seahawks couldn't muster up a response. It was to no one's surprise the Packers lost to kick off the season. Yahoo's pick'em game even had 83 percent of users taking the Seahawks straight up.

The most interesting aspect of the inactives list released prior to the game was the lack of defensive linemen on it. With three starting defensive linemen in their traditional 3-4 base, the Packers only kept one rotational player. The starters were Letroy Guion at nose tackle and Datone Jones and Mike Daniels at defensive end. Josh Boyd, a second-year player out of Mississippi State, was the fresh pair of legs off the bench.

According to the Green Bay Press Gazette's Wes Hodkiewicz, the Packers came out in a 4-3 look, as opposed to their traditional 3-4 base, for more than half of their first drive. That set the tone for the game, as Green Bay was playing some form of an even front, with either two or four defensive linemen, for the majority game.

Another highly-discussed topic was Richard Sherman sticking to left cornerback. While some cornerbacks ”travel,” moving with a designated receiver, Sherman was stuck to one side of the field for the game. Green Bay attempted to exploit that by keeping their top target away from the right boundary. Instead of featuring Jordy Nelson or Randall Cobb, Mike McCarthy sent out Jarrett Boykin and Andrew Quarless out to match up with Sherman, effectively keeping him out of a playmaking position but nullifying any impact of the receivers on that side.

While not throwing to Sherman may seem like a good idea, Bleacher Report's own Matt Miller explained why it's a risky move. He stated it makes the “offense very predictable” and “allows [Seattle] to roll [their] coverage.” 

The biggest issue with this approach against Seattle's personnel is that they also have all-world free safety Earl Thomas over the top. With Sherman shutting down the right sideline and Thomas shutting the deep ball down, it only allowed Rodgers to throw to designated portions of the field, usually on the left sideline. Of Rodgers' 23 completions, a total of 15 went to either Jordy Nelson or Randall Cobb, who were featured in the slot and left boundary.

The first big play of the game came on a play many college fans are aware of: The pop pass. Essentially, the play is a zone-read play, which if pulled by the quarterback, also has a passing option. Some teams throw the pass like a screen, some teams throw it to the tight end and some throw it to a boundary receiver.

Seattle's quarterback, Russell Wilson, pulled the ball and hit his boundary receiver on the left. When Packers rookie Ha Ha Clinton-Dix missed a tackle, a touchdown was solidified. Ironically, Green Bay has had a bad history against the zone read, and Clinton-Dix's college team, Alabama, missed out on a potential national championship berth due to a pop pass against Auburn last season.

One of the largest issues the Packers have faced since their 2010 Super Bowl season is injuries. After already losing eight players' seasons on the injured reserve list, Green Bay sustained some crucial injuries down the stretch of this game. The first set of injuries was to right tackle Bryan Bulaga and tight end Richard Rodgers. While Rodgers came back into the game, Bulaga was held out for the rest of the match. According to ESPN Wisconsin's Jason Wilde, Bulaga had last played in an NFL game 669 days ago. His replacement at right tackle was Derek Sherrod, a former first-round tackle that hadn't played since late in the 2011 season.

Sherrod's grand awakening didn't go how he'd want it. After getting eaten for an entire drive, per Hodkiewicz he was the subject of a sack-fumble that resulted in him falling on the ball in the end zone for a safety. Already down two offensive linemen in center J.C. Tretter and tackle Don Barclay, the last thing the Packers could afford was an injury to the offensive line.

Julius Peppers was pulled out of the game to get checked out, but after a couple of snaps, he returned to the game at hand. Running back Eddie Lacy was also held out for a concussion, per Ross Jones of Fox Sports.

After a loss to start the season, hopefully the Packers will pull together some better luck off the field. There's still no news on Eddie Lacy's concussion, but Bryan Bulaga has been walking without assistance, according to Jason Wilde.

Head coach Mike McCarthy started off his press conference telling the crowd that the Seahawks had been in control of the game. For his sake—after a lowly 8-7-1 season for Green Bay's standards—hopefully he'll flip the script, get the Packers on a roll and “accomplish what they wanted to accomplish” this season.