KIRKLAND, Wash. - Coach Mike Holmgren was working on a plan for beating Minnesota when he learned his Seahawks wouldn't be playing the Vikings after all.
Minnesota's last-second loss to Arizona on Sunday meant the Seahawks would be heading instead to Green Bay's Lambeau Field, where Holmgren coached from 1992-98. His 1996 Packers won the Super Bowl.
Lambeau also is the place where the Packers drubbed the Seahawks 35-13 this season.
"That's a great place - always will be for me," Holmgren said Monday. "I certainly trust we'll play better this time."
Sunday's game also provides a shot at homecoming redemption for Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, Brett Favre's backup under Holmgren in Green Bay. But most of the Seahawks - only a handful have been to the playoffs - are looking at it as a chance to bring Seattle its first postseason win in 20 years.
The Seahawks last made the playoffs after the 1999 season.
"For Coach and for Matt, it might be something personal for them," receiver Koren Robinson said. "For the rest of us, we just look at them as the Green Bay Packers."
Holmgren told his assistants Monday to begin studying tape from the loss at Green Bay in October - and to be "brutally honest" about what went wrong. The coach said he could immediately think of three things the Seahawks need to do better this weekend: limit turnovers, contain Green Bay running back Ahman Green and improve on special teams.
COWBOYS: This is not the way coach Bill Parcells wanted his team headed into the playoffs. Instead of carrying three straight wins into Saturday's wild-card game at Carolina, Parcells is again wondering about his team's erratic, immature tendencies after a loss at New Orleans in the season finale.
"I told them after the game we could never beat a good team if we don't play well," Parcells said.
"Certainly, any team in the league would have a really good chance to beat us if we don't play well."
