NOTE: One partial "Game of Thrones" spoiler from the most recent season to follow. If you want to dodge the spoiler, scroll down past the first couple paragraphs. To be fair, 99 percent of my stories contain GOT references. So, consider yourself warned.

If you've ever wanted to watch three dragons battle the Night King in real life, you're in luck. This Sunday at 4:25 PM ET on Fox, the Seahawks and their three dragons (the Legion of Boom) head to Green Bay in an attempt to burn the Night King, who is more commonly known as Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. 

The similarities are uncanny. 

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NFL GamePass

See?

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HBO

Rodgers gets bonus points for making the throw with a defender hanging onto him. Unlike the Night King, he didn't have the benefit of a clean pocket.

Anyway, it's Seahawks-Packers on the first NFL Sunday of the season, which begs the question: How'd we get so lucky? 

It's not often two teams that are elite at competing aspects of the game face each other. Patriots-Falcons was a great matchup to end last season, but it was a war of offense vs. offense. This won't be like that. This will be a matchup of arguably the best quarterback in the game vs. arguably the best defense in the game.

Let's take a closer at the matchup that'll determine the outcome: Rodgers vs. the Legion of Boom.

NFL: NFC Championship-Green Bay Packers at Seattle Seahawks
Rodgers and the Seahawks' defense have a bit of a history. USATSI

Previous episodes 

We've been fortunate enough to witness this matchup on more than one occasion in previous seasons. So, here's a quick refresher.

In his career, Rodgers has started against the Seahawks six times in the regular season and once in the playoffs. In those seven starts, the Packers are 4-3, outscoring the Seahawks by 65 points. Rodgers' first start against the Seahawks came in 2008. At the time, Charlie Frye -- not Russell Wilson -- was Seattle's starting quarterback. Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman were still in college. The Seahawks defense didn't become the unrelenting force it is today until the 2012 season, when it finished second in DVOA. So, let's eliminate every Rodgers-Seahawks matchup before the 2012 season.

If we do that, Rodgers' record against the Seahawks is actually 2-3 (he'd be 3-2 if the replacement refs didn't botch the Fail Mary game). In those games, the Packers outscored the Seahawks by 10 points. So, it's been a tight rivalry. Rodgers has gone 111 of 162 for 1,085 yards, seven touchdowns, three picks, and a 93.8 passer rating. He's been sacked 15 times.

Here's how his numbers against the Seahawks in those five games stack up against his career numbers:

Comp. %

YPA

TD%

INT%

Rating

Sacks per game

Entire career

65.1

7.9

6.4

1.5

104.1

2.4

Vs. Legion of Boom

68.5

6.7

4.3

1.9

93.8

3

So, the Seahawks' defense certainly makes Rodgers a bit more human, though Rodgers has still been effective against them -- just not as effective as he is against most defenses.

All three dragons are healthy

Rodgers is the most important individual player in this game, but Seahawks free safety Earl Thomas is a close second. Last year, when Thomas went down with an injury that had him briefly contemplating retirement, the Seahawks' defense sank.

Thomas is the Aaron Rodgers of the Legion of Boom:

More evidence, via Pro Football Focus and my colleague Jared Dubin:

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Pro Football Focus

Thomas is what makes the Seahawks defense work. He's maybe the only safety in the league who can make it work like it does due to his speed and instincts, which makes him the perfect safety for the Seahawks' Cover 3 defense. In the photo above, Dubin shaded the deep portions of the middle of the field because that's the primary area Thomas shuts down. As you can see, it was virtually impossible for quarterbacks to throw in the middle portion of the field with Thomas on the field last year. 

Without him, the Seahawks got gouged.

Of course, it's not just Thomas that makes the Seahawks' secondary so damn good. It's Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman too. 

Since Sherman entered the league in 2011, he leads the NFL in interceptions with 30 and pass defended with 97 despite the fact that opposing quarterbacks often choose to ignore his side of the field. For all the talk that Sherman has supposedly declined, the statistics say otherwise. In 2016, he allowed the sixth-lowest passer rating (63.8) and two touchdowns in coverage, according to PFF. He's still one of the best -- if not the best -- corners in the game. Meanwhile, Chancellor posted the seventh-highest stop percentage among safeties and was graded as PFF's third-best safety last year.

All three are healthy. So, we're going to get the matchup we deserve.

No, Rodgers isn't declining. Yes, he's better armed

It's true that Rodgers got off to a poor start a year ago. It's false that he suffered a down year. Last year, Rodgers threw 40 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He hadn't tossed that many touchdowns since his MVP season in 2011. He did that despite the fact that his best target was a 31-year-old Jordy Nelson who was coming off a torn ACL, a guy who can't consistently catch footballs in DaVante Adams, and a maddeningly inconsistent tight end, Jared Cook.

This year, Rodgers is better equipped now that Martellus Bennett, one of the best tight ends in the game, is his TE1. It really says something that, before they landed Bennett, Rodgers thought re-signing Cook needed to be at the top of their priority list. It just goes to show how bad Rodgers' supporting cast was considering he viewed Cook as a game changer. 

Bennett actually is a game changer. Since 2012, when Bennett first became a No. 1 tight end, he has the sixth-most receiving yards among all tight ends. 

How Rodgers can attack

The Packers gameplan can't be as simple as ignoring Sherman's side of the field. They tried that in 2014 and it didn't work out well for their offense, as Rodgers went 23 of 33 for 189 yards, a touchdown, a pick, and an 81.5 passer rating in a 20-point loss. It turns out, cutting a field in half just isn't a smart strategy. 

Neither is frequently targeting Sherman and Thomas, though. The Packers would be wise to focus more on the left side of the field than Sherman's side. Take a look at the Seahawks' defensive passing map from last season (including postseason games) below. They're much more vulnerable on the left.

Note: The first number is pass attempts, the second is completions, the third is yards, the fourth is touchdowns, and the last is interceptions.

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Pro Football Focus

Again, they shouldn't ignore Sherman completely. But continuing to challenge him is a bad idea. It's a tough balance to strike.

There are certain routes the Packers should be using to attack the Seahawks secondary. According to PFF, the Seahawks allowed a 105.4 passer rating against slants, a 112.4 passer rating against comebacks, a 110.7 passer rating on crossing routes, and a 100.2 passer rating on out routes. Meanwhile, the Seahawks allowed a 75.0 passer rating on in routes, a 52.6 passer rating on corner routes, a 79.7 passer rating on post routes, and a 66.1 passer rating on go routes. Translation: Don't run straight downfield for a deep pass against the Seahawks.

Unfortunately, that's asking the Packers to do something they've shied away from. Last year (including the playoffs), only seven percent of the Rodgers' passing attempts were slants, three percent were comebacks, and nine percent were crossing routes, per PFF. The go route was the Packers' second favorite route, as Rodgers threw to go-routes 12 percent of the time. It's worth noting that most of those percentages fall right in line with the league's averages. It's not like the Packers are the only team throwing go-routes somewhere around 12 percent of the time. 

But the Seahawks aren't a normal defense. So, they should decrease their dependency on that route for Week 1. Remember, the Seahawks allowed a 66.1 passer rating on go routes. With a healthy Sherman and Thomas, they can patrol the deep passing lanes at an elite level.  

The Packers gameplan can't be composed of isolation routes that require Rodgers to wait for his receivers to win against the Seahawks secondary. That won't happen, because the Seahawks secondary is better than Rodgers' receivers. And the Seahawks have a vaunted pass rush that'll get after Rodgers if he's forced to hang onto the ball. Instead, the Packers should be using shorter timing routes within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. Again, the Packers love using isolation routes. It's a problem our Pete Prisco wrote about frequently last year. They need to evolve.

Bennett will help. He thrives in the short middle and doesn't need to gain separation to be considered open.

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PFF

That's right. Last year, he caught 24 of 26 targets in between the hashes within nine yards of the line of scrimmage. He's unstoppable there.

To be clear, I'm not saying Rodgers shouldn't take shots down the field. Having a quarterback with a cannon like Rodgers and not letting him throw deep is like buying a Ferrari and not driving it on the freeway. But taking deep shots when Sherman and Thomas are in the general vicinity is suicide. The Packers simply need to be more selective with their deep ball and take advantage of their chances to throw deep away from Sherman and Thomas. Sherman allowed a 45.3 passer rating on go routes. If the Packers do want to throw deep, they should target CB2 Jeremy Lane, who surrendered a 124.6 passer rating on go routes. On 10 targets, he allowed four catches for 119 yards and two scores, according to PFF.

How the Seahawks can attack

Aside from letting the Legion of Boom do Legion of Boom things, there's another area the Seahawks defense needs to win: the battle in the trenches. The Legion of Boom is tremendous, but one reason why is the Seahawks pass rush. If the Seahawks want to win this game, they need to get after Rodgers, which is something they can do.

On average, Rodgers had 3.02 seconds to throw the ball last year, which was the second-highest average in football, per PFF. And he posted a 101 passer rating when he had at least 2.6 seconds to find an open receiver. Give Rodgers time, and he'll bury you.

On Friday, the Seahawks traded for Sheldon Richardson, which means they'll be attacking Rodgers with Richardson, Michael Bennett, and Cliff Avril. All three know how to rush the passer. In the past four years, Bennett has 30.5 sacks, Richardson has 18.0, and Avril has 33.5.

The only bad news is that Rodgers led the league last year with a 93.8 passer rating when under pressure, according to PFF. But it's worth noting that Rodgers' 93.8 passer rating under pressure is light years lower than his total passer rating of 104.2. A 93.8 passer rating would've ranked 12th in the NFL last year while Rodgers' 104.2 passer rating was the fourth-highest in football. The point being, Rodgers is negatively impacted by pressure like every quarterback.

And here's where it's worth noting that the Packers lost center JC Tretter and guard T.J. Lang in free agency. Lang's the important one. Last year, he had the fourth-best pass-blocking efficiency among all guards, per PFF.

That's one reason why Rodgers was only under duress on 30.3 percent of his dropbacks, which ranked as the 10th-best in football, according to PFF. That number could climb beginning Sunday. If it does, the Seahawks stand a chance to beat the Night King. To beat him, they need to turn Rodgers, an unstoppable killing machine, into an actual human. Hitting him while his receivers fail to get open quickly against the Seahawks' Legion of Boom is the way to do exactly that.

So who wins?

The thing about a matchup like this is, expecting one side -- the Legion of Boom or Rodgers -- to suffer a catastrophic outing just isn't realistic. The most realistic outcome sees Rodgers playing well, but not reaching superhuman heights due to the Seahawks' defense. It sees the Seahawks' defense playing well, but giving up a couple unguardable touchdowns due to Rodgers' ability to make magic out of nothing. 

Again, Rodgers' career passing rating against the Legion of Boom is 93.8. In his three losses to them, his highest passer rating never exceeded 81.5. In both of his wins, he posted passer ratings above 100.  Anything below his average, and the Packers probably lose on Sunday. Anything above, and they probably defeat the Seahawks. Either way, it should be a close one -- something the two teams know all about.

You can get all our expert picks for the matchup here.

Wink of the CBS eye to Pro Football Focus