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Despite being just two wins away from accomplishing something no NFL team has done in a decade, Earl Thomas and the Seattle Seahawks appear as calm and collected as ever.

Seattle heads into Sunday’s NFC Championship matchup with Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers this weekend with everything on the line. The winner heads to the Super Bowl while the loser goes home just short of the goal they set out to achieve. The stakes are as high as it gets, but it would be hard to tell as much when you look at players like ET III.

When asked this week how he felt about the Seahawks’ chances to repeat, something no team has done since the New England Patriots did it in 2004 and 2005, Earl seemed confused by the question.

“I really can’t tell you, I haven’t really thought of it in that way yet,” ET III said. “I’m just really having fun, trying to stay focused. This time of year, this whole football season … I just try to focus on what I’ve got to do.”

No team has even appeared in back-to-back Super Bowls since those Patriots teams, so the Hawks are already only one win away from accomplishing a rare feat.

Still, they aren’t patting themselves on the backs. Rather, they’re embracing any moments they can as they prepare to face the Packers on Sunday to appreciate where all their hard work has gotten them, while using it as motivation in their preparation to keep getting better.

“I think it’s just crazy how when you come together, you never dream of right now,” ET said. “We just talk about how good we want to be, but when you actually put the action in, and you actually see it come to life, that’s special.”

When the Seahawks and Packers last met in Week 1 of this past regular season, No. 29 and the Legion Of Boom held Rodgers, who is predicted by most to be the MVP of the league this year, to just 189 yards passing in a 36-16 Seattle win. It was not only one of Rodgers’ worst games of the season, but also one of his worst in years.

Rodgers and the Pack had a difficult start to the season, but since his famous “R-E-L-A-X” press conference, Green Bay has won 11 of its last 13 games, including of its most recent nine consecutively. However, the star quarterback suffered a calf injury late in the season, and though he has continued to play through it, he has admitted to being hobbled by the pain.

Thanks to their late-season winning streak, the Pack, like the Seahawks earned a first-round bye as the No. 2 seed. Green Bay then advanced to face Seattle by edging the Dallas Cowboys, 26-21 last Sunday at Lambeau Field. Rodgers completed 24-of-35 passes for 316 yards and threw for three touchdowns in the win, and after watching that contest, Earl thinks the injury to the Packers QB has been exaggerated.

“I’m not buying into this leg issue,” he said on Thursday. “I’m not buying into it. I saw him scramble close to the goal line on the Cowboys, so he’s not fooling me with that.”

Though Rodgers has indeed had his mobile moments since the injury, his limping has been well-documented the past few weeks. Linebacker K.J. Wright feels the injury is a bit more legitimate, but like Earl, Wright will be treating Sunday as if the injury does not exist to avoid the risk of being caught off guard by the Packers quarterback.

“We know he’s a little banged up, but he looked just fine to me in that last game,” Wright said. “He was making most of his throws, he didn’t scramble as much and get out of the pocket as he’s done in the past, but for the most part he’s making all of his throws and he looks just fine. We’re going to treat him like he’s healthy and like he’s 100 percent.”

Injured or healthy, Rodgers has commanded the respect of the entire league, including No. 29, who commended the GB signal caller on his ability to play the game at a high level consistently.

“I just respect him as a football player in general,” Earl said of Rodgers. “You can tell he knows the game, he has a lot of confidence back there.”

But Earl is confident in what he’s seen of late from the Hawks defense, which is playing at a level that Rodgers hasn’t seen from a defense this season, including in the Week 1 matchup between the two teams.

Perhaps the hottest player on the Seattle defense is safety Kam Chancellor, who scored his first career touchdown on a 90-yard return after picking off Carolina’s Cam Newton in last weeks 31-17 Hawks win. The interception was the 11th of Chancellor’s NFL career and third in postseason play, but takeaways aren’t what Chancellor is known for. The hard-hitting defender brings a presence that offensive skill players can feel, and if they can’t feel that, Kam will likely making them feel it with a bone-rattling hit.

“He’s versatile. He can play a linebacker position—he really does, he’s an extra linebacker in there for us … If you work at something hard enough and you add stuff that your body can do from other people’s game, that’s why we’re all so good in that secondary, because we all challenge each other in every way possible. The game within the game, footwork, just competition, period.”

The fifth-year safety is known as Seattle’s tempo-setter on the defensive end, the Marshawn Lynch to Earl’s Russell Wilson in the Seahawks defensive backfield, and according to ET III, the Hawks feed off the energy of big No. 31.

“Yeah, he definitely sets the tone,” Earl said. “It’s something that you can feel. He gets up and starts pounding his hands. All that stuff is contagious, and that’s when we’re at our best, when everybody’s doing their own thing and they’re bringing it to the group.”

Asked what he brings to the group, ET III noted his own versatility and what he has added to his repertoire over years of watching teammates and peers, while challenging himself to get better on a daily basis. The result has been a little bit of everything coming from No. 29’s game to the field.

“I’m biased, but I just think I bring everything to the defense,” he said.

But what really sets the Hawks defense apart, according to Earl, is their communication, which keeps them consistent. it’s why they’re able to go out and turn the Panthers over three times last week and why over their current seven-game winning streak the Hawks have created a total of 13 turnovers while limiting opposing offenses to just 225 yards per game.

“I think a lot goes into the experience that we have. We see the same thing over and over because we don’t change who we are as a defense, so that actually makes it easy on us as far as preparation-wise.”

In addition to the league’s stingiest defense, the Seahawks will have the benefit of home-field advantage on Sunday, an edge that cannot be ignored. CenturyLink Field is widely regarded as the most difficult place for opposing teams to play, and the Packers are a completely different team on the road.

Green Bay is 9-0 at home this season, but just 4-4 on the road, while the Hawks are 8-1 at home compared to just 5-3 on the road.

With their preparation in place, playing their best ball and peaking at the right time and with the 12s behind them, the Hawks are primed to attempt a repeat, a task few thought they were capable of just a few short months ago. But Seattle never lost faith in themselves and kept working to improve. Now one team stands in their way from a return to the Super Bowl, and ET III feels they’re up for the challenge.

“I think the moral of the story is you’re either getting better or you’re getting worse,” he said. Every year you’re going to see the game different, you’re going to understand it better, and that’s what I take from it.”

Kickoff of the NFC Championship Game from CenturyLink Field in Seattle is slated for 12:05 p.m. PT and the game will be shown around the country on FOX.

RELATED LINKS

• Seahawks vs. Packers preview (ESPN)
• Earl Thomas press conference (Seahawks.com, January 15, 2015)
• Earl Thomas has something to say (Sports Illustrated, January 16, 2015)
• Michael Bennett calls Seahawks defense best of era (NFL.com, January 15, 2015)
• Earl Thomas and Seahawks think Aaron Rodgers is healthy (Pro Football Talk, January 15, 2015)
• Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor are Seattle’s odd couple (ESPN, January 16, 2015)
• Thomas and Chancellor have bond on and off field (Seattle PI, January 15, 2015)
• Even the Seahawks mothers are friends (KIROTV.com, January 12, 2015)