SEATTLE — It looked painful, didn't it? Yet it was exactly what the Green Bay Packers needed Sunday.

Trailing the Seattle Seahawks by a touchdown midway through the second quarter, they'd managed three points and 86 yards of offense. The last time their quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, touched the ball, he fumbled it, taking a sack after holding the ball too long with a couple of receivers open downfield.

And now, Rodgers and his bad throwing shoulder were rolling right, and while he'd just pump-faked blitzing safety Deon Grant out of his you-know-what, trouble was closing in. Or more accurately, Seahawks defensive end Patrick Kerney, who drove his shoulder and helmet into Rodgers' chest and facemask just as he released the ball, which fell incomplete.

In the final analysis of the Packers' 27-17 victory over the Seahawks at Qwest Field, other plays — Rodgers' 1-yard upon-further-review touchdown sneak that tied the game, or his 45-yard picture-perfect touchdown pass to Greg Jennings that gave the Packers the lead, or the defense's three sacks — resulted in more tangible results.

But for a team that desperately needed to snap its three-game losing streak, no play served a greater purpose than Kerney's hit on the new leader of the Pack.

"I don't think that we need to get our quarterback whacked," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said, "before we start playing better."

Yet that's what happened. And it hurt so good.

"I feel like we were sleepwalking early on," said Rodgers, who finished the day an efficient 21 for 30 for 208 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions and a 111.5 rating. "I think it was a wake-up call,(after) a very poor turnover by myself when they went down and scored. Instead of going, 'Here we go again,' I think the attitude was very positive on the sidelines. We were able to put together a score on the next drive and it huge for our team confidence-wise."

From that moment on, the Packers owned the day. Rodgers, still playing in pain from the dislocated right shoulder he suffered at Tampa Bay Sept. 28, got off the turf and hit Donald Driver for a 19-yard gain two plays later on a critical third-and-7. That jump-started the drive, which ended with Rodgers' 1-yard sneak just before halftime, tying the game at 10-10.

And while the Packers' next two offensive possessions ended in punts, the struggling defense found its footing against the Matt Hasselbeck-less Seahawks offense.

"It just didn't seem like we had very many opportunities," said fill-in starter Charlie Frye, referring to the Packers' 37:26-22:34 advantage in time of possession. "It felt like we were on the sidelines a lot."

After the punts, Rodgers rainbowed his 45-yard TD to Jennings on a third-and-6 play to give Green Bay a 17-10 lead, the defense forced its fourth and fifth three-and-outs, and Rodgers converted three straight third-down situations with pinpoint passes en route to a 1-yard touchdown pass to John Kuhn to make it 24-10. Charles Woodson and Tramon Williams' interceptions sealed it from there.

"We needed this. There's no question," Woodson said. "I feel like every game is a must-win game, but we've lost three in a row, and we needed a game like this to take a step back in the right direction. (McCarthy) has been on us for the last couple weeks about not playing with enough intensity, having no intensity on the sideline, not playing for a full four quarters. We've all been talking about it, but if you don't go out and do it, all the talk is just locker-room talk."

Said Seattle coach Mike Holmgren, whose Seahawks (1-4) are off to their worst start since 2002: "You know, we are not used to this. We are certainly not used to losing games at home, and we are not used to being in the posiiton we're in. We are not playing very good football."

The Packers (3-3) aren't perfect, either, but they are back to .500 and tied for first place in the NFC North with Chicago (3-3) and Minnesota (3-3) after the Vikings' escape Sunday against last-place Detroit (0-5).

"We're 3-3. I'm not jumping," McCarthy said. "I don't get into first-place, second-place thing right now. It's a little early for that. I'm more in tune with the path that our football team is on. Every team has things that happen to them and you need to find a way to overcome the negatives and continue to build on the positives."