GREEN BAY, Wis. — Aaron Rodgers knows the offseason is approaching soon enough.

Only then will he be able to get off his feet and give his strained left calf the many weeks of healing it needs. That time can wait, however.

“I think I’ve got 120 minutes left in me,” Rodgers said after he directed the Green Bay Packers to a 26-21 comeback win over the visiting Dallas Cowboys in a divisional playoff game Sunday. “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure I can play all those minutes.”

For Green Bay to play at least 120 more minutes of football this season, it would have to beat some long odds when it travels to Seattle this weekend. The Packers are in the NFC Championship Game for the first time since the 2010 season, but their quest of reaching Super Bowl XLIX and winning the league title hinges on a formidable rematch.

The Packers, the No. 2 seed in the NFC, return to CenturyLink Field to play the top-seeded Seahawks. The same teams met in the league’s season-opening game on Sept. 4, and it turned into a lopsided affair, with defending Super Bowl champion Seattle winning 36-16 in its noisy stadium.

Although Green Bay head coach Mike McCarthy and his staff turned on the video of that dismal season debut Monday morning, the Packers’ shared standpoint is to not look back to what they were then. Instead, they are looking forward to what the promise of the last two months can bring them.

A daunting task faces the four-time NFC North champions, who were installed as big underdogs now that they have to play away from Lambeau Field, where they went 9-0 this season.

“Great atmosphere, obviously a great team, defending champs,” Packers receiver Jordy Nelson said about the Seahawks and their famously unnerving venue. “I don’t think the NFL would want it any other way. It’s a great opportunity for us to go out there. We didn’t play to our standard in Week 1, but it’s completely different teams. It’s a long time ago that that game happened.”

Nelson predicted, “It’s going to be a slugfest. It’s going to be probably to the wire again like (Sunday’s) game was, and we just have to make sure we take care of business.”

The survivor plays on, gaining the first spot in the Feb. 1 Super Bowl at Glendale, Ariz.

The Packers are four years removed from winning Super Bowl XLV in North Texas. Veteran cornerback Tramon Williams provided a glistening reminder when he walked into the locker room Sunday morning wearing his Super Bowl ring on his right ring finger before getting ready to play the Cowboys.

“Give guys a chance to see the work that you have to put in for it, and I thought today was a good day just to pull it out,” Williams said after the game.

With Rodgers expected to again put everything on the line as he did Sunday with the aggravated lower-leg injury that limited him the past three games, the Packers aren’t shunning a second shot at the Seahawks. The Green Bay players and coaches are talking with an air of confidence since they pulled out the victory over the Cowboys on Sunday afternoon.

“I think the football we’ve played in our last nine opportunities puts us in position to win the NFC championship,” McCarthy said Monday of the Packers, who are 8-1 since their bye week in early November. “Hey, we’ve scored a few points this year, they’re a great defense, we recognize that, but we like the challenge.”

REPORT CARD VS. COWBOYS

–PASSING OFFENSE: A-minus — Go figure, All-Pro WR Jordy Nelson has his least-productive game of a monster season to date with only two receptions for 22 yards, yet the Packers are one win away from playing in the Super Bowl. That is due in great part to a host of other pass catchers picking up the slack and giving a lift to injured QB Aaron Rodgers. The gimpy Rodgers, who is resigned to finishing the season on an increasingly strained left calf, rallied Green Bay with a resounding finish. He completed his final 10 passes, starting with a critical 46-yard catch-and-run touchdown by rookie WR Davante Adams late in the third quarter. TEs Andrew Quarless and Richard Rodgers also rose to the occasion late in the game, and Aaron Rodgers made a rare escape from the pocket and threaded a pass between two defenders to Richard Rodgers in the back of the end zone for a 13-yard, go-ahead touchdown early in the final quarter. After some poorly thrown passes earlier in the game, Rodgers finished 24-for-35 for 316 yards (226 in the second half) with three touchdowns and no interceptions for a hefty efficiency rating of 125.4.

–RUSHING OFFENSE: B — Keeping Aaron Rodgers exclusively in the shotgun to limit his movements on the bum leg didn’t prevent the Packers from trying to establish the ground game from the outset. Power RB Eddie Lacy was at his best in Green Bay’s first series. He amassed 45 yards on seven carries in the initial drive of 10 plays and 60 yards that yielded a touchdown. Lacy finished the game with 101 yards on 19 carries. Head coach/play-caller Mike McCarthy’s attempt at a series-by-series rotation with Lacy and RB James Starks didn’t pay off much. Starks was held to 16 yards on five carries with a long of just 6 yards.

–PASS DEFENSE: B-minus — If not for the letter of the law being upheld, there is no telling whether Green Bay is still alive in the postseason. A remarkable catch by Cowboys WR Dez Bryant on a jump-ball downfield throw over CB Sam Shields near the goal line on a fourth-and-2 play from the Packers’ 32-yard line was overturned by replay because Bryant lost control of the football at the end of the play. Dallas QB Tony Romo’s final numbers were somewhat underwhelming. Romo threw just 19 passes, completing 15 of them, but for only 191 yards. However, as he did in the regular season, Romo fared better than Rodgers with an exceptional passer rating of 143.6, throwing two touchdown passes and no interceptions. Romo exploited Green Bay’s soft coverage over the middle with TE Jason Witten, who had a team-high six catches for 71 yards (long of 18) in seven targets. On the plus side, the Packers sacked Romo four times.

–RUSH DEFENSE: C — The Green Bay defense wasn’t entirely run over by RB DeMarco Murray, the league’s rushing leader this season. Still, Murray inflicted some damage when given the opportunity to run the football, which curiously wasn’t the case in the second half. Murray racked up 123 yards on 25 carries. He had only eight runs in the final two quarters but churned out 70 yards. The Cowboys totaled 145 yards on the ground with a healthy average of 5.2 yards per attempt.

–SPECIAL TEAMS: C — On the heels of a regular season buffeted by an astounding seven blocked kicks at the hands of the opposition, Green Bay came through its first playoff game unscathed in that regard. The lone swat Sunday in a kicking situation came from Packers DE Datone Jones, whose tip of a 50-yard field goal by Dan Bailey caused the football to tail wide right late in the first half. The Packers averted disaster again with their special teams late in the third quarter when Quarless fell on the football following a fumbled kickoff return from Cobb. The combination of Cobb and Hyde averaged a paltry 16 yards on their kickoff runbacks. Hyde didn’t have a punt return. PK Mason Crosby made both of his field-goal attempts, from 40 and 30 yards. Tim Masthay punted only twice but not with alluring results — a long of 40 with averages of 37.5 gross and 34 net yards. Green Bay’s coverage units were mostly effective.

–COACHING: A — Two big decisions by McCarthy in the second half paid huge dividends and can be credited as much as the fortitude of Aaron Rodgers for the win. First, McCarthy all but tossed aside the security blanket that was the pistol formation in the first half and spread things out with three receivers and two tight ends. Rodgers flourished with plenty of time to throw behind a stout offensive line. Finally, McCarthy didn’t risk the season coming to an abrupt end as he threw his red flag to challenge the ruling of the key catch by Bryant. It turned out to be the first successful challenge for McCarthy in five appeals this season. Meanwhile, Green Bay’s defense did enough good things against a diversified and potent Cowboys offense to make the victory a reality. Defensive coordinator Dom Capers went with pressure on Romo early and often and didn’t let up, and the strategy worked in some key situations.