"When he woke up Sunday morning, Green Bay Packers running back Ryan Grant thought he was in for a normal afternoon.

These days, that means about 40 snaps from scrimmage and 15 to 18 carries.

But when Grant got to the stadium, he found out that backup running back Brandon Jackson was dealing with flu-like symptoms and would not be able to play. That left him and second-year pro DeShawn Wynn, who had been promoted from the practice squad on Saturday, to handle the running back duties.

Even playing most of the snaps wouldn't have been bad, but when coach Mike McCarthy called 33 running plays for Grant, it became an endurance test. Nearing full health after a long bout with a hamstring injury, Grant put his head down and went to work.

"I don't really feel that bad," Grant said after his 33-carry, 90-yard performance against the Seahawks. "From yards, it really wasn't that many, so I didn't do that much running. It was kind of tough sledding. I know there are some things I need to get better on. But I'm glad we stayed with the run as an offense."

Grant deserved some kind of medal after sticking his head down and plowing in pile after pile. Sometimes there was a cutback lane and he was able to get 4 or 5 yards, but more often than not Seattle's flowing defense created a lot of debris for him to run through and he wound up with just 2 or 3.

Grant was able to exploit the cutback lanes a couple of times early and appeared to be on his way to a pretty good day. He had 30 yards in his first six carries, including a 17-yard run on the Packers' first possession.

But after that, the Seahawks tightened up and made it difficult every single run.

"I had no idea we had as many carries as we had," right tackle Mark Tauscher said. "It wasn't always pretty. There were a lot of 1-yard carries, but we kept hanging in there. I don't think we blocked it as well as we liked. We didn't do as much as we wanted running the ball, but it's really important we stuck with it."

No one knew for sure that Grant was going to be able to handle the load, although the week before against Atlanta he started to look more like himself. Missing from his game is the long run, which was a staple of his breakthrough performance and a big part of the offense in 2007.

The one thing Grant and the coaches know, however, is that physically he can carry the load when called upon."