The New York Giants flew across the country and pulled off the upset to beat the Seattle Seahawks 29-20 at Lumen Field. The win was even more impressive given the Giants were down their starting running back Devin Singletary and rookie phenom wide receiver Malik Nabers, both integral pieces to their offense.

On the other hand, the Seahawks played their worst game under rookie head coach Mike Macdonald. All 3 phases of the team (offense, defense and special teams) were substandard. In particular on defense, where the secondary was beaten countless times in coverage, the tackling was disastrous and the pass rush couldn’t force turnover-prone quarterback Daniel Jones into any big mistakes. They also made Giants rookie RB Tyrone Tracy look like a star, rushing for 129 yards on 18 carries. It was an appalling performance from pretty much everyone associated with Seattle.

New York isn’t known for their passing attack, but it was sure effective against Seattle. Daniel Jones was hitting his receivers all across the field, mostly on short and intermediate routes, with a couple of deep shots mixed in. He had his best performance of the season and finished the game with 257 passing yards on 23/34 pass attempts and 2 TD’s. He was unexpectedly comfortable in the pocket and had plenty of time to let his receivers get open.

It was a massive oversight by the Seahawks defense and coaching staff to not rattle DJ more, whether it was due to the Giants protecting Jones better than anticipated or Seattle being unable to manufacture pressure on the QB. The few times they did get to Jones, and laid a hand on him, he used his underrated mobility to avoid the limited pass rush and scramble out of the pocket, running for positive yards/first downs multiple times.

Seattle, who had tackled reasonably well in weeks 1-3, again had trouble getting the opponent to the ground. Daniel Jones took advantage of the weak tackling to run for 38 yards on 11 carries.

The numbers don’t sound meaningful, but the threat of him running caused the Seahawks linebackers, Jerome Baker and Tyrel Dodson, and secondary to focus on him instead of the running back or tight end. This freed up space for those two offensive groups to find yards in the middle of the field. The New York wide receivers also exploited the semi-distracted secondary to run past them opening up plays downfield or catching it short and then juking a defender. It was truly unnerving to see the Seattle defense, which had been solid, being stretched and manipulated so easily.

The secondary was plain awful.

Julian Love and Riq Woolen both suffered injuries, were in-and-out of the game in the 2nd half, which limited their effectiveness. Cornerback Devon Witherspoon wasn’t getting to the QB on blitzes, playing tight enough coverage or helping the LB’s wrap up the ball-carrier near the line of scrimmage. The last two weeks have been bad for him individually. Rayshawn Jenkins had one moment of magic when he scooped up a fumble and took it 102-yards for a touchdown. Other than that his coverage against the TE’s was poor. He also made five tackles, but not frequently enough to help stem the Giants onslaught of yards after catch. He wasn’t much help against the running game either. Nickelback Tre Brown was absolutely terrible in coverage, repeatedly giving up chunk plays to whoever was opposite of him.

WR Darius Slayton had one of the best games of his career finishing with 122 receiving yards on 8 catches and 1 TD. On his TD reception, he flew by Brown, veered left away from the defender and created a ton of space for Daniel Jones to throw him the ball. It looked so easy.

In only a few short weeks the secondary has gone from the strength of the team to a massive liability. Either the group needs to re-focus or the scheme needs to be adjusted. Something needs to change, ASAP.

Last season, Seattle was one of the worst run defenses in the entire NFL and, on Sunday, it looked as if nothing had changed.

Daniel Jones was subtly productive early, which gave their offensive line confidence to block the undermanned Seattle defensive line. They blasted open quite a few holes for RB Tyrone Tracy to explode through.

Former Giants DL Leonard Williams came back from injury, but was largely ineffective, only recording 1 tackle. DT Johnathan Hankins didn’t make his large presences felt either, as he was blocked very well by New York. Same goes with the other DT Jarren Reed. He was thoroughly pushed around by NY. DE Dre’Mont Jones provided five tackles and a little resistances to the rushing attack, but isn’t at his best when defending the run. He would much prefer to rush the QB, something he didn’t do very well (no sacks or QB hits).

To be fair, neither did the rest of the team. With outside linebacker Boye Mafe missing the game, OLB Uchenna Nwosu made his season debut, but picked up an injury in the first half and couldn’t return. The other OLB Derick Hall might’ve been the only one to put some heat on Jones (1 sack, 2 QB hits), but not enough to force him into a turnover.

Heading into the season, the pass rush was always a weakness as the Seahawks don’t have a dominate force along their DE/OLB that opposing teams are scared of or need to gameplan against. Teams are starting to figure it out and it’s really hurting the rest of the defense, as the QB can stay in the pocket longer and let routes develop or throw quickly when a blitz is called.

Mike Macdonald needs a solution quickly or else the defense will keep getting shredded.

You know who else has to figure some things out? Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb.

He’s fallen too in love with the passing game and needs to run the ball more. It’s great he trusts QB Geno Smith to throw so many times a game, and the WR corps is very good, but the team has two solid RB’s with Ken Walker III possessing the talent of a fringe Pro Bowl-type of player. He needs to utilize Walker and Zach Charbonnet earlier, and more often, in the game to provide better balance to the offense. Over the course of the Giants game those two only ran a combined 7 times for 30 yards. That ain’t gonna cut it in the NFL!

It’s a little mystifying as to why he insists on passing so often, when his offense at Washington was fairly balanced.

One reason may be is he doesn’t fully trust the offensive line to mash up front and create consistent running lanes for the RB’s. Whatever is holding him back from running more needs to be addressed by Mike Macdonald because Geno Smith isn’t going to last an entire season throwing as much as he is. He was sacked by New York 7 times, hit a further 10 times and put under pressure on most of his drop-backs. The guy really needs his RB’s to take some pressure off him in order to create a cleaner pocket and better passing lanes. It’s too easy for opposing defenses to disregard the rushing attack and focus their efforts in disrupting Geno and the pass catchers.

Nose tackle Dexter Lawrence was unblockable and affected a number of plays singlehandedly. It was strange Seattle didn’t double-team him more or at-least have a running back shade over to help whichever offensive lineman had the unenviably task of taking him on solo. The dude was a wrecking ball all game long.

OLB’s Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux didn’t show up much on the stat sheet, but Burns did make an impact when he shot right though the OL to hit Geno Smith on a crucial 4th-and-1 early in the 4th quarter. It looked like Ryan Grubb had dialed up the right play, but the execution of said play went awry immediately. Somehow Seattle forgot to block Burns and he got in Smith’s face within 1 or 2 seconds post-snap. His pressure forced a Geno incompletion and a turnover on downs for Seattle.

The two most impressive things about the New York defense was how well the young secondary played and how quickly they rallied to the ball.

2nd year cornerback Deonte Banks was essential in shutting down a couple of promising Geno Smith passes by timing his 3 pass breakups perfectly. Safeties Tyler Nubin, Dane Belton and Jason Pinnock were flying around the field stopping any Seahawks player in their tracks and not allowing them to gain any yards after contact. The LB duo of Bobby Okereke and Micah McFadden did the same.

Giants first year defensive coordinator Shane Bowen had an idea of how he wanted to play Seattle and executed the gameplan to perfection. He outcoached Ryan Grubb.

In the closing moments of the game Seattle actually fought back and had a chance to tie the game. They drove down to the New York 28 yard-line followed by a short Noah Fant reception on first down, a shot to the endzone for Tyler Lockett that was incomplete on second down and a pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba that was batted away on third down.

This set up Jason Meyers for the game-tying 40-ish yard field goal.

Disastrously, the offensive line was overpowered with safety Isaiah Simmons jumping over a downed Seattle lineman and blocked the kick. WR Bryce Ford-Wheaton was then able to scoop up the ball and rumble 60-yards into the Seattle endzone for a TD.

It was a truly remarkable play that stung me to the core as a Seattle fan.

Next up for the Seahawks is a Thursday night primetime game against division-rival San Francisco 49ers. The Niners are also coming off a bad loss to the Arizona Cardinals in which they led 23-10 at halftime, but then didn’t score in the 2nd half and let the Cardinals score 14 points – just enough for the win.

MVP candidate Christian McCaffrey will not suit up for the Bay Area team due to an Achilles injury that has kept him on the sidelines since his surprising omission in week 1. Impact safety Talanoa Hufanga will also miss the game due to a ligament tear in his wrist. Kicker Jake Moody will most likely miss the game too after hurting his ankle while trying to make a tackle against Arizona. TE George Kittle and LB Fred Warner popped up on the injury report, but will try to play.

The San Francisco defense, which was regarded as a top-5 unit coming into the season, has not played up to the standard they have set over the past couple of seasons.

In most of the major team defensive categories (points allowed, total yards allowed, passing yards allowed, completions allowed, passing TD’s allowed, rushing yards allowed) they are just outside of the top-10. Still a formidable unit, just not as game-breaking as past seasons.

With all that being said, this is a winnable home game for Seattle – a 3.5 point underdog at home according to Las Vegas – only if they can correct their offensive imbalance and rush the passer/tackle in space/cover better in the span of a few days.

The game itself is extremely important for divisional record purposes; Seattle is 0-0 and San Francisco is 0-2.

GO HAWKS!