Shorthanded Giants hang on to upset Seahawks for second win of season

On a day when his complement of offensive weapons was missing a few key pieces, quarterback Daniel Jones still inspired the Giants to their most complete performance of the season. It took some late-game heroics on special teams to ice the win but New York pulled off the upset to improve to 2-3 on the year.

The Giants headed into their road matchup with Seattle as heavy underdogs, especially considering the fact that they were shorthanded on defense. However, they played about as well as could be expected in the first half, out-gaining the Seahawks by 225 yards to 90 and controlling the clock as they put up 15 first downs to Seattle’s five.

They did not, however, hold the lead at the half. Seattle got a gift in the first quarter when the Giants drove down to their one yard line only for Eric Gray to fumble on fourth down with Rayshawn Jenkins recovering in his own end zone and returning it the length of the field for a demoralizing touchdown.

New York continued to play well on offense for the rest of the first half, and took a 10-7 lead on a Jones touchdown pass to Wan’Dale Robinson and a Greg Joseph field goal. However, they gave up a last second Jason Myers field goal and the scores were tied at the half.

Seattle looked to have made good adjustments as the second half was underway but Tyler Nubin recovered a DK Metcalf fumble in Giants territory and New York scored the go-ahead touchdown when Jones hit Darius Slayton on a deep ball for a 30-yard score just a few plays after they had just connected on another bomb. This was big for Jones, whose downfield throwing has come under criticism in recent games, and Slayton, who broke out with an eight-catch, 122-yard performance.

The teams exchanged field goals so the Giants still led 20-13 heading into the fourth quarter. Defensive end Brian Burns then came up big with a fourth down sack as Seattle took a huge risk that backfired by going for it from their own 35-yard line. This put the Giants in position to make it a two-possession game when Joseph kicked his third field goal of the game with under 12 minutes remaining.

Seattle didn’t score again until just before the two-minute warning on a Geno Smith pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba to cut the lead to 23-20. However, they got the ball back to set up Myers with a chance to tie it. Thankfully for the Giants, Isaiah Simmons blocked the field goal attempt and Bryce Ford-Wheaton ran it back for a touchdown to ice the win.

Here are some takeaways…

– New York entered Sunday’s game without Malik Nabers and Devin Singletary, so you could have been forgiven for thinking that the offense would inevitably struggle. However, they came in with a good game plan and executed well with players like Gray, Tyrone Tracy and Theo Johnson stepping up.

– Credit must go to Brian Daboll for his gameplan and to Jones, who not only completed 14-of-18 passes for 145 yards and a touchdown in the first half, but also ran hard too, as he racked up 34 yards on nine first half carries. Also, the Giants’ offensive line played like they had something to prove. Jones ended up with 257 passing yards.

– Jones’ day almost began in catastrophic fashion as he tripped over Andrew Thomas’ foot on the Giants’ first snap, then lost the football as he tried to scramble back to his feet and saw it squirt under his body and roll towards the Giants’ goal line. Fortunately, Thomas was alert enough to fall on it and a few plays later the Giants were into Seattle territory after consecutive first down completions to Gray, Gray again and then Johnson.

– As noted, Jones ran hard. You can tell this is a player who perhaps understands that he doesn’t have many more chances left to prove himself worthy of the contract he signed before last season and he battled for every yard. Jones took some rough hits though and while you have to applaud his toughness, you have to worry about the potential for a player with a recent injury history to miss more time.

– On defense, while Dexter Lawrence’s three sacks will earn the headlines, credit must go to the secondary for their first half display. This was widely viewed as a big mismatch in Seattle’s favor but the young Giants defensive backs combined to make a lot of good first half plays. For example, Deonte Banks broke up two passes, Cor’Dale Flott broke up another and Tyler Nubin had a tackle for loss. It was disappointing and perhaps ominous that they drove into field goal range within just 16 seconds at the end of the first half though.

– Banks seemed to relish the challenge of going up against Metcalf, who had just one catch in the first half and then fumbled on his second catch in the third quarter as Banks punched it out. That’s the kind of impact play the Giants need from Banks more often if he’s going to progress to another level. Banks also added to his two first half pass breakups with an excellent third down deflection to deny Metcalf and force Seattle to kick a field goal. Metcalf had a few catches late in the game but these were against zone coverage.

– One of the NFL’s hottest topics this past week has been the NFL’s emphasis on calling unsportsmanlike conduct penalties any time a player does something even remotely resembling a gun-based celebration. Slayton couldn’t believe he had one of these after his deep catch in the third quarter where he basically just seemed to be pointing for a first down.

– While Gray did his damage in the passing game, he struggled to get anything going on the ground. The rookie Tracy, however, was a revelation as he routinely burst to the second level and averaged over seven yards per carry on his way to racking up 129 rushing yards.

Highlights

What’s next

The Giants return home to face the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday Night Football next weekend at MetLife Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:20 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 13.