This is a guest article by Curtis Allen…
Here comes a very interesting matchup for the Seahawks — and on Monday Night Football no less.
The Giants in many ways have been similar to the Seahawks in recent seasons. Both have been on a mission to rebuild their lines in the trenches, they have both had a challenge properly utilizing the talent they have with their scheme and both reside in that good-but-not-great tier of the NFC. They finished with nearly identical records and claimed a Wild Card spot last year.
It is no wonder that when they play, it is a hard-fought but ultimately frustrating experience for both sides. The Seahawks won last year on the strength of a reborn pass rush, containing Saquon Barkley and making less mistakes than the Giants did. The Giants won in 2021 by riding a tough defense, some explosive plays in the running game and the Seahawks took their turn making mistakes with some questionable play calls.
The similarities continue this year. Both teams are struggling with their young offensive tackles. Injuries have forced backups onto the field for both more than they’d like. Defense has been a real challenge so far for both (Seahawks are 29th in scoring defense and the Giants are a surprising 30th). Both have recorded wins this year by the skin of their teeth against poor teams playing better than they should be allowed to.
The biggest difference? Offense. Seattle has had their struggles in the run game and fully integrating new additions Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Jake Bobo — but they are still scoring at a very healthy pace and currently sit at fourth in the NFL in scoring offense. The Giants? They are 31st. A combination of injuries, poor offensive line play and an uncharacteristic bout of mistakes (penalties and turnovers) have them stuck in the mud.
30th on defense. 31st on offense. Banged up and there is a good chance their two best offensive players (All-Pro Left Tackle Andrew Thomas has been ruled out and Saquon Barkley is currently doubtful and a game-time decision) will not factor much in this game.
Just like last week, this is a trap game masquerading as an easy win for the Seahawks.
What can they do to go into their bye week with a win and some real momentum?
Own the Line of Scrimmage on Both Sides
I know how that sounds. The Seahawks have had struggles in the trenches for years and still have yet to fully overcome them and the Giants as an organization have always counted on that as a strength of their team. Yet there is a real opportunity here to control this game by winning where it really counts.
On defense, this Seahawks line is trending slightly upwards after their best performance of the year to date last week against Carolina. Before we get too excited about that, let’s temper things just a little bit.
They generated zero sacks and only three pressures Week One against the Rams. In Week Two, they improved with two sacks and ten pressures.
Last week, three sacks and another ten pressures. However, those numbers were generated in fifty-eight pass attempts by Andy Dalton and the Panthers — behind one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL.
Three sacks and 10 pressures only meant a 16% pressure rate on Andy Dalton. While Jarran Reed deserves every bit of credit for having a fantastically gritty game, the stats the pass rush unit as a group produced were at best ‘as expected’ when you consider the volume and quality of opportunities they were given. They cannot be satisfied. More is required. Much more.
Thankfully, this week they play what may be the real Worst Offensive Line in the NFL, particularly with Thomas out. Have a look at how the Giants’ projected starters are rated by PFF in pass protection so far this season:

Those numbers are subterranean. Evan Neal is a particular disappointment. PFF graded him a 28 in pass-blocking last year and so far this year he is not much better.
If there were ever a game where the Seahawks should be able to flex their muscle and put pressure on the quarterback without resorting to blitzes, stunts and other tricks, this would be it. Three sacks and ten pressures are a minimum expectation for this game. Particularly when you consider that Barkley either will not play, or will be hampered by injury.
Now on offense, this one might be even better news for the Seahawks.
What has traditionally been a stout Giants defensive line group has been absolutely dreadful this season. They have plenty of talent on the line but the results so far are disturbingly bad.
They have two sacks so far in three games. Two. Chicago was the only NFL team going into week four that is worse, with one.
What about pressure?
This one might be even more shocking. They are only generating 16.7% pressure after three games, good for 29th in the NFL. They were sixth overall last year in generating pressure.
What is worse? They are blitzing on a crazy 53% of snaps and still getting almost nothing. The drop in effectiveness is simply stunning.
Kayvon Thibodeaux has been particularly poor so far, with only a sack and two pressures in three games — good for a putrid 36.6 PFF grade.
It is no wonder their defense is so bad this year.
Yet they do have something to hang their hat on, like rushing defense, right? Nope. They are 28th in the NFL in rush defense, conceding an average of 138 rushing yards per game through three so far.
The run charts are fascinating. There is no pattern, no specific weak spot to attack. In Week One, Tony Pollard attacked the middle and the right side of the defense. Week Two saw James Connor with some stops behind the line in the middle but several explosives running around the edges. Last week, Christian McCaffrey had his way running up the gut and to the left side.
Oddly enough, PFF loves the performance of Leonard Williams (82.1) and Dexter Lawrence (91.0) in 2023, giving them near Franchise Player grades. How can they be performing so well on such a poor defense?
One of the keys is they simply have not generated any turnovers, which is obviously big. The more the defense is on the field, the bigger the chance for yards and points are.
Two other factors work heavily in the Seahawks’ favor and are most likely linked: The Giants are one of the worst tackling teams in the NFL at this point and their blitzes are getting burnt like toast. How badly? Seven different opposing offensive players have logged an explosive play against the Giants in each week so far this year. When you blitz, the players in the backfield need to cover their men and be sure tacklers.
Neither of those things have happened yet.
Giants Defensive Coordinator Wink Martindale held an ‘I’m OK, You’re OK’ press conference on the state of the defense this week and addressed a public challenge to the press (but really, his defense) in that he instructed them to chart all defensive tackles and see how many they miss.
Martindale characteristically said he saw no problems with his defenders’ effort against the Niners last week. Yet watching the game, you could see several times where George Kittle, Christian McCaffrey, Elijah Mitchell and Deebo Samuel played with a fire in their belly that was not there on the defensive side.
Players like Kenneth Walker, Zach Charbonnet and D.K. Metcalf need a similar fire to keep the problems for the Giants going.
But it starts up front. This might be an ideal game for a run-heavy approach. Get the Running Backs at least 30 carries, if not 40. Get them to the second level and let them break tackles. Let big bodies like Damien Lewis and Anthony Bradford lean on this defense and control the game.
Winning another game without their starting tackles – while maintaining good offensive play – will be a good day’s work for this coaching staff.
Related to this, another area the Seahawks need to win on both sides of the ball…
Win the Tight End Matchups
Another similarity with these two teams: They both employ high-quality tight ends and both defenses struggle to keep their opponent’s tight ends in check.
The Giants, needing another weapon for Daniel Jones, went out and traded for Darren Waller and his record-setting contract this offseason. With all due respect to Tyler Higbee, Sam LaPorta and Hayden Hurst, the Seahawks have yet to face a tight end of Waller’s caliber this year. His reach, size and route-running capability is a matchup nightmare.
The Seahawks have real difficulty defending tight ends. They are conceding a league-worst 14 yards per reception to tight ends. The league average is nine yards per catch.
You are well within your rights to argue that this is a very small sample size of only three games and you’d be correct. However, you should know that the Seahawks were also the worst team in the NFL in this category last year, conceding – you guessed it – a league-high 14 yards per reception to tight ends. It is an ongoing problem.
They need to find a way to either a) defend Waller (and to a lesser extend the underrated Daniel Bellinger) or b) pass rush Daniel Jones so effectively that he cannot target Waller.
It would not be a surprise to see the Seahawks employ someone like Devin Bush to cover Waller. He may not be ideal but he is far more capable than Jordyn Brooks and Bobby Wagner in pass coverage.
On the other side, the Seahawks have wisely employed all three of their tight ends with different responsibilities at different times this year. While they each have their strengths, they have worked toward becoming more complete players and that gives the Seahawks all kinds of options. This is particularly important because both Will Dissly and Noah Fant appeared on the injury report this week and are officially listed as questionable to play.
Colby Parkinson has been slowly developing into a player the Seahawks can employ in many different scenarios, not just in the passing game. He has made nice progress as a blocker in the run game and last week had some great ones.
Watch him line up next to the right tackle and just move Brian Burns completely out of the way on the goal line on Ken Walker’s touchdown run:
They will need that kind of tough blocking in the run game if they want to assert their will on the Giants defense. With their tackles still out — and the Giants feasting on the blitz as much as they do — a blocking tight end is worth his weight in gold for this matchup.
How can they help this team in the passing game? We have long pointed to the correlation between defenses that blitz the most and defenses that are poor in defending tight ends.
The Giants fit the bill there. They are currently 28th in the NFL in yards per catch conceded to tight ends and 31st in passing yards conceded.
Teams are paper-cutting the Giant defense to death with throws to tight ends. They’re the perfect ‘get out of jail free card’ when a team blitzes as much as the Giants do. They can chip and release, or just read the blitz and switch to a hot route for their quarterback to dump the ball off to and get some yards after the catch.
The Seahawks will want to use them liberally on Monday to both counteract the blitz and attack this defense with shots.
Some Misc Notes
— Geno Smith’s processing and decision-making will need to be sharper this week than it was last week. Granted, he got dialed in after halftime but during the first half, when the Seahawks were settling for field goals and the game was less comfortable than it should have been, Geno was hesitant at times and wasted time in the pocket before making questionable throws. The Giants blitz packages will not allow for that. He has to come out of the tunnel ready to play. If that means a series or two that is run-heavy and features some short, deliberate passes to get in rhythm, so be it.
— Daniel Jones is on pace to match his rushing numbers from last year. With his shaky offensive line, it makes sense that he will be as mobile as he always is and with Barkley limited or out, maybe more. It might make sense to once again assign a player to spy on him. Just sit tight after the snap for half a beat, see where the holes are developing and then pursue Jones. Jordyn Brooks, Devin Bush, and Jamal Adams would be interesting candidates for the job.
— One thing I noticed in watching Giants highlights for the last three games, Jones is drawing unnecessary roughness penalties at the end of his runs at a pretty impressive rate. It feels like one of those ‘but the quarterback is no longer a quarterback once he leaves the pocket!’ rules that refs agree to in principle but are happy to throw the flag on the second tackler coming to help his teammate. The Seahawks need to be aware of this.
— The secondary enters an interesting condition Monday. Jamal Adams is back, Witherspoon and Woolen are on the field together again, Tre Brown and Artie Burns will not play and Coby Bryant is listed as questionable. This sounds problematic, figuring out how all these players will work together and get snaps. Particularly with the nickel spot a question mark, as well as implementing what plans the team has for Adams. At this stage of the season, I personally am at ‘it could not be worse than what they’re thrown out so far’ so I am open to new ideas, even unconventional ones. For instance, how about a package with Quandre Diggs at nickel – returning to his roots – with Julian Love patrolling deep and Jerrick Reed getting some time at safety? If the backfield does not improve – and quickly – I think all options should be on the table.
— Speaking of Adams, it is perfectly acceptable to marvel at the hard work, determination and pain it took to get back on the field this year and hope he has a fantastic impact this season. It is also perfectly acceptable to hold your breath every time he launches himself into a tackle.