New York Giants-Seattle Seahawks: Stats That Mattered

Breaking down the significant stats that defined the New York Giants Week 5 win against the Seattle Seahawks.

Oct 6, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; New York Giants wide receiver Bryce Ford-Wheaton (88) returns a blocked field goal for a touchdown against the Seattle Seahawks during the fourth quarter at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images / Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

The New York Giants flew cross-country seeking the elusive second win against the Seattle Seahawks and are flocking back to the Big Apple after a 29-20 victory. 

Coming into the matchup, the Giants were expected to be without two of their biggest offensive playmakers, receiver Malik Nabers and running back Devin Singletary. On the other hand, they were facing a Seahawks squad that got exposed in their previous game and had its faults, of which New York was fully able to take advantage. 

Seattle’s defense, which entered the meeting ranking in the middle of the league in major opponent passing and rushing categories, had no response for the weakened Giants offense from the jump.

With holes up front and in the secondary, New York tallied 420 yards of total offense and two touchdowns, including a buck 75 in the trenches that accounted for the most allowed by the Seahawks this season. 

Nothing was easy for the Seahawks' arsenal of receiving weapons either, as the Giants' defense kept them quiet for 284 passing yards, which was less meaningful than it looked.  All-Pro receiver DK Metcalf was almost irrelevant in the entire contest, limited to four catches for 55 yards that mostly came in the second half when the birds were down by two scores. 

For the second time in a row, the Giants went to Seattle and dominated a team atop the NFC West, looking like one of the best franchises around the NFL in the first quarter of the season. Let’s look at the main numbers that mattered most in the Giants’ 29-20 win over Seattle. 

39

For the second week in a row, the Giants dominated control of the clock, which helped them to a victory this time around. 

Ten days earlier, the Giants controlled the time of possession against their rival Dallas Cowboys, with a 35:37 to 24:23 ratio in the 20-15 loss. It was tough to keep the football away from a volatile offense like that, but what ultimately hurt the team was its inability to capitalize on the effort with points on the scoreboard. 

New York learned their lesson in Week 5 against another struggling unit, the Seattle Seahawks. They scored a couple of scores in the first half on a whopping 39 offensive plays. They had a 21:55 to 8:05 lead in the ball control category, their highest time mark in a half in the 2024 season. 

It started with the 16-play drive that found several different receivers but not payday in the end zone. Two drives later, the Giants took another 4:26 off the game clock with an eight-play, 81-yard march that was carried heavily by the rushing prowess of rookie Tyrone Tracy Jr. and capped off by a seven-yard touchdown by Wan’Dale Robinson on a short crossing route. 

Through the rest of the afternoon, the Giants posted three more possessions of at least six plays and 2:15 of game clock, all three of which ended in field goals of 24, 31, and 38 yards by kicker Greg Joseph. Their shortest turn of the second half was a four-play, 77-yard dash that went down the field in 1:30 and ended with a beautiful 30-yard fine from Daniel Jones to Darius Slayton that put the Giants ahead 17-10. 

When the Giants can win the time-of-possession battle, it tends to help them stick around in contests that feature explosive offenses that could kill them with extra opportunities to do so. Brian Daboll’s crew didn’t allow Seattle to do that, and they jumped their total time of possession from 37:22 to 22:38, keeping the defense fresh on the other side to do their thing. 

7

Speaking of the defense, Shane Bowen’s group had another unstoppable performance to pester the Seahawks offense and the pressure production up front headlined it. 

After amassing a team-high eight sacks two weeks earlier, the Giants defensive line took advantage of a mediocre Seahawks protection with questions on both sides of the center position. Led by Dexter Lawrence, who had three takedowns, the unit forced seven sacks, making it hard for Geno Smith to dish the ball cleanly to his playmakers. 

Along with Lawrence, the Giants had four other players record at least a half sack, showing that the job could be split up by the group of pass rushers that Joe Schoen has assembled in the last couple of offseasons. New York knew they had to rely on the pressure by the front four to make their defense work every Sunday, and it has been through five weeks as the Giants lead the NFL in team sacks with 22. 

One of the surprising names on the tally was D.J. Davidson, the third-year gap stuffer who has had to sit on the sidelines behind his veteran teammates in Lawrence and Rakeem Nuñez-Roches. 

In the second half, he earned some valuable minutes in select defensive rotations and helped the Giants thwart two big Seahawks drives in the second half, the latter coming on the bird’s last licks possession when he put them 13 yards behind the sticks.

No sack was flashier than the one made by edge rusher Brian Burns. In the intersection of the third and fourth quarters, the Giants had Seattle pinned at their 35-yard line on 4th-and-1 and the hosts knew they needed to go for it down seven points. 

However, the gamble would be futile, as Burns came unblocked at the quarterback and sunk Geno Smith for a loss of eight yards. The play gave the ball to New York in positive territory and helped them notch a third field goal by Greg Joseph to extend the lead to 23-13. 

100+

The Giants had a big question before the Seahawks game with the absence of Malik Nabers and Devin Singletary. Who would replace the rushing production without the No. 1 guy? 

They did not need to fear because rookie rusher Tyrone Tracy Jr. was there to become a star in his first big NFL moment. Earning the start with Eric Gray backing him up, Tracy amassed 18 carries for 129 yards and an average of 7.2 yards per attempt for one of the top performances in recent history for a novice Giant. 

With the outing, Tracy became the first Giants rookie running back to surpass 100 yards on the ground in a single game since Saquon Barkley in December 2018. The Iowa product’s line outpaced Barkley’s by almost 30 yards, with the former only notching 101 yards in that performance against the Cowboys that season. 

“I just prepared the right way,” Tracy said about how he reached for the moment in Seattle. “I’ve got a great coaching staff and a great group of teammates and we came out and did what we needed to do and got the win. All the stars don’t matter if you don’t get the dub.”

While Tracy finished as the lead horse, the Giants started the game with Gray taking most of the backfield snaps. Gray made a couple of big grabs for 18 and 13 yards in consecutive plays but lost the football at the goal line, which cost New York their first taste of six points and traded it to Seattle on the other end. 

After that drive, the Giants turned their focus back to Tracy and he helped keep the offense moving in short-yardage situations. That was a big advantage for the Giants, as they haven’t been a team that excels in long-distance downs and finding their receivers deep to convert them. 

New York had some luck reversing the trend on Sunday, but it was Tracy Jr.'s rushing prowess that made things two-dimensional and gave credence to Joe Schoen's decision to move on from Barkley and draft a dual-threat rookie who could accompany the cheaper signing of Singletary behind a revamped offensive front.

Oct 6, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; New York Giants linebacker Isaiah Simmons (19) blocks a field goal kick attempt by Seattle Seahawks placekicker Jason Myers (5) during the second half at Lumen Field. / Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

1

There is the familiar saying, “What goes around, comes around,” and nothing could be truer in how the Giants’ momentous win was put on ice.

Entering the final six minutes of the game, the Giants had a 23-13 lead and needed a few more stops from their red-hot defense to finish off the Seahawks offense that had not reached the end zone at that point of the contest.

Shane Bowen’s unit, which had silenced Seattle behind a slew of sacks on their bottom barrel protection on the offensive line, finally succumbed to their one red zone score at the 2:09 mark of the fourth quarter. 

The Seahawks marched down the field in 14 plays and 95 yards in just under four minutes and made the game interesting with a touchdown by Jaxon Smith-Njigba, cutting the lead to 23-20. 

Despite the score, the Giants would get the ball back with just a few first-down conversions left to seal the deal. The problem was that they couldn’t get it done, and after three plays and 29 seconds elapsed, they put the pigskin back in Geno Smith’s hands with a chance to either tie the game at 23 or go for the comeback win. 

The Seahawks quickly made the latter feel inevitable to a Giants organization that has seen too many two-minute comebacks inflicted upon them in recent seasons. Smith and company pushed the ball 38 yards downfield to the New York 28-yard line in 45 seconds with a 32-yard gash by the gunslinger on the first play of the drive, but they were eventually stalled there with only a chance to tie the game and earn free football in overtime. 

Little did the Seahawks know an unsung hero on the blocking side would come in and turn the tables on kicker Jason Myers's 47-yard attempt. Lining up to the left of the long snapper for the kick, Giants linebacker Isaiah Simmons put his jumping abilities to the test and made it cleanly over the right guard to put a block on the boot and send it bobbling the other direction. 

It was a moment of chaos for Seattle, the exact opposite of their miraculous play that opened up the contest with a 102-yard fumble return to take a 7-0 lead on New York. Bryce Ford-Wheaton picked up the loose football and, similarly, returned it 60 yards to the house for a stunning touchdown, his first of his career and the one that put the game to bed with a 29-20 advantage with 55 seconds remaining.  

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