New York Giants Week 5: Keys to Beating the Seattle Seahawks

What areas must the Giants be efficient in order to notch a victory over the Seattle Seahawks?

The New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll on the sideline in the second half. The Seattle Seahawks defeat the Giants, 24-3, at MetLife Stadium on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023, in East Rutherford. / Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK

The New York Giants are now a quarter of the way through their 2024 season, and despite the 1-3 start, they are sensing signs of progress. They will have a chance to show that on the scoreboard this coming Sunday afternoon against the Seattle Seahawks. 

Sitting 3-1 at the four-game mark, Seattle has been one of the most successful teams in the NFL thanks to its top-10-caliber offense and pass defense in the early stretch. After getting off to a 3-0 start with wins against Denver, New England, and Miami, Seattle suffered its first blow of the year in a 42-29 loss to the Detroit Lions on Monday night, the one game in which its opponent scored over 30 points. 

However, Seattle is another team familiar with the Giants, and they have had their number in recent meetings. Seattle holds an 11-10 advantage in the all-time series but has taken six of the last seven contests from New York, including two of the last three that occurred between 2020 and 2023. 

The Seahawks currently rank 9th and 5th in the NFL in total points and offensive yards, respectively, and highly favor the strength of their passing attack. They stand atop the league in attempts and yards through the air and move the pigskin at an average of 281 yards per contest and 6.6 per play. 

The Giants can’t sleep on their rushing game either, with a talented combination of scoring abilities from Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet. The duo both have under 200 yards rushing through four games but account for seven of the Seahawks’ 12 total touchdowns this season, meaning they will be relied on if New York’s defense can’t answer the call in the red zone. 

While their offensive results haven’t shown as much on the field, the Giants are by no means dead in the water at 1-3 in a mediocre NFC conference. They have another chance to prove that they can find the difference-making plays in Week 5 against a talented but manageable Seahawks squad, and succeeding at these three keys will assist in procuring a second immense victory on the road. 

Rile Up the Pressure

Over the past couple of weeks, the Giants’ defensive front has received well-deserved criticism for their lack of a consistent pass rush. The good news is that the defensive line has an opportunity to change that narrative, as the Seattle Seahawks boast one of the worst protection units in the entire league. 

Last season, the Seahawks offense had to overcome the problem of a lackluster offensive line marred by significant injuries. The unit finished the 2023 campaign ranked 30th in pass-block win rate and allowed 38 total sacks, a number that stood average with most of the NFL and produced mediocre scoring efficiency in return. 

With the offseason behind them, it’s clear the Seahawks didn’t do enough to address the issue. Per ESPN metrics, they still rank near last with a pass-block win rate of 49 percent and are one spot lower in protecting the run. 

Seattle’s starting offensive line is also very young and still looking to build on its experience in the trenches. Only one player, guard Laken Tomlinson, has more than seven years of NFL service. Through the first four weeks, they have allowed eight sacks and 68 total pressures, most of which have come from the edges with tackles Charles Cross and Stone Forsythe.

The Giants pass rushers, particularly Kayvon Thibodeaux and Brian Burns, will have a very favorable matchup to unleash the pressure. However, they will need to step up to handicap the Seahawks' talented offense, which will be paired up against New York’s struggling and hampered secondary. 

For three out of the four contests, the Giant's front four haven’t been able to consistently find that pass-rushing prowess that was supposed to be their biggest characteristic. 

We saw it flourish in Week 3 against the Cleveland Browns when the defense accounted for eight sacks, 17 quarterback hits, and two forced fumbles to seal the Giant's lone win of the season. 

Last Thursday against the Dallas Cowboys, those numbers greatly receded as the Giants were unable to take advantage of a younger offensive line than usual and could not get a finger on Dak Prescott. They collected just one sack, five tackles for loss, and three quarterback hits, allowing Dallas to stay on the field long enough to sneak out a couple of touchdowns and win the game to continue their dominant streak on the Giants.

If the Giants can revert to the positive direction, it will help them get the Seahawks offense off the field more often for a team that already ranks in the league's bottom half in average drive time and plays. 

That was the key to Detroit holding them down long enough for the other side to build a multi-score lead and has proven to be an ingredient for the Giants huddle to earn more opportunities to notch the points that are hard to come by at this stage of the season. 

With their offense that hasn’t proven that it can put up a ton of points with the best teams in the league, it’s going to be imperative that the Giants rely on the edge studs they’ve invested in to provide the avenue to victory that we saw against the Browns two Sundays ago. 

The pass-rushing effort is trending in the right direction, but the Giants will need to step it up a notch to improve their chances of beating the Seahawks. 

Take Away DK Metcalf

The Giants have already had to contend with some of the best wide receiving weapons in the NFL since the regular season started one month ago, and now they’re set to face and must contain one of the game’s early success stories in DK Metcalf. 

A sixth-year player with the Seahawks, Metcalf has ascended into the true No. 1 receiving option for the team. The Ole Miss product and former second-round pick has amassed three seasons of 1,000 or more receiving yards and two with double-digit touchdown grabs, a resume that has been good enough to sit atop the Seattle leaderboard in four of his six campaigns. 

Last season, Metcalf tore up the league for 1,114 yards, the second-most of his career, and eight touchdowns, averaging a career-high 16.9 yards per catch. In just a quarter of the way into his sixth season, the 26-year-old stands third in the NFL receiving leaderboard with 24 receptions for 366 yards (average 15.3 yards) and two touchdowns, one place behind Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers, who holds 16 more targets over the veteran. 

Metcalf has been an electric wideout threat for the Seahawks, posting three consecutive 100-yard receiving outings dating back to Week 2 and averaging between 12.9 and 26 yards per reception. Those performances truly signify his potential as a deep vertical threat that can shift the momentum of a game with just one catch, and the type of athlete he is will make it tough for the Giants secondary to stop. 

Not only is he talented with the ball in his hands, Metcalf is a burden to deal with in both man and zone coverage schemes given his immense size and length at 6-3 and 226 pounds. He has the physical strength to get around defenders in man and establish spacing to make the catch along the sidelines.

If facing a zone look, he has the speed and route instincts to deceive the cornerback and cut it back outside for a wide-open home run shot. This happened in the Seahawks' wins against New England and Miami, when he went for 56—and 71-yard touchdowns, respectively. 

At the same time, the Giants' secondary has been plagued by injuries and is still dealing with the growing pains of their young players. New York ranks 13th in team coverage after one-quarter of the season, but facing Metcalf will be tough when most of the unit is not gifted with the length it takes to cover a man of his stature. 

The Giants will have to figure out some sort of response, or it could be another highlight reel performance for the No. 1 receiver who has been a big part of the Seahawks’ early success.

Maintain Solid Pass Protection

The Seattle Seahawks might not have any name-brand pass rushers on their defense, but they still present one of the better units in football at getting to the quarterback. 

After their recent loss to the Detroit Lions on Monday Night Football, the Seahawks sit 14th in the NFL in team pass rush and run-stop win rates, a slight drop from the top-10 status they held in both categories in 2023. Seattle boasts seven players on its defense with a pressure percentage above 10.4 percent and a solid trio in former Giant Leonard Williams, Derick Hall, and Boye Mafe, who account for nine of their 14 total sacks. 

Similarly to the Giants, Seattle likes to send the pressure from their front four and let the rest of their operation handle the coverage work. However, they won’t shy away from sending more of the house into the backfield, especially on late downs when they seek to silence potential red zone scoring opportunities. 

The Seahawks have one of the best defenses at stunting the opposition’s aerial offense and making it entirely one-dimensional, a factor that hasn’t bode well for the Giants this season. They must find ways to stay dynamic against an enemy that is ranked seventh in passing yards allowed and top-5 in third and fourth conversion rates allowed. 

That starts with consistent up-front protection, from which the Giants have recently benefited. After allowing a whopping five sacks in the season opener, the offense has finally managed to function behind an offensive line that stands among the ten-best pass-blocking units in the sport and keeps Daniel Jones upright, saving a couple of sacks or less each game. 

It’s what worked so well against a typically pass rush hungry team in the Dallas Cowboys last Thursday. The Giants front took Micah Parsons out of the game and remained stout in the middle, providing Jones with ample time to get the football off and extend drives into scoring territory. It didn’t always pan out, as the offense kept stalling inside the red zone, but it was a big element in keeping the game at bay and winning the time of possession. 

For all one can say about the offensive disappointments in the first quarter of the year, it’s not the offensive line that isn’t doing its part to empower the huddle to success on Sundays. The Giants will need that trend to continue against a tough Seahawks front that includes one of their former pass rushers if they’re going to hang around for a win in Week 5.  

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