Halftime Observations: Seattle Seahawks Sleep Walk to 10-10 Tie vs. New York Giants

Aside from a historic fumble return, the Seahawks came out flat in their return home, allowing the Giants to look like an offensive juggernaut in a tied game.

Oct 6, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks safety Rayshawn Jenkins (2) returns a fumble for a touchdown against the New York Giants during the first quarter at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images / Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

By nearly every measure, the Seattle Seahawks got outclassed by the upset-minded New York Giants in a forgettable first half, but good fortune and an opportunistic play allowed them to head into the break knotted up at 10-10 at Lumen Field.

Failing to come close to resembling the dominant defense from the first three games of the season, even with Leonard Williams and Julian Love returning from injury, Seattle allowed Daniel Jones to play a near-perfect first half as he completed 14 of 18 passes for 145 yards and a touchdown to Wan'Dale Robinson. The Giants also found success on the ground with Tyrone Tracy Jr. leading the charge rushing for 48 yards on only six carries and Jones adding 35 yards on eight carries calling his own number.

Overall, New York outgained Seattle 226 to 90 while converting four out of eight third down chances and possessing the football for nearly 22 minutes, including three possessions of eight plays or more.

Luckily for the Seahawks, Giants running back Eric Gray coughed up the ball just before crossing the goal line on their opening possession after driving 79 yards and safety Rayshawn Jenkins scooped up the fumble, sprinting 70 yards before jogging and eventually skipping his way to a franchise-record 102-yard touchdown return to put the home team inexplicably out in front 7-0.

Unfortunately, while Geno Smith completed nine out of 14 passes for 97 yards and led a late scoring drive with two quick completions to set up Jason Myers for a game-tying field goal, Seattle's offense sputtered for most of the first half while making no attempt to run the football. Overall, Smith dropped back to pass 15 times on 17 plays with Ken Walker III only rushing twice for two yards, in part because the team was constantly behind the sticks from poor outcomes on first down.

The Seahawks have had a difficult time finding much traction on offense with the Giants aggressively sending extra rushers and the offensive line unable to keep Smith clean, forcing them into quick throws and incompletions. They wound up converting only one out of four third down conversions while possessing the ball for only eight minutes.

Through it all, Seattle should consider itself incredibly blessed to be tied, as New York outplayed them in all three phases playing the type of physical football coach Mike Macdonald demands from his team. Poor tackling and blown coverages were significant issues on defense, while the offense couldn't run or simply refused to try with an unbalanced attack not able to find much of a rhythm in the first two quarters.