Seahawks Dispatch Giants; I Need A Clean Pair Of Shorts

You know that feeling you get when you wake up and drink a pot of coffee and forget to eat anything for breakfast, and soon find yourself with blurry vision and shaking like a leaf? That's sort of how I feel right now. Adrenaline has that effect on your body and this game definitely had it pumping. So that's how Pete Carroll feels 100% of the time. I get it.

Lead changes, one-handed catches, interceptions, fumbles, bone-headed plays, huge, heroic plays. The Seahawks just went East and beat the Giants in their place for the first time since 1983.  

Here are my instant, knee-jerk reactions.

-- Tarvaris Jackson looked pretty decent again. But, sometimes, he didn't. He really should have thrown four interceptions, but if you take away those two red-zone fumbles by Marshawn Lynch and Michael Robinson, he may not be in the position to throw those. So it's a little give, a little take. The eye test though tells me that he looked confident, and the Seahawks took the ball down the field on their first drive for a touchdown with seven pass plays and only one run. His ability to throw with success has opened up the run game as well. Speaking of that...

-- I thought Marshawn Lynch played very well. 12 carries for 98 yards and an 8.2 ypc average. Obviously, that fumble turnover in the first quarter was costly and boneheaded, but apart from that one play, he looked decisive, ran with authority, picked holes and hit them hard, and ran tough. He broke a few runs to the outside, not something we're really used to seeing, and that's encouraging. If he can continue to be multi-dimensional, inside and on the edge and in the passing attack (4 catches for 33 yards), the Seahawks run-game will be in good shape. 

-- After Jackson went out with his injury, Charlie Whitehurst came in. He struggled initially, as could be expected from a guy that gets 1/4th or less of the snaps in practice and has been standing on the sideline for the last couple hours, but the important thing is that he settled in. 

He stared down receivers early, throwing away a few passes and drawing some groans from Seahawks' fans. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach at that point.

He finished strong though as he took the Seahawks down the field on a seven-play, 80-yard drive that included a 22-yard pass to Doug Baldwin, a 20-yard pass to Anthony McCoy, and then culminated with the 'free-play' toss for 27 yards to Doug Baldwin for the go-ahead touchdown with 2:45 remaining in the game.

In crunch time. On the road. Hostile environment. I'll take that. 

-- Doug "Dougie-Fresh" Baldwin is seriously good.

-- On defense, I thought for the most part that the Seahawks played well. When the offense coughs up the ball three times in the first half and the game is still tied, credit has to go to the defense. They shut the Giants out in the 3rd quarter, and six of their eleven points in the 4th quarter came on a fluke tipped pass to Victor Cruz that he took to the endzone. Really, that ball should have been batted down, but sometimes the ball just doesn't bounce your way. If you're the Seahawks, it almost never bounces your way. I swear one of those bullsh*t tipped miracle completions happens to the Seahawks at least once a game.

-- Didn't have many egregious mistakes that I can instantly remember on defense. Remind me if I have forgotten any. I'd say that Aaron Curry's play was the most disappointing and perplexing. At first glance, he just looked lost. I think he's way too in his head. Still.

-- Turnovers and injuries were killer in this game but the Seahawks pulled it off. I'm sure the rest of the country will blame this on a Giants meltdown but the Hawks come home into their bye week with a big ole' W.  

-- John Moffitt, Marshawn Lynch, Leroy Hill, Russell Okung, Zach Miller, Tarvaris Jackson all left the game at some point today. I think K.J. Wright left for a while? Jackson's injury has been preliminarily reported as a pec strain. So who knows how long that will take to recover from. Right now, I'd say that Charlie will get at least one more game but that's just pure conjecture. Leroy Hill hurt his hamstring. Let's hope it's not serious. Hamstrings can be really tricky. I'm not sure about the other guys at this point.

I'm looking forward to going back and re-watching:

-- How Walter Thurmond played. How Brandon Browner played, when he wasn't getting penalties called on him. 

-- What the deal with our linebackers were today. My first impression is that they didn't have a great showing.

-- I want to go back and re-watch the defensive line. Seems like they played pretty solidly, Chris Clemons in particular.

Final thoughts:

-- What a fun game. Roller coaster ride. Seahawks bucked the 10am east-coast game failure trend. I was stressed almost the whole game. That pick-six by Browner with under two minutes in the red-zone was pretty exciting. I need to go put on a clean pair of shorts. 

Tell me how you feel.