Enemy Reaction 2017: New York Giants

The Seattle Seahawks are now 4-2 after handing the New York Giants their sixth loss of the season, this time by a final score of 24-7. This game was annoyingly close until the 4th quarter, but Seattle won by a comfortable margin in the end. If you look at the stats, as well as the missed chances by Seattle throughout the contest, the scoreline could’ve/should’ve been even more lopsided. Anyway, what’s done is done and Seattle has come away with consecutive road wins, something they didn’t manage once in 2016.

This Enemy Reaction was a little bit more difficult to do, as the folks at Big Blue View have obviously waved the white flag on the season, so I only had about 600 or so comments to work with for the entire game. Alas, the show must go on, and I know you guys will enjoy it.

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Richard Sherman breaks up a deep ball to Tavarres King (0-0)

Why, Jimmy Graham? Why?! (0-0)

Thomas Rawls fumbles, Landon Collins returns it to the Seattle 17 (0-0)

Eli Manning finds Evan Engram for a Giants touchdown (7-0 NYG)

Jimmy Graham, what are you doing? (7-0 NYG)

Tyler Lockett touchdown called back due to offensive pass interference (7-0 NYG)

Russell Wilson beats the blitz, Doug Baldwin humiliates Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie to give Seattle the lead (10-7 SEA)

Evan Engram has huge play called back because of illegal touching penalty (10-7 SEA)

Aldrick Rosas misses 47-yard field goal (10-7 SEA)

Paul Richardson catches flea-flicker touchdown, but was it really a touchdown? (17-7 SEA)

Yes, yes it was a touchdown.

Jimmy Graham holds onto this one, gets his second touchdown in two weeks (24-7 SEA Final)

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Post-Game: Moral victories are for losing teams (Curt Macysyn, GMenHQ)

Some of the articles surrounding the New York Giants will cite moral victories today. For example, cornerback Eli Apple played better for the second straight week. Rookie first-round pick Evan Engram was an offensive factor. Another rookie Avery Moss showed up defensively for Big Blue.

But moral victories are for losing teams, not one who viewed a playoff contenders. And after seven games, to have your season goals vanish, represents the worst result anyone could have imagined for this team.

With an aging Super Bowl MVP quarterback and a leaky offensive line, the last thing the New York Giants needed were defensive breakdowns. Unfortunately, the G-Men only gave a partial effort, which isn’t nearly enough to beat Seattle.

Both Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Landon Collins allowed touchdown passes to Seahawks receivers. Despite Collins protestations, Paul Richardson’s catch did appear to be dual possession. In any event, Collins was not initially in position to make the interception anyway.

The most interesting contrast of the game was coaching. Seahawks’ head coach Pete Carroll always squeezes the most out of his troops, who can win handily, despite 15 penalties on the afternoon. Meanwhile, Ben McAdoo heads up a squad looking for a reason to pack it in.

Post-Game: Russell Wilson is unstoppable (Michael Stewart, NY Giants Rush)

Top reasons why the Giants lost

1.) Russell Wilson unstoppable: In my preview, I stressed that the Giants defense needed to contain Wilson and not let him be the difference maker. Unfortunately; the Giants defense couldn’t do anything and were totally manhandled by Wilson.

2.) No running game: Once again, another preview matchup mentioned that the Giants needed to at least come close to their performance against the Broncos, if they had any chance at all. Unfortunately; the Giants only managed 46 yards on the ground.

3.) Time of Possession: The Giants failure to equal Seattle was a major factor (Seattle 36:26/Giants 24:34) and it put too much pressure on the Giants defense to perform well beyond their capabilities.

Hero: Russell Wilson was without a doubt the best player on the field for both sides as the Giants defense couldn’t do anything to slow him down.

Goat: The entire Giants team deserves this honor as they didn’t look ready to play and couldn’t find any answers against a Seattle team that executed their offensive game plan perfectly.

Post-Game Audio: Opponent audio recap with Giants announcers Bob Papa and Carl Banks (via Softy Mahler Show on KJR)

Post-Game Video: This team just doesn’t know what it’s doing (MrBaddog7676)

Enemy Preaction: Houston Texans (Battle Red Blog)

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Up next are the 3-3 Houston Texans, a team trying to make a playoff push with exciting rookie quarterback DeShaun Watson, who has already thrown 15 touchdown passes on the season. That Houston defense is banged up, with J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus both out for the year, and the Texans haven’t played on the road in over a month. On the flip side, Seattle hasn’t played at home since October 1st, and another win at CenturyLink Field will put them in first-place on head-to-head tiebreaker over the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC West. There’s a lot on the line for both teams as we near the midway point of the season, and I’m definitely looking forward to this matchup.

Thanks for reading and go ‘Hawks!