Seahawks vs. Giants ‘Monday Night Football’ game preview

To say that the 2023 season has been a disappointment for the New York Giants thus far would be a gargantuan understatement. After making the playoffs in 2022, expectations were as high as the skyscrapers dotting the New York landscape. The G-Men signed Daniel “Danny Dimes” Jones to a four-year, $160 million extension with $82 million fully guaranteed in the offseason and reached a compromise with franchise-tagged RB Saquon Barkley on a 1-year deal worth just north of $10 million. Things were looking up for the Giants.

And then the season started.

New York got absolutely curb-stomped at home by their division rival Dallas Cowboys 40-0 in a Week 1 thrashing. Then, they were inexplicably down 20-0 at halftime against the “rebuilding” Arizona Cardinals. If my math is correct, that adds up to the Giants being outscored 60-0 over the first six quarters of the season. It took a furious comeback against the Cardinals to squeak out a 31-28 victory on a last-second FG. Saquon Barkley was collateral damage in the win as he sprained his ankle with a likely recovery timeline of a few weeks.

Any sort of good vibes from that comeback win were eviscerated when New York was completely outclassed on Thursday Night Football by the San Francisco 49ers in a 30-12 loss. Sure, the Giants got within a score at 17-12 in the 3rd Quarter, but the game was never really that close. They were outgained by the 49ers by almost 300 yards and possessed the ball for just over 20 minutes compared to the 49ers 40 minutes. That’s bad!

The Seattle Seahawks, on the other hand, have played pretty well for 10 out of the 12 quarters so far this season, particularly when they possess the ball. They’re coming off two consecutive offensive outbursts of 37 points – and that was done despite missing key players along the offensive line including both starting tackles.

In fact, the injury bug has been quite unkind to Seattle on both sides of the ball. I think every single Seahawks player, coach, and front office staff was listed on the injury report last week with some type of malady.

However, if Pete Carroll can be believed, reinforcements could be on the way including Riq Woolen, Charles Cross, and the season debut of Jamal Adams. Can you imagine the electricity on the field with both Jamal Adams and Devon Witherspoon hyping each other up? In New York?? On Monday Night Football??? Have mercy.

The Giants haven’t been immune to injury themselves, as previously mentioned, with Saquon Barkley spraining his ankle during the Week 2 win at Arizona and missing the Week 3 loss at San Francisco. It was originally reported that Barkley would miss at a few weeks with the injury, so his availability for the game against the Seahawks is still up in the air.

That would put the onus directly on Danny Dimes who has thrown twice as many interceptions (4) as he’s thrown TD passes (2). His pass blindside protection could be an issue as New York’s starting LT Andrew Thomas is nursing a hamstring injury. Thomas may return to play on Monday night but if he doesn’t, Seattle’s defensive line could rack up the pressures like they did against Carolina.

That extra heat on Daniel Jones might lead to turnovers which could very well be the key to the game. Seattle is currently sitting at 9th in the NFL with a respectable +2 turnover differential while New York is damn near the bottom of the barrel at 29th with a -5 turnover differential. The Giants have committed at least one turnover in each game this season, so the Seahawks will hope that trend continues for one more game.

The all-time series is tied 10-10, but the Seahawks have won five of the last six matchups including a 27-13 victory last season. Seattle started the week as a slim favorite, but the line has been vacillating back and forth ever since, per Draftkings Sportsbook.

After three games, the Giants haven’t really done anything well on either side of the ball as they rank 31st overall in points scored and just one spot better at 30th in points allowed. There are only 32 teams in the NFL by the way in case you forgot. To be fair, Seattle is not much better on defense at 29th in points allowed but rank a healthy 4th in points scored, more than doubling up New York with 29.0 points per game to 14.3 points per game.

This could be a great opportunity for Seattle to try and replicate the success in the run game that they found against the Carolina Panthers where the Seahawks rode the young RB duo of Ken Walker III and Zach Charbonnet to the tune of 143 combined yards rushing. That total would be right in line with the 29th ranked rush defense of the Giants who’ve been allowing 138 rushing yards per game. Let Walker run around them, and Charbonnet run through them.

I will never pass up an opportunity to post this.

The consistent threat of the run game may also allow for Geno Smith to make hay with play action passes in this revenge game against his former team in his former home stadium. If you haven’t heard, Geno is pretty decent utilizing play action so far this year…

Seattle should be juiced up and ready to show out in their first crack at a prime-time game in the 2023 season. The game probably won’t be easy – and our stomach’s will likely be in collective knots – but that’s old hat to Seahawks fans during the PCJS era. They usually deliver some sort of wild and crazy outcome on the national stage. Heading into the bye at 3-1 with the chance to heal up would set the stage nicely for the gauntlet that’s still to come.