PFF grades and snap counts from the Giants' 29-20 win over the Seahawks

On the surface, it's hard to get excited about a 29-20 win over a team that didn't make the playoffs last season. However, the Seattle Seahawks entered the game 3-1 and gave NFC contender Detroit a run for their money last week. Additionally, Lumen Fields makes “12. Man” of screaming fans made it a difficult venue for any visiting team. The New York Giants actually won there in 2020… but without fans in the building. Over the past two years, the Seahawks have handed the Giants two of their most disheartening losses.

All in all, the Giants' 29-20 win – a game they truly dominated and was only close due to a questionable goal-line fumble call that resulted in a 14-point blowout – has to be considered one of their more will be impressive performances from the last two seasons.

How did they do it? Let's look at some of the Pro Football Focus numbers and see if they match up with the eye test.

attack

Snap counts

• As usual, Daniel Jones and the starting offensive line played every snap. The stability on the line is one of the most remarkable things this season.
• With Malik Nabers sidelined, the wide receiver snaps were split roughly evenly between Darius Slayton, Wan'Dale Robinson and, for the first time, Jalin Hyatt… except that Hyatt wasn't targeted once in his 48 snaps was taken. Isaiah Hodgins also got some playing time in the second half.
• Eric Gray started the game, but whether intentionally or due to Gray's disastrous blunder, Tyrone Tracy ended up seeing most of the action. Dante Miller got his first NFL snap (I missed it, he didn't touch the ball).
• The tight end rotation remained solid, with Theo Johnson playing most snaps and Chris Manhertz or Daniel Bellinger on the field about 25% of the time. Josh Ezeudu saw a few snaps as a jumbo tight end.

PFF grades

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

It's refreshing to see the Giants' offense emerge from a game where six players overperformed for a change. However, I could argue about some details.

• Daniel Jones barely scored above average (70.4), but I thought this game was much better for him than last week, when he finished 10 points better despite never getting the Giants into the end zone. Two TD passes – good ones, two big throws and only one turnover-worthy play in a win – were somehow less impressive to Pro Football Focus than no TD passes, one big throw and two turnover-worthy plays last week. Jones received a grade of 90.4 when he was clean (22 of 29, 252 yards, 2 TDs, 2 BTTs, 0 TWPs), which makes sense, and just 25.1 when under pressure (1 of 5, 5 yards, 0 TDs, 0 BTTs, 1). TWP), which also makes sense. Jones was pressured on 25% of his dropbacks (10 of them), with three sacks and two scrambles. So if you weight your clean and under pressure results three to one and add them together, you get an average grade of about 70. I think that's what the overall grade comes from. For me on Sunday the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.
• The offensive line was mixed:

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

Still, the line was only charged with seven pressures and one sack (the other two sacks were considered Jones' responsibility). Greg Van Roten had his best game as a Giant and Jermaine Eluemunor and Andrew Thomas were above average in tackles. Jon Runyan and John MIchael Schmitz were slightly below average, but by Giants standards over the last decade, I can always accept those results. Thank you, Carmen Bricillo.

• Yesterday's two offensive stars other than Jones both achieved significantly above-average results: Darius Slayton (77.6 receiving grade) and Tyrone Tracy (77.3 rushing grade). Wan'Dale Robinson received an average grade (60.8). Among the other players who touched the ball, Theo Johnson had his best game of the season (62.5), while Eric Gray (43.5) was of course heavily demoted for his error on the goal line.

defense

Snap counts

• As usual, linebacker Bobby Okereke, cornerback Tae Banks and safety Jason Pinnock played every snap, and safety Tyler Nubin played almost every snap. In descending order, Nick McCloud, Cor'Dale Flott, Dane Belton, Adoree' Jackson and Dru Phillips were on the field from about two-thirds to one-third of the time. Meanwhile, starting linebacker Micah McFadden played less than half the defensive snaps, and Darius Muasau and Patrick Johnson added just a few more. In other words, the Giants spent a lot of time on dime defense, which makes sense given the Seahawks' three-man corps of dangerous wide receivers.
• On the sidelines, Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux each played about 80% of the snaps. Azeez Ojulari gets about 35% playing time. Dexter Lawrence was on the field almost as often as Burns and Thibodeaux, while Rakeem Nunez-Roches played about half the downs, Elijah Chatman about 40% and DJ Davidson about a third.

PFF grades

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

• The No. 1 story from this game, in my opinion, was the performance of the Giants secondary. The much-maligned Banks in particular had an outstanding game, possibly the best of his career (84.6 points, one forced fumble, three pass breakups and just two receptions on five targets for 17 yards and 7 YAC). Cor'Dale Flott was almost as good (74.2, 2 receptions in three scores for 14 yards and 0 YAC). Andru Phillips, Tyler Nubin, Jason Pinnock and Adoree' Jackson all played quite well, while Nick McCloud and Dane Belton performed below average.
• It was a good day for the defensive line, which had a total of 24 pressures and seven sacks. As usual, Lawrence (73.9) led the way with three sacks. Brian Burns (68.3) and Kayvon Thibodeaux (64.7) played fairly well, each with a sack and five and four hurries, respectively. DJ Davidson (62.8, 2 sacks) had one of his better games as a Giant, while Rakeem Nunez-Roches (55.1) also had a sack and Elijah Chatman (52.4) had a hit and a rush.
• Linebackers Bobby Okereke (47.2), Micah McFadden (48.1) and Darius Muasau (65.4) all had quiet games.