‘Kudos & Wet Willies’: Winners and losers from Giants-Seahawks

Let’s review Sunday’s 29-20 victory by the New York Giants over the Seattle Seahawks in our unique ‘Kudos & Wet Willies’ style. As you might expect, there are a lot of ‘Kudos’ to hand out.

Kudos to …

Isaiah Simmons — The veteran linebacker/defensive back has made little impact on defense this season. He did not play a single defensive snap on Sunday. When the Giants put him in position to impact the game on special teams on Sunday, though, Simmons made an incredible, game-saving field goal block in the final minute.

Daboll praised Simmons for being ready despite his limited defensive role this season.

“He’s a high first-round pick. He’s been on a couple different teams. There’s certain roles that he plays and not everybody is a starter for you,” Daboll said.

“That means the people that play behind them or the specific roles we have, they have to execute their job at a high level. Whatever that role is, that’s what good teammates do. Certainly everybody wants to ball on offense or play 100% of the time but this is a team game and you can only put 11 out there and when your number’s called we’re expecting you to make the play.

“I’m proud of the young man for that. He made one hell of a play at the end of the game to seal it.”

Special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial also deserves ‘Kudos’ for coming up with the scheme and for calling it at the perfect time.

“I’ve just got to give it up to our coordinator,” Simmons said. “He’s the mastermind behind it all.”

Simmons, who isn’t usually on the field goal block team, only practiced the play one time.

“It was just kind of random. I didn’t practice it until Friday, though. Friday I did it one time, and that was it,” Simmons said. “I knew I was going to be able to get up high enough. My biggest thing was being able to double-bounce. So land, and go right back up. There’s no time for anything else. Once I felt myself clear, the only thing in my mind, I’m like, is touch and go, touch and go, touch and go. I guess my long jump skills came into play there.”

Tyrone Tracy — Maybe Tracy didn’t ‘Wally Pipp’ Devin Singletary with his 18-carry, 129-yard, no fumble performance on Sunday. He certainly, though, made a compelling case for a bigger role on offense whether Singletary is healthy or not.

Tracy had explosive runs of 27 and 25 yards, and tossed in a 13-yard run. He averaged 7.2 yards per carry.

“He had a lot of yards. He was productive. He was tough,” Daboll said. “He ran hard. He saw the holes. He pressed the hole.

“That’s something we’ve been working hard on him with is pressing the hole and setting up your blocks. Made some extra yards with the ball in his hand.”

Deonte Banks — The 2023 first-round pick received some public tough love from defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson during the week. He responded with a terrific game while often matched up with monstrous Seattle wide receiver D.K. Metcalf. Banks had three passes defensed, forced a Metcalf fumble, had six tackles, and allowed just 24 yards on two receptions.

Darius Slayton — With Nabers out, Slayton moved into Nabers’ ‘X’ receiver spot, and did a pretty good impersonation. He had eight catches for 122 yards, including catches of 41 and 30 yards.

“We moved (Darius) Slayton over where (Malik) Nabers was a bunch, and he was on the other side usually, so now he has to learn the whole — not learn because he’s been with us since we’ve been here, and one of the reasons is because he’s very dependable and he’s smart. So to hear a personnel group for training camp and all this, you’re going to this position and all of a sudden have to flip and go to that position, that’s Slay though,” Daboll said. “He’s a great teammate and he’s always done whatever we have asked of him. I’ve said that numerous times. I’m happy for him.”

Greg Joseph — The placekicker’s performance was overshadowed, but important. Joseph made all three of his field-goal attempts, connecting from 38, 31 and 24 yards. He has now made eight straight field goals.

Theo Johnson — The rookie tight end had only three receptions in the first four games, and a lot of people were left wondering why the fourth-round pick was playing so much more than Daniel Bellinger. Johnson had five catches for 48 yards on Sunday, showing for the first time an ability to be a difference-making pass catcher.

Dexter Lawrence — Sexy Dexy continued to destroy opposing offensive lines on Sunday. Lawrence had three sacks, four quarterback hits, and two tackles for loss amongst four overall tackles. Lawrence is clearly tired of losing, and he is playing like he single-handedly wants to stop it from happening. Lawrence also played a key role in the Simmons’ blocked field goal, pushing down a blocker to help clear Simmons’ path to placekicker Jason Myers.

Pass rush — Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux and D.J. Davidson probably all deserve individual ‘Kudos’. I am, though, going to wrap them all into a pass rush ‘Kudos’.

Seattle is clearly a pass first team. The Seahawks ran the ball just 11 times on Sunday. The Giants clearly went into the game wanting to make like miserable for Seattle quarterback Geno Smith, and they did just that. There were seven sacks (three by Lawrence, two by Davidson, one by Burns, and a half-sack each from Thibodeaux and Rakeem Nunez-Roches), and 10 quarterback hits.

Neither Burns nor Thibodeaux impacted the game through three quarters. In the fourth quarter, though, they did what the best players on a team need to do to win games. They stepped up.

Burns sacked Smith on fourth-and-1 at the Seattle 35-yard line with the Giants leading, 27-20. That was perhaps the biggest defensive play of the game, setting up a Joseph field goal that extended the Giants’ lead to two scores. Burns finished with a sack, a tackle for loss, a quarterback hit, and two passes defensed.

Thibodeaux had a half-sack, a quarterback hit, and was constantly buzzing around Smith late in the game.

Davidson had just a half-sack in 24 previous NFL games. He ended up with two vs. Seattle, and nearly had an interception on a deflection by Burns, while playing just 19 snaps.

The Giants lead the league with 22 sacks, 4.4 per game, through five weeks.

Offensive line — Jones was sacked three times, but was hit on just five other occasions. After the first play of the game, which nearly resulted in a disastrous lost fumble inside the Giants’ 10-yard line, he was protected comfortably the rest of the day.

Maligned as one of the worst run-blocking lines in the league, the Giants opened lots of holes for both Tracy and Jones as they carried the lion’s share of the rushing load.

“They’re a veteran group. Well coached by Carmen (Bricillo) and James (Ferentz). There is good chemistry in that room. A lot of extra meetings, not just with the line, but they’re staying late on Wednesdays and Thursdays and getting all sorts of food. Running backs are staying in there. You know, it’s good food, too,” Daboll said. “It’s just, they’re a close knit group. That’s what you need to be offensive line-wise. They’re veterans that have played a lot of football.”

Daniel Jones — The quarterback played his fourth straight good game on Sunday. He finished 23 of 34 for 257 yards and two touchdowns, and carried 11 times for 38 yards. Jones displayed toughness, lowering his shoulder and taking on would-be tacklers for extra yards, made plays when he had to, and executed perfectly thrown deep balls of 41 and 30 yards to Slayton, the second for a touchdown.

Jones is playing the way he did in 2022, and his overall season numbers in QBR, Points Above Average (PAA), and Expected Points Added (EPA) make him a borderline top 10 quarterback so far in 2024.

Jones did things like this on Sunday:

I mentioned it in my ‘things I think’ column post-game, but after six years of back-and-forth about Jones I can’t get over Daboll being asked Sunday night how much fun it is to coach Jones when he is playing this way.

“It’s always been fun to coach him because he’s a true pro,” Daboll said. “Daniel Jones has done everything that I and we have asked him to do. He’s here early. He stays late. He’s got good leadership traits. It’s never been easy for him, but everything we’ve asked him to do he does it the very best he can do it. He’s played some good football here. We’re going to need him to continue to do that.”

I don’t know what the future holds for Jones and the Giants. I do know that, whatever your feelings about Jones are, he deserves props for what he has been doing the past few weeks.

Wet Willies to …

Bengals-Ravens OT game — The overtime game between the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals meant that I did not get to see the first handful of plays. I hate, hate, hate that. Can’t blame the network, but I still hate it.

Kwillies to …

Eric Gray — You have got to be kidding me. Gray fumbled again on Sunday, his second fumble of the season, and he now has five fumbles in just 58 career touches. This one in unbelievable fashion, losing the ball at the goal line on fourth-and-1 and watching Rayshawn Jenkins return it 102 yards for a touchdown. Instead of the Giants finishing a 15-play drive with a game-opening touchdown, they finished it trailing, 7-0.

Gray did contribute as a receiver with three receptions for 50 yards, 16.7 yards per catch. So, he gets credit for that.

Wan’Dale Robinson — The tough-to-tackle slot receiver had just 36 yards receiving on six catches. Ho-hum, right? Not really. Robinson had a 7-yard touchdown catch, and two of his six receptions went for first downs. The Giants are using him as a catch-and-run chain mover, and he has been exceptional at making would-be tacklers miss.

Robinson, though, had two more drops that took potential points off the board.