On the surface it’s difficult to get too excited by a 29-20 victory over a team that didn’t make the playoffs last season. The Seattle Seahawks entered the game 3-1, though, and gave NFC contender Detroit a run for their money last week. Furthermore, Lumen Field’s “12th man” of screaming fans makes it a difficult place to play for any visiting team. The New York Giants did win there in 2020…but without any fans in the building. The past two years the Seahawks have given the Giants two of their more dispiriting losses.

Put all of this together, and the Giants’ 29-20 victory – a game they really dominated and that was only close because of a questionable goal line fumble call that was a 14-point swing – has to be seen as one of their more impressive efforts of the past two seasons.

How did they do it? Let’s look at some of the Pro Football Focus numbers and see whether they agree with the eye test.

Offense

Snap counts

• As usual, Daniel Jones and the starting offensive line played every snap. The stability on the line is one of the more remarkable things about this season.
• With Malik Nabers out, wide receiver snaps were divided pretty equally among Darius Slayton, Wan’Dale Robinson, and for the first time, Jalin Hyatt…except that Hyatt wasn’t targeted even once in his 48 snaps. Isaiah Hodgins also got some playing time in the second half.
• Eric Gray started the game, but whether by design or by virtue of Gray’s disastrous fumble, Tyrone Tracy wound up seeing the bulk of the action. Dante Miller got his first NFL snap (I missed it, he didn’t touch the ball).
• The tight end rotation remained stable, with Theo Johnson playing most snaps and Chris Manhertz or Daniel Bellinger on the field about 25% of the time. Josh Ezeudu saw a couple of snaps as a jumbo tight end.

PFF grades

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

It’s refreshing to see the Giants’ offense come out of a game with six players grading above average for a change. I might quibble with some of the details, though.

• Daniel Jones graded barely above average (70.4), but I thought this game was much better for him than last week’s, when he graded 10 points higher despite never getting the Giants into the end zone. Two TD passes – and good ones, two big-time throws, and only one turnover-worthy play in a win somehow was less impressive to Pro Football Focus than no TD passes, one big-time throw, and two turnover-worthy plays last week. Jones was graded 90.4 when kept clean (22 of 29, 252 yards, 2 TDs, 2 BTTs, 0 TWPs), which makes sense, and only 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 weighting his clean and pressured scores three to one and adding gives a mean grade of about 70. I guess that’s where the overall grade comes from. To me the whole was greater than the sum of the parts Sunday.
• The offensive line was a mixed bag:

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

Still, the line was only charged with seven pressures and one sack (the other two sacks were deemed Jones’ responsibility). Greg Van Roten had his best game as a Giant, and Jermaine Eluemunor and Andrew Thomas were above average at the tackles. Jon Runyan and John MIchael Schmitz were slightly below average, but by Giants’ standards of the past decade, I’ll take these results any time. Thank you, Carmen Bricillo.

• The two offensive stars yesterday other than Jones both scored well above average: Darius Slayton (77.6 receiving grade) and Tyrone Tracy (77.3 rushing grade). Wan’Dale Robinson was given an average grade (60.8). Among others who touched the ball, Theo Johnson had his best game of the season (62.5), while Eric Gray (43.5) was naturally graded heavily down because of his goal line fumble.

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 decreasing order, Nick McCloud, Cor’Dale Flott, Dane Belton, Adoree’ Jackson, and Dru Phillips were on the field from about two-thirds of the time to one-third of the time. Meanwhile, starting linebacker Micah McFadden played fewer than half the defensive snaps, and Darius Muasau and Patrick Johnson only added a few more. In other words, the Giants spent a lot of time in dime defense, which makes sense given the Seahawks’ 3-headed corps of dangerous wide receivers.
• On the edge, Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux each played about 80% of snaps, with. Azeez Ojulari getting about 35% playing time. Dexter Lawrence was on the field almost as much as Burns and Thibodeaux, while Rakeem Nunez-Roches played about half the downs, Elijah Chatman about 40%, and D.J. Davidson about a third.

PFF grades

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

• The No. 1 story of this game IMHO was the performance of the Giants’ secondary. In particular the much-maligned Banks had an outstanding game, possibly the best of his career (84.6 grade, a forced fumble, three pass breakups, and only two receptions in five targets for 17 yards and 7 YAC). Cor’Dale Flott was almost as good (74.2, 2 receptions in threetargets for 14 yards and 0 YAC). Andru Phillips, Tyler Nubin, Jason Pinnock, and Adoree’ Jackson all played fairly well, while Nick McCloud and Dane Belton were below average.
• It was a good day for the defensive line, which was credited with 24 total pressures and seven sacks. Lawrence (73.9) as usual led the way with three sacks. Brian Burns (68.3) and Kayvon Thibodeaux (64.7) played fairly well, each with a sack and with five and four hurries, respectively. D.J. 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 hurry.
• Linebackers Bobby Okereke (47.2), Micah McFadden (48.1), and Darius Muasau (65.4) all had quiet games.