5 NY Giants to Watch vs. the Seattle Seahawks
The next stop for the New York Giants is Seattle, also known as “The Emerald City.”
As was the case for Dorothy in L. Frank Baum’s timeless classic The Wizard of Oz, there won’t be a true wizard at the end of the journey to magically bestow upon the Giants the brains, heart and courage necessary to compete against the Seattle Seahawks, a team that has won 18 of its last 20 regular-season home games.
Instead, the Giants have to look deep within themselves, just as Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion did, to find those intangibles.
It doesn’t help that The Wicked Witch of the West, aka the injury bug, has gleefully claimed some of the Giants’ key personnel.
Of the 22 starters on offense and defense that took the field for the Giants in Week 1, 36.3 percent of the personnel will not be available for this game thanks to injuries.
Yikes!
Injuries aside, the journey must continue for the Giants, who like Dorothy and friends, need to realize that they do have the brains, heart and courage to stand on the same field as the defending Super Bowl champions.
They just need to show it as a team, with these five players in particular needing to have a solid showing.
WR Odell Beckham Jr.
1 of 5
It is probably just a matter of time before receiver Odell Beckham Jr. starts to see double coverage. Until then, the rookie can likely expect to see a lot of Richard Sherman, the NFL’s fourth-best cornerback per Pro Football Focus (subscription required) this week.
“It is definitely a challenge. They’re a great defense and have been a great defense for a while,” Beckham told reporters this week of his upcoming test.
“It is nothing that you are not willing to face. These are the games you live to play for, the moments you live to play for, to go against the best of the best, to go against Richard Sherman, the Seattle Seahawks and the [Legion of Boom].
"To go against all those guys, why not? Why not embrace that opportunity? Why not take the challenge, accept it and face it?”
While still very much a top NFL cornerback, Sherman hasn’t been quite as effective as last season, when per PFF he had a 32.2 NFL rating after nine weeks of play, the third-best rating in the league that season.
This year, opponents are actually targeting Sherman a bit more often, his current NFL rating is at 71.3, 20th in the NFL. That’s a worse rating than Prince Amukamara’s 58.2 mark.
Still, Sherman is a tough customer to face. He has allowed 50 percent of the passes thrown against him to be complete for 245 yards, 69 after the catch.
He has also given up one touchdown and had one interception while breaking up three passes.
With Victor Cruz on the shelf, Beckham is now the Giants’ team leader among the receivers with 5.2 yards after the catch. His matchup against Sherman should be one of the marquee ones of this game.
DE Jason Pierre-Paul
2 of 5
Last week, head coach Tom Coughlin, in his assessment of defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, offered a backhanded compliment during his daily press briefing with reporters.
"We had hoped that we would get the kind of game which would reflect more pressure on the quarterback. I thought Jason played hard. He just didn’t get a lot done," Coughlin said.
To recap, the official Giants-Colts game book credited Pierre-Paul with two tackles, one quarterback hit and one pass defended against the Colts on Monday night.
Per the Giants’ weekly stat packet, he now has 39 tackles, which includes a team-leading six tackles for a loss. He also leads the defense with 3.5 sacks and his eight quarterback hits total is second, behind Robert Ayers’ 12.
Coughlin was asked if the expectations of Pierre-Paul were similar to the 16.5 sacks he had in 2011.
“Twelve would be nice, thanks. No, I mean, he knows. He looks at it,” the coach said. “He was very explosive in practice and sometimes is not as explosive in games. We’re trying like heck to work with his technique a little bit more to give him a little bit of an edge. That’s basically where we are.”
Pierre-Paul, who popped up on the Giants' injury report last week with a shoulder ailment, could be struggling through yet another injury that is hurting his technique.
“I think sometimes he doesn’t get the jump on the ball that I’ve seen him get,” Coughlin said. “It kind of all goes together.”
If Pierre-Paul is looking for a good matchup to get things going, this week’s faceoff against Seahawks left tackle Russell Okung might be just what the doctor ordered.
Okung (calf), listed as probable for Sunday’s game, has struggled this season. Per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Okung has allowed 13 quarterback pressures this season.
Assuming Pierre-Paul fixed whatever technique issues Coughlin and the coaching staff saw, this could be an opportunity for the defensive end to get things moving in the right direction toward becoming his dominating self once again.
DE Robert Ayers Jr.
3 of 5
The Giants haven’t made any announcement regarding the status of starting left defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka, who is listed as questionable with a knee ailment on their injury report this week, but who made the flight to Seattle.
However, if the coaches are smart—and we would like to think they are—they will start Robert Ayers Jr. at left defensive end ahead of Kiwanuka if they want to get the pass rush going.
The Seahawks’ foe who will be lining up across from the left defensive end is right tackle Justin Britt, who is the weak link on Seattle’s offensive line.
Per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Britt has had three poor games in a row in pass protection, allowing 15 of his 23 quarterback hurries this season in that three-game stretch alone.
Ayers, meanwhile, has been one of the Giants’ best defensive linemen on a weekly basis. Per the team’s weekly stat pack, he only has 13 tackles, but his 3.0 sacks are just a half-sack behind team leader Jason Pierre-Paul, and his 12 quarterback hits lead the team by a mile.
It’s a mystery as to why the coaches have stuck with Kiwanuka as the starter for this long, especially since he has had difficulty against solo blocking.
Ayers has repeatedly shown this season that he is more explosive and more successful in beating his man.
It’s beyond unbelievable that prior to last week’s showing in which he received a little more than 60 percent of the team’s snaps on defense, per PFF, he hadn’t logged more than 40 snaps in any given game this season.
Thanks to Kiwanuka’s knee injury, this might be just the catalyst to get Ayers onto the field more, where if he continues his dominating play, he could have a field day against the struggling Britt.
"Yeah, we saw enough to put him on the edge, no doubt about," defensive coordinator Perry Fewell told reporters. "We still like matching up because the game a lot of times is about can you match up and take advantage of a guard or a tackle, or what have you. We would definitely put Robert Ayers on the edge."
If Ayers does get on the field and dominates Britt early, that could help Pierre-Paul on the other side because it will force the Seahawks to pick their poison regarding which of the Giants’ defensive ends should be double-teamed.
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P Steve Weatherford
4 of 5
There might be some players on the Giants team who aren’t playing with passion, but punter Steve Weatherford certainly isn’t one of them.
Weatherford has been valiantly trying to gut out a severe left ankle injury suffered in Week 1, an injury that, he revealed to reporters, includes torn ligaments.
These days he not only has the ankle issue, but he has developed a back problem that he disclosed to reporters stems from a disc injury that could be related to overcompensating for his ankle.
“It’s just exploding up through the ball that’s the problem,” Weatherford told reporters on Friday. “Where I’m at right now, physically I feel strong, but when I go to plant and spring up through the ball, the combination of a little bit of the ankle and then the back comes in.”
The normally upbeat punter didn’t practice on Wednesday and Thursday and was limited in Friday’s practice. He tried to put on a brave face, but it was clear to see the concern and frustration in his demeanor.
Currently the Giants have allowed 213 yards on 19 punt returns (11.1 average), including one touchdown, tying them for the fifth-worst punt-coverage mark in the league with Carolina.
While his current net punting average of 38.5 is slightly better than last year’s 38.1 (the latter mark being the ninth-lowest net punting average in the NFL, by the way), the 4.97-second hang time that Pro Football Focus (subscription required) has him down for is down from his 5.10 average in 2013.
Can 0.13 of a second really make a difference? If the coverage team isn’t getting downfield—and granted, not all of the problems are directly related to the lack of hang time as players haven’t been able to get off blocks—that’s not going to help matters.
Weatherford, who made the trip west with the team, told reporters on Friday that he planned to move around as much as he could during the six-plus-hour flight and to stay as hydrated as possible in order to avoid any issues.
“I’m optimistic that I’ll feel good,” he said.
The Giants will need him to feel good and to perform the way he is capable of doing lest the special teams become a factor in what is already shaping up to be a giant task against the defending Super Bowl champions.
CB Jayron Hosley
5 of 5
The Giants' cornerback situation seems to be cursed this season, with the injury bug striking down one member after another.
In case you’ve missed the latest, Prince Amukamara, the Giants’ top cornerback, is done or the season thanks to a torn bicep. Amukamara tweeted an appreciation message to fans and supporters:
Appreciate all your thoughts and prayers! pic.twitter.com/dv1BlKQJUM
— Prince Amukamara (@PrinceAmukamara) November 7, 2014
Slot corners Walter Thurmond and Trumaine McBride, who likely would have been the next men up, are also done for the year thanks to a torn pectoral and broken hand, respectively.
The next man up, Zack Bowman, was hospitalized earlier this week with viral gastroenteritis, more commonly known as the stomach flu.
As anyone who has ever had a bad stomach virus knows, those bugs can sap one’s energy for several days, though Bowman told reporters on Friday that he was feeling better and that he believed he would be ready to compete on Sunday.
There is also the on-going saga with Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, who has been dealing with back and hamstring injures for more than a month.
Per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), last week Rodgers-Cromartie played in 64 of the team’s 76 defensive snaps, his highest snap total since Week 3, believed to be his last game played before the injury situation commenced.
If Rodgers-Cromartie can’t make it through most of the game Sunday or if Bowman isn’t ready to go, defensive coordinator Perry Fewell confirmed for reporters that Jayron Hosley is the next man up on the outside in the base defense.
Fewell also disclosed that Hosley would move to the nickel, while Chandler Fenner would replace Hosley on the outside.
Any way you slice it, having Hosley, who has not played well on defense in the three games he has been on the field this season, doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
And why should it? Per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), his 146.5 NFL Rating consists of allowing six of nine passes to be completed for 112 yards and one touchdown, with zero interceptions and only one pass breakup.
Figure that wherever he lines up on the field, Hosley is going to be the No. 1 target by Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson.
One glimmer of good news is that Fewell has admitted that they will have to simplify some of the things they have previously done on defense to compensate for all the new faces.
“Obviously, when you have new faces, you can’t, you will not, do as much as you have done in the past, and you have to quickly find out what the strengths of the new faces are, and how much terminology they can digest in a short amount of time,” he said.
In the past, when Fewell has simplified things, the Giants have actually played better. For the Giants’ sake, they are hoping history repeats itself.
Advanced statistics courtesy of Pro Football Focus (subscription required) unless otherwise noted.
Patricia Traina covers the New York Giants for Inside Football and the Sports Xchange. All quotes and other information obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced. Follow Patricia on Twitter @Patricia_Traina.
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