The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Giants vs. Seahawks

When David Carr’s playing in the fourth quarter, it means something’s really, really wrong or something’s really, really right. For the Giants today, things went really, really right. They blew Seattle off the field, by a score of 44-6. Big Blue totally dominated the Seahawks on both sides of the ball.

The Good

The Giants rolled up 523 total yards (342 in the first half; the most in the NFL this year, and the most for the G-men in 17 years), to Seattle’s 187. They rushed for 254 yards (Seattle had 74), and passed for 272 (to Seattle’s 113). The Giants also had the edge in first downs (27 to 13) and time of possession (36:28 to 23:32). In the past, the Giants couldn’t buy a win after the bye week. This time it was no problem. And no Plaxico Burress on the field? No one even noticed.

Eli Manning led an offense that was a relentless machine. Their first drive of the game was all of four plays, but they cruised 91 yards down the field, capped off by a 32-yard Domenik Hixon touchdown reception. Hixon was the star of the first half with four catches for 102 yards, a TD and also gained 15 yards on an end-around. Plaxico Burress? Who’s that. Manning spread the ball around, with eight different players catching a pass. Along with Hixon, Amani Toomer and Sinorice Moss (two TD’s) also hauled in four passes. Even Mario Manningham caught a pass, and Steve Smith caught one shoeless. Manning was a precise 19 for 25, with two touchdown passes and threw for 267 yards. He led seven different scoring drives before being replaced by Carr. The offense had 12 plays of 15 yards or longer. They attacked the Seattle D and carved them apart. Jeff Feagles didn’t boom his first punt until the third quarter. And Tom Coughlin chose to stick with Old Man Carney, who was perfect once again, kicking field goals of 29, 33 and 35 yards.

The offensive line not only gave Manning the time to stand in the pocket and complete passes all game long (only one sack), they led the way for a pounding running attack. Earth, Wind and Fire took turns scorching the Seattle defense. Brandon Jacobs bulled his way for two TD’s and gained 136 yards on 15 carries, including a 44-yard run on the first drive of the game. Derrick Ward pitched in with 40 yards on seven carries. And Ahmad Bradshaw finished things off with 65 yards on 11 carries.

On the other side of the ball, Big Blue’s D held Seattle to only two field goals. Fred Robbins and Justin Tuck sandwiched Matt Hasselbeck in the first quarter, almost knocking him out of the game. Mathias Kiwanuka and Dave Tollefson recorded sacks. Kevin Dockery had the only pick of the day and ran it back 44 yards. And Aaron Ross led the team in tackles, with six. The whole second half was garbage time, so Coughlin let the defenders’ kids play a few series. The Seahawks still couldn’t score.

The Bad

After an incredible start, Hixon had to leave the game with a concussion. He missed the second half. And Kareem McKenzie also left the game with a concussion. When you win 44-6, it’s hard to find things that went wrong. Carney had a kickoff go out of bounds, which gave Seattle excellent field possession, leading to their second field goal (and two penalties along the way didn’t help). But the kicker probably just felt sorry for the Hawks.

The Ugly

There was nothing ugly for the Giants in this game, so we’ll pick the Mets bullpen. The season’s over but they’re still ugly.

The Giants are 4-0 for the first time since 1990, and lool like (arguably) the best team in the NFL. All aspects of their game are firing on all cylinders. Next week they travel to Cleveland for the Monday Nighter. Hopefully somebody will remind Plaxico that they’re not playing on Sunday.