New York Giants: Winners and Losers from G-Men's Loss vs. Seahawks

After an ugly 36-25 defeat at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks, the New York Giants fell to 3-2 on the season. The Giants have had an impressive and unexpected start to the 2011 season, so it was a surprise that the G-Men had a letdown game against the Seahawks during Week 5 of the NFL season.

Seattle came into the showdown with the Giants at 1-3 and picked up their second win of the season with a surprise victory on the Giants' home field.

Few things went right and several things went wrong for New York.

Here are some of the winners and losers from the Giants' Week 5 loss to the Seahawks.

Winner: Victor Cruz

New York Giants receiver Victor Cruz is quickly becoming one of the favorite targets of Eli Manning to start the 2011 NFL season.

Cruz has had three great weeks in a row for the Giants. In Week 3, he had three catches for 110 yards and two scores, which was followed by his Week 4 performance where he caught six balls for 98 yards.

Cruz continued his stellar play and had a great game against the Seahawks with eight catches for 161 yards (both career highs) and a touchdown. Despite losing a fumble during the game, Cruz emerged as one of the few positives for the G-Men this week.

Look for Cruz to continue his hot rookie season and be a major factor in the Giants' offense moving forward.

Loser: Giants' Defense

The Seattle Seahawks' offense wasn't exactly the biggest worry coming into the Week 5 matchup for the Giants. But you would've never known that watching this game.

Coming into Week 5, the Seahawks were ranked 29th in the NFL in points and 32nd in total yards. They were near the bottom in the league in both passing and rushing yards as well.

That made no difference in this one as the Seahawks got 279 yards from their passing game with two different quarterbacks, as well as 145 yards on the ground, numbers you wouldn't expect from one of the worst offenses in all of football.

The Giants' defense let them down in this game and were the major cause in this unexpected loss to Seattle. The Giants' defense will need to step it up if they want to beat some of the better offenses in this league.

They can't hope to have much success with letdowns like these.

Loser: Giants' Offensive Line

If you look at the numbers, you can tell the Giants didn't get much help from their offensive line in this one. Watching the game alone, you could tell the Giants were getting beat at the line of scrimmage by the Seahawks' defense for the majority of the game.

Eli Manning saw a good amount of pressure all day from the Seahawks, who sacked the Giants' quarterback three times during the game.

On top of that, the Giants' running game was shutdown. Ahmad Bradshaw was only able to muster up 58 yards on the ground, while the Giants' attack as a whole only had 69 yards. It's obvious how important the offensive line is to a good running game, and it was made crystal clear today.

With a lack of a running game due to poor offensive line play, the Giants were forced into a one-dimensional style of play, which ultimately led to Manning's three interceptions and a New York loss.

Loser: Giants' 3rd-Down Offense

It's often been said that you can tell how an NFL team did in their game simply by looking at their third-down efficiency. That principal was evident when looking at the Giants' stat sheet.

The G-Men were a miserable 1-for-12 on third downs, making it impossible for them to extend several drives during the day.

No team in this league can expect to be successful when they are as bad on third downs as the Giants were today. For the season, the Giants are 21-for-68 on third down conversions, which is a little over a 30 percent success rate.

The Giants inability to convert on third downs in Week 5 was a stark contrast to their Week 3 output, going 7-for-15 in their win against the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Giants will have to be much better than they were today on third downs or else they will have a tough time putting points on the board in 2011.

Loser: Eli Manning

When looking at Eli Manning's stat line, it looks pretty sexy until you get to the interceptions column.

Manning was 24-of-39 for 420 yards and three touchdowns. Fantasy owners would kill to have those numbers until you get to Manning's three interceptions, one of which ended up being returned for a touchdown to end the game.

If Eli has been criticized for one thing, it's been his uncanny ability to throw interceptions.

To add to his tough week, Manning fumbled the ball twice, losing one, and he was beat up by three sacks during his offensive line's lackluster performance.

Can Eli be blamed for everything that went wrong today? Not necessarily, but he is the quarterback of this team and the Giants' leader, so he will take more blame than most of his teammates.

He certainly didn't help his cause throwing three picks in the game and despite the game-ending interception he threw, which wasn't entirely his fault, it still happened on his watch and in the red zone with a chance to win.

Manning will have to turn the ball over less moving forward if he wants his team to be in the playoffs in 2011.