Non-Negotiables: Seahawks-Giants

Seahawks can't get trapped by Giants in Week 5: Seaside Joe 2043

#1 Non-Negotiable - Seahawks can’t think about 49ers

Here are three figments of your imagination:

• Nelson Mandela dying in prison

• The shadow standing at the foot of your bed that watches you sleep at night

• You’re playing the 49ers on Thursday

If I was Mike Macdonald, I’d probably put a slide like this in my powerpoint to the Seahawks this week. Seattle absolutely can’t get caught thinking ahead to Thursday Night Football because if they do even Daniel Jones could be good enough to beat them.

As I wrote in the wake of Seattle’s loss on Monday night, perhaps a silver lining to that disappointment would be the Seahawks perking up for their following Week 5 game against the Giants. If they were 4-0 right now, maybe we’d all be overlooking the Giants and thinking that even a fluky loss wouldn’t necessarily be that bad. Seattle would still be 4-1.

However, losing to the Lions means that if the Seahawks screw up against the Giants this weekend, they’ll be just one loss to the 49ers on a short week away from flipping their perfect record to .500 in under two weeks.

Keep this in mind: After Week 5, the Seahawks have 12 games remaining…and HALF of those games are against the NFC West. And also, Seattle is 0-1 in the NFC despite the fact that we’re going into the second quarter mark of the season…can the Seahawks even recover from an 0-2 or 0-3 start in the conference if that’s what happens?

Beating the Giants isn’t just a formality. It’s a necessity.

Adjustments: Respect the Giants DEFENSE

As a reminder, “adjustments” is a critical component to any non-negitable habit. I’ve got a list of almost 20 daily non-negotiable habits that I’ve executed every day for the last 2 to 5 years depending on which habit we’re talking about, and I didn’t get that far without having to make constant adjustments to unforeseen and foreseeable obstacles.

So too must the Seahawks make adjustments pre-game and in-game in order to complete their non-negotiables and for this one that means going against every rational fiber of their and our being and actually respecting the New York Giants…defense.

It might be the Giants best defense since they were roughly a top-10 unit in 2020. All four Giants games have had both teams combine for less than 40 points, so this could end up as a similar low-scoring affair.

By EPA, the Giants are basically average against the pass and the run equally. In fact, by EPA per play allowed, the Giants and Lions are neck-and-neck, so by that logic we might be getting kind of an equal representation of quality although it’s only been four games and this one is at home, not on the road in a hostile environment of fans who have never seen their team in the Super Bowl so Monday Night Football is definitely a big deal in Detroit.

The Seahawks must go into Week 5 a little bit worried about their ability to score 20 points against a defense that hasn’t given up more than 21 to a team yet this season (including the Vikings, Commanders, and Cowboys, all legitimately good offenses right now) and that means lighting a fire under the ass of the defense to keep the Giants absolutely, completely, 1000% scoreless.

#2 Non-Negotiable: The Seahawks must SUFFOCATE New York’s depleted offense

As bad as the offenses of the Broncos, Patriots, and Dolphins were in their games against Seattle, comparing any of those teams to the Giants without Malik Nabers or Devin Singletary would be like bringing back John Elway, Tom Brady, and Dan Marino from the dead to those other three teams, respectively. That’s how much better Bo Nix to Courtland Sutton looks than Daniel Jones throwing to Wan’Dale Robinson and Jalin Hyatt.

Nabers has been ruled out this week and he might be the most valuable receiver in the NFL to his own team.

No, I really mean that.

There are better wide receivers, but nobody else who means so much to his team. If Justin Jefferson misses a game, the Vikings still have Jordan Addison, Aaron Jones, Jalen Nailor, and we’re finding out maybe Sam Darnold is a legitimate quarterback with Kevin O’Connell as his coach.

The Giants have put everything into Nabers: His 38.2% target share is the highest of any receiver in the NFL and his 51.2% share of New York’s air yards is among the three highest marks in the league too. Daniel Jones is 11-of-11 with 11 first downs and two touchdowns on third and fourth down throws to Nabers. Though Wan’Dale Robinson has twice as many targets on third and fourth down, he only has SIX first downs on those plays.

Hyatt, the team’s third round pick in 2023, hasn’t caught a pass this year. Darius Slayton is third on the team with 10 catches for 122 yards. And running back Devin Singletary, who has 221 of the Giants’ 247 rushing yards among their running backs, is doubtful to play.

The Seahawks sacked the Giants 11 TIMES last season, and somehow even that seems to fall short of encapsulating how much Seattle’s defense should dominate New York’s offense if they play up to their potential.

Adjustments: You just never know

Just like they must respect the Giants defense, the Seahawks also must respect Wan’Dale Robinson, Hyatt, Slayton, Theo Johnson, Tyrone Tracy, Eric Gray, etc. as if they’re just as good as Nabers and Singletary.

They’re not. But if the Seahawks treat them like they are and show up as if they’re playing the best offense in the league, then the Giants won’t even get past the 50.

Keep these names in mind…Of the 10 players to rush for at least 150 yards against Pete’s Seahawks, you will find Kenyan Drake, Mike James, and LeGarrette Blount. Markus Wheaton once had 201 yards against Seattle. And Nick Mullens threw for 414 yards and 2 touchdowns against the Seahawks in 2018, but that was a 43-16 win over the 49ers so I don’t mind bringing it up.

You just never know, so the Seahawks have to let them know.

#3 Non-Negotiable: Let them get the penalties

Especially because it’s the Giants. Especially because it’s in Seattle.

The Seahawks are at home, so losing the penalty battle in this one, no…not dominating the penalty battle in this game would be unaccepable.

Time to clean it up and force 7 false starts while you’re at it.

Adjustments: I don’t know, but cut it out

The Seahawks have 32 penalties (6th-most) for 253 yards (10th-most), while their opponents have 34 penalties (4th-most) for 288 yards (4th-most). It seems like it’s offsetting value, but if your penalties take points off of the board (and we know that Seattle’s have) then it’s not even stevens.

We’ve seen it too many times to not make it non-negotiable: Sometimes it only takes one penalty to lose a game.