Vision Board: Seahawks-Giants
Seaside Joe 1334: On Charles Cross getting revenge, Will Dissly, and goal line stands
I was worried that I would go 0-for-3 on my Seahawks-Chargers vision board as last week’s game was nearly over, but I actually reckon that I was basically right on 2-of-3. The universe just speaks in mysterious ways.
The Seahawks have 0 turnovers (Vision: DESTROYED) Geno Smith’s early-game interception was not a bad decision or a terrible throw, but closer to bad luck. The Dee Eskridge fumbled exchange was the opposite of protecting the football.
Ken Walker had 200 total yards (Vision: I GOT MY GOOD ENOUGH DEGREE) Walker rushed for 168 yards and I’ll take that as a victory for my visions. I often compare Seahawks running backs to Marshawn Lynch, but only because Lynch was so great and it’s fascinating when others do better in something. Lynch’s single-game career-high for rushing was 153 yards. I’m quite certain Walker will have some 200-yard games in his career.
Uchenna Nwosu will have two sacks (Vision: I’LL TAKE IT) My real thought for this vision was basically that Nwosu would be the player of the game on defense. So when Nwosu finished the game without any sacks, that didn’t seem possible. Well, Ryan Neal was the defensive player of the game, that’s for sure, but Nwosu reportedly had 11 pressures according to Next Gen Stats. They now credit Nwosu as the NFL’s leader in QB pressures, with 31.
I do not dispute that Nwosu leads the NFL in pressures, although I think there needs to be a better definition of what a “pressure” really is and it seems kind of silly to be talking about this stat like it’s the same as a sack. A sack is when the play ends because the quarterback has been tackled behind the line of scrimmage. Very easy to define and account for. But “pressures” are different at every single outlet you talk to, whether it’s PFF, Next Gen Stats (which is more like the official NFL number), FootballOutsiders, or Pro-Football-Reference. It’s a little absurd and I ask for more uniformity because I can show you websites that say Nwosu has 10 pressures on the entire season.
I will never say that something is true simply because it is complimentary of a Seahawks player. I need to know that it is true for real! If you have anything to add about QB pressures, let me know in the Seaside comments.
But did Nwosu prove problematic for his former team? That’s indisputible.
At the end of the Seahawks-Giants game, either Daniel Jones will be 7-1 or Geno Smith will be 5-3. Two quarterbacks who were backing up Eli Manning within a couple years of each other. Now vying at midseason for one of the top seeds in the NFC.
Which team is more surprising?
Seasiders know that I spent day after day in the offseason trying to prepare fans for the worst. To forgive Pete Carroll for losing 14 games before Pete Carroll had even lost one game. To just “wait and see” that Drew Lock would inevitably start over Geno Smith. To ask whether or not 2023 would be the first time in franchise history that the Seahawks had the number one pick in the draft.
At least that final expectation is still feasible thanks to the Broncos.
But when pressed to name three or four other teams that would compete with Seattle for the top quarterback prospect in the draft, the Giants made as good of a choice as any:
At least 10 losses in each of their last five seasons
4-13 last year with the 31st ranked offense
Didn’t make a change at quarterback
The Giants also hired a new head coach and general manager, but those decisions can go either way. Maybe Brian Daboll would turn around the Giants quickly, as Sean McVay did for the Rams. Or he could be just as bad as Joe Judge.
He’s already won more games this year than Judge did all of last year.
And shockingly it’s not just Daniel Jones who kept his job. The Giants did not get a bunch of upgrades on offense. They were stuck with Kenny Golladay and Kadarius Toney and Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton, all players who contributed to the losing teams of the past. They haven’t even had better seasons. Toney was just traded to the Chiefs.
The only real differences are Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, a healthy and resurgent Saquon Barkley, and Jones isn’t turning the ball over every other play. New York is fourth in turnovers this season after ranking 32nd last season.
So for me, the Giants are definitely the biggest surprise of the first half. Because without getting a lot better—and they might have been the worst team in the NFL last season—they seem to be a lot better.
The Giants are not an explosive, high-scoring offense, as they rank 18th in points. But they are second in rushing yards and adept and doing just enough to be score more points than the other team. That includes six wins by a combined total of 27 points. The Giants beat the Packers in Lambeau, the Titans in Tennessee, the Jaguars in London, and the Ravens at home two weeks ago.
I don’t see these as easy victories and yet I somehow also don’t know if New York is a good team. You would think that Daniel Jones being 6-1 would convince me that Daniel Jones the long-term answer for the Giants, but that hasn’t been the case. He’s like Peter in Office Space, doing the bare minimum of work to not get fired.
And he’s 6-1, which remarkably I find to be more surprising than Geno Smith being 4-3. Because the Seahawks and Giants have been on opposite ends of the spectrum of success over the last decade and even if Seattle had a lot of openings to fill and were doing much of the gap-filling with rookies, I’ve always felt that the schedule could open the door to a .500 record. I wrote about it in a bonus post at the start of training camp, that the Seahawks might have a much greater chance to be above .500 than most in the media (and myself) expected. Why? Because of Pete Carroll, of course.
I don’t know that I could have written the same article for the Giants at the start of training camp, and New York has a better record than Seattle.
Incredible.
That could bode well for the Seahawks because I think they’ve actually been a bit more dominant than the Giants, especially in the last five weeks. The Giants haven’t scored more than 27 points all year and the Seahawks have scored at least 32 in three of their last four games. This might be a rudimentary comparison. But sometimes you gotta be able to score 30 points to win and we haven’t seen Daniel Jones do that yet.
Now for the visions. Here’s a pre-vision to the visions: That you will help support Seaside Joe with a subscription, gift subscription for a friend, or sharing this post with Seahawks fans.
Seahawks have a key goal-line stand
The Giants have scored a total of 15 touchdowns this season, with nine of those coming via the run. Of those nine, six are runs of four years or less. Three of those are by Saquon Barkley, one for Jones, one for Gary Brightwell, and one for tight end Daniel Bellinger.
So the Giants have as many short touchdown runs as Jones has touchdown passes of any kind.
On the Seahawks side, the defense has allowed a lot of touchdowns this year: 11 passing touchdowns, 10 rushing touchdowns, one defensive touchdown. Of the 10 rushing touchdowns, four have been close runs.
However, Seattle hasn’t allowed a short rushing touchdown since Jamaal Williams scored in the second quarter in the Lions game. They have been beaten in the red zone, especially by Taysom Hill, but we know that Pete Carroll defenses always get “activated” when they’re backed up into their own end zone.
The Seahawks are ranked 22nd in red zone defense (and 31st in red zone offense) and the Giants are ranked 22nd in red zone offense (and fourth in red zone defense). This game could come down to one play near the goal line and I’m envisiong Seattle get the best of the play.
Will Dissly scores two times
I follow this TikToker named Nico on Twitter (“TikToker” is just what I call young people now) because I want to get a sense of what Gen Z thinks and says about the NFL. And this tweet from Nico wanting his favorite team to trade for Will Dissly—which brought in dozens of replies of “What are you talking about?”—because Dissly is a “blocking TE & I can’t imagine he’d cost a ton” has inspired me to put some of my vision towards him.
Normally Nico tweets stuff that is smart or fine. This is a rare miss that really makes him look like a TikToker.
There’s really no need for anyone to comment on the absurdity of the tweet, or to explain why it’s not possible, just let Nico have this mulligan. We should really be giving out a lot more mulligans to everybody for their tweets and lightening up and never trying to correct people for some bad swings. But I do want to take a moment to highlight Dissly and to keep eradicating the “blocking tight end” label.
Dissly has caught four-of-four targets in two of his last four games, and caught three passes in two other games. This may not seem hugely significant, but Dissly’s season-high for catches last year was three (and it happened in Week 1) and he only had two games with more than two catches in 2020. One with three and one with four.
We haven’t seen Dissly get this kind of usage since the first five games of 2019, when he caught 23 of 26 targets for 262 yards with four touchdowns.
For a blocking tight end, Dissly sure looks more valuable as a receiver this year than someone like Mike Gesicki, who doesn’t do any blocking at all.
Dissly has caught 19 of 20 targets for 194 yards with three touchdowns and I could see that turning into a stat line close to 50 catches, 500 yards, and at least eight touchdowns by the end of the season. That’s essentially the season that Dawson Knox had with the Bills in 2021 and everyone was so high on Knox coming into the year. Knox has caught 15 of 20 targets for 148 yards and one touchdown over five games.
How is Knox any more of a receiver than Dissly?
The Giants have allowed seven passing touchdowns this season, with the two most-recent going to tight ends (Marcedes Lewis, Mark Andrews). I see that trend continuing with Geno Smith finding Dissly twice for touchdowns. DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett were both listed as questionable on Friday.
Even if one or both are able to play on Sunday, the Seahawks have had all week to create a game plan that features somebody other than Metcalf and/or Lockett. Who better than Dissly?
Charles Cross leads charge to keep Geno un-sacked
This is a healthy bowl of food, according to Google Images. And Geno Smith will be kept healthy against the Giants defensive front so that Charles Cross and Abe Lucas can have their “revenge game” against a team that picked an offensive tackle before them this year.
I feel like usually compare offensive tackles who were drafted close to one another but this time I haven’t heard much said about how Ikem Ekwonu, Evan Neal, and Charles Cross are playing relative to one another. That’s probably because they’re all very different players.
The Giants were not going to pick Cross because Cross is primarily a left tackle and New York is already set there with Andrew Thomas. They could have chosen Ekwonu at five, but decided to take pass rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux (one sack in five games) there and then Neal at seven. Reports (and Neal himself) say that he played very poorly to begin the year, but has gotten better as the games have gone on.
However, Neal is not likely to play this week because of an MCL injury.
Even if Cross was not the right pick for the Giants, there’s still this lingering question of “What was wrong with Abraham Lucas?” I know that Rob Staton was one person who felt Lucas was as good as any tackle in the draft. There didn’t seem to be a lot working against him that wasn’t at least also working against Cross. But Lucas also tested better than Cross and most other offensive linemen.
In an alternate universe, the Giants could have drafted Thibodeaux, Drake London, and then nab Lucas at pick 43 instead of receiver Wan’Dale Robinson.
It’s early to do “What if” but not if you’re Cross and Lucas. We hear all the time from quarterbacks and receivers, “I will always remember the names drafted ahead of me at my position.” Why not offensive tackles?
Geno Smith has only been kept clean once all year, against the Lions, and he’s been sacked at least two times in every other contest. Sometimes those sacks have been extremely costly. Seattle needs Cross and Lucas at their best on Sunday against Dexter Lawrence (four sacks), Oshane Ximines (two sacks), and Thibodeaux. The Giants have not generated a ton of pressure or sacks this season, but uncertainty at guard (Gabe Jackson, Phil Haynes both questionable) and the concerning play of Jake Curhan during his most recent appearance, makes it all the more important for the offensive line to be stout.
Leading with a little pettiness and revenge.
What are your visions this week? Don’t forget to subscribe and share!
Barkley will be kept at 100 yards rushing and fewer than 20 receiving. Daniel Jones won’t even cross the 150 yard mark passing.
Colby Parkinson gets another TD.
Geno Smith celebrates his Jaguars Domination Anniversary with a similar performance.
Finally the Visions article. I have been waiting all week for this!!
Walker was the FedEx Ground player of the week. The Giants are going to sell out to stop Walker on the ground, even though their run D has been a weakness. They are going to fix it this week gosh darn it!
So. And despite the inclement conditions (rain, wind likely) this will be Geno's first 4TD through the air day. The TEs will be the main recipients (could be Dissly, could be Parkinson, could be Fant) as the LBs bite again and again on P/A. But at least one of those TDs will go to Walker via a pass, and he will still get to 100 yards on the ground.
On D, Barkley will get his touches but the Giants will score just one TD on the ground and none through the air. Seahawks are favored by 3 but just like last week the Seahawks will make the spread-setters look silly. 28-16 Hawks win.