New York Giants Week 8 Report Card: Not Their Week

The grades are in for the New York Giants Week 8 27-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, and let's just say that Brian Daboll's team needs to regroup and clean up a lot of continuing issues that continue to drag this team down, such as the slow starts on offense and the special teams blunders.

New York was in this game going into the fourth quarter, where a field goal separated the two teams. But a critical fumble by Richie James on a punt return left the winded Giants defense to fend for itself, and New York gave up two scores on the Seahawks' final four drives of the game.

Let's have a look at the grades.

Offense: D

The Giants couldn't get anything going on offense as they continue to be hurt by slow starts. Their first three drives were of the three-and-out variety, producing 13 net yards. Ouch. Their two longest drives, a 14-play affair that spanned 79 yards and a 12-play drive spanning 45 yards, resulted in three instead of six.

Of their 11 drives, they only made it into Seahawks territory three times--and we're not counting the touchdown drive on which the defensive turnover set the offense up on the Hawks' 2-yard line. Seventeen first-half passing yards? Some guys can spit a longer distance than that. And only 37 rushing yards against a bottom-five run defense? Something was off on Sunday--way off. And it cost them.

Defense: C

The defense did a decent enough job shutting down the rushing attack of Kenneth Walker III, holding him to 51 yards on 18 carries (2.8 average). And that huge forced turnover/fumble recover by cornerback Adoree' Jackson set the Giants offense up for its only touchdown of the day was clutch.

Sadly, though, the defense gave up two touchdowns on the Seahawks' final four drives--yes, the second one was a result of their being winded after holding the Hawks to a three-and-out only to have to go back on the field when Richie James lost his second fumble on a punt return. At the end of the day, though, the players get paid to keep the opponent off the scoreboard regardless of the circumstances, and the Giants' defense wasn't able to do that.

Special Teams: D

First, the good. Jamie Gillan's punting was sharp and key in giving the Seahawks a longer field with which to work. Gillan averaged 53.7 yards per punt and netted 47.7 as the coverage team did its job. Gillan also put two inside the 20-yard line, forced two fair catches, and had one touchback as the Hawks managed just 16 yards total on their two returns. Graham Gano was Graham Gano--no issues with his game. And Nick McCloud, who got the start as a strongside gunner, was directly responsible for forcing the two fair catches.

Jason Pinnock was flagged for an illegal blindside block and which wiped out a 42-yard punt return by Richie James, but the call stood. And speaking of James, his two fumbled punts led to 10 Seahawks points which simply cannot happen. Twice James carelessly swung the ball away from his body, leaving it susceptible to being popped out. And the thing that hurt the most was on the first one, the ball came out when a Seahawk made contact with James' back. That just cannot happen.

Coaching: C

We wondered about the offensive play calling to start the game when no running play was called in the first six plays. Daboll said there were RPOs called, and the Seahawks took away the run, but one might still be able to argue that the Giants got a little too cute to start the game. We also thought the first-half offense was too cautious. Yes, sometimes you have to give credit to the opponent for doing its job, but we just felt something was missing this week beyond execution.

On the plus side, the coaching kept this team in the game until the fourth quarter, when the mistakes were too much to overcome. But there is still a lot of cleaning up for this staff, who will take the bye week to regroup and assess where they are at this point and where they want to be once they return in a week.

Join the Giants Country Community

Sign up for our FREE digest newsletter
Follow and like us on Facebook
Submit your questions for our mailbag
Check out the new Giants Country YouTube Channel.
Listen and subscribe to the daily LockedOn Giants podcast.
Subscribe and like the LockedOn Giants YouTube Channel
Sign up for our FREE message board forums
Get your Giants tickets today from SI Tickets!