5 Things We Learned: Rookies shine in Seattle

Jones, Slayton step up in passing game

The offense entered Sunday’s matchup without their top playmaker in wide receiver Malik Nabers. The rookie wideout had the highest target share in the NFL after the first four games of the season, in addition to being among the league leaders in just about every receiving category. Despite the 21-year-old’s absence due to a concussion suffered in Week 4, the Giants’ passing game did not miss a beat.

Quarterback Daniel Jones once again got off to a strong start, completing 12 of his first 13 passes for 123 yards and a touchdown. He finished the game 23 of 34 (67.6 percent) for 257 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, which earned him a passer rating of 109.6. He also added 38 yards on 11 rushing attempts while forcing six missed tackles, according to Pro Football Focus. One of the most important pieces to Jones’ success against the Seahawks was the deep ball. Jones connected on both of his deep passes (20+ air yards) for 71 yards and a touchdown. This marked the first time he completed multiple deep passes in a game since Week 2 of last season. Jones now has three games with multiple touchdown passes, no interceptions and a 100+ passer rating this season.

“It’s always been fun to coach him because he’s a true pro,” Daboll said about Jones. “Again, always want the results, but have a lot of confidence in him, how he’s playing, how he’s preparing. You know, feel comfortable putting the ball in his hands. That’s what we did early in the game. We went after them a little bit throwing the ball. So got a lot of confidence in him.”

“You know, we’ve said since training camp how much we like our skill guys and how deep we think those positions are,” Jones added. “You saw a lot of guys step up today and make a lot of plays. When we say that we mean it. We have a lot of confidence in those guys. You know, they stepped up and played very well.”

With Nabers out, the veteran of the wide receiver room stepped up in a big way. With an increased target share, Darius Slayton had his best game of the season. The sixth-year wideout was targeted a game-high 11 times and caught eight of those passes for 122 yards and a touchdown. In fact, Slayton was on the receiving end of both of Jones’ deep completions, as the two passes came within a few plays of each other and resulted in the Giants’ early third quarter touchdown. His 122 receiving yards were the third-highest total of his career and the most he’s had since the 2020 season. It was also his sixth 100-yard receiving game of his career.

“You have to have a short memory,” Slayton said about the team’s rough start. “Obviously we came out on the first drive, we drive it down there, fumble and give up a touchdown. It went from being about as good as you can start to as bad as it can go. That’s just who we’re trying to become as a team. Our identity is being resilient and being able to overcome.”

The Giants were faced with a tough task going up against the Seahawks offense. In their Week 4 road loss to the Detroit Lions, the Seahawks gained a whopping 516 yards, 38 first downs, and had a 50 percent conversion rate on third and fourth downs, while their running backs averaged nearly 7.0 yards per carry. Well, all of that changed against the Giants defense in Week 5.

Seattle finished the day with 333 total yards of offense while totaling 17 first downs. The Giants’ defense was able to hold the Seahawks to just three conversions on 11 third down attempts, while stopping them on both of their fourth down attempts. The defense was also able to force the Seahawks to abandon the run game completely as Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet combined for just seven carries and 30 yards, although they did contribute in the passing game. The Seahawks entered halftime with just two total rushing yards on two carries, the fewest rushing yards by a Giants’ opponent in the first half since 2005.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the defense’s performance in Seattle was the pass rush. The Giants exploded for seven sacks of Geno Smith, with three coming from defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence. Fellow defensive lineman D.J. Davidson registered the first two full sacks of his NFL career, outside linebacker Brian Burns added one sack and Kayvon Thibodeaux and Rakeem Nunez-Roches split the seventh sack. The seven-sack performance brings the Giants up to a league-high 22 sacks on the season, two more than any other team. Their 22 sacks are the second-most through five games in Giants history (1985).

Lawrence’s three-sack game brings him up to six sacks on the season. This has him tied for the second-most sacks in the NFL and only a half-sack behind Detroit’s Aidan Hutchinson for the most in the NFL. According to Next Gen Stats, Lawrence finished with three sacks and five quarterback pressures despite facing a double team on 22 of his rushes (55 percent). The trio of Lawrence, Burns and Thibodeaux each contributed at least a half-sack in the same game for the second time this season (Week 3 at Cleveland), and combined to record 18 total quarterback pressures, according to NGS.

“I think we executed the plan well, and the defensive backs were covering well,” Lawrence said after the win. “They gave us time to get there. Geno was looking for a second and third read and that gave us time.”

Lawrence added, “I think we stood up when we had to and made plays when we had to. That’s winning football.”

Cornerback Deonte Banks also deserves a lot of credit for his standout performance against DK Metcalf. Banks lined up opposite Metcalf on 35 of the receiver’s 47 routes and limited him to just two catches on four targets for 24 yards. The second-year corner also came up with a big play when he punched the ball out of Metcalf’s hands, which Tyler Nubin recovered, right outside the red zone to stop Seattle’s first drive of the second half. Banks finished the game with six tackles (two solo) and a career-high three passes defensed, while Pro Football Focus had him down for a 49.6 passer rating when targeted.