New York Giants 29, Seattle 20: By the Numbers

The New York Giants showed they can be a dangerous team when they’re clicking on all cylinders, as they did this weekend in their 29-20 win over Seattle. While some will argue that the game was a lot closer than it should have been, the Giants still managed to deliver a crushing blow to a Seahawks team that was the clear-cut favorite to win this week.

With the help of NextGen Stats, here are seven takeaways from this week’s Giants performance. 

Banks is Money Against DK Metcalf

It’s not very often that a member of the New York Giants coaching staff publicly chews out a player for a poor performance, but maybe they should do so a little more often after seeing what doing so did for second-year cornerback Deonte Banks.

Banks, who was called out by Jerome Henderson, the team’s defensive backs coach, for his poor effort against Dallas receiver CeeDee Lamb on a 55-yard touchdown catch, responded big time in this week’s 29-20 win over the Seattle Seahawks.

Banks, who drew receiver DK Metcalfe on 35 of his 47 routes, held the receiver to just two receptions on four targets for 24 yards in his quietest game of the year.

No Nabers? No Problem

Just when it looked as though the sky was falling for the Giants’ offense because rookie receiver Malik Nabers, the team’s leading pass catcher and yardage generator, was declared out with a concussion, along came Darius Slayton to save the day.

Fans might remember Slayton as the guy that almost every major media outlet keeps suggesting the Giants look to trade before the deadline. And once again, Slayton, bad right thumb and all, showed why trading him would be foolish.

Slayton finished with a season-high eight catches out of 11 targets for 122 yards and a touchdown, his sixth career game with 100+ receiving yards and his third-highest total. 

Slayton’s  +58 receiving yards over expected is the 2nd-most in a game in his career. 

Doing his best to fill the void left by the dynamic Nabers, Slayton accounted for 73.3% of the Giants’ air yards this week, the second-highest mark by a Giants receiver this season. 

The Crafty Giants

Lost in the shuffle of the Giants’ strong showing on offense is that receiver Jalin Hyatt didn’t have a single target thrown his way this week. 

All week, the Giants coaches had us believing that Hyatt, who has just three targets in five games (no receptions), might see an increase in his pass targets if Nabers didn’t play. 

But that was not the case, as quarterback Daniel Jones threw to just five different receiving targets: receivers Slayton and Wan’Dale Robinson, running backs Eric Gray and Tyrone Tracy, and tight end Theo Johnson.

Speaking of Johnson, his five receptions (out of five targets) topped his career high of four in Week 1 against the Vikings.

Running with the Wind

Giants rookie running back Tyrone Tracy, Jr. finished with 129 rushing yards on 18 carries, his first NFL 100+-yard rushing performance. 

On eight of his carries, he generated positive EPA (expected points added) on eight of his rushing attempts, those going for a 44.4% success rate.

Tracy’s  +47 rushing yards over expected was the most by a Giants running back since Week 11, 2023 (Saquon Barkley, +48).

Daniel Has a Day

Quarterback Daniel Jones continues to do all he can to quell the critics calling for his banishment from the team. 

After struggling against the Cowboys in Week 4 with the deep ball this week, he completed both deep pass attempts (20+ air yards) for 71 yards and a touchdown, his first game completing multiple deep passes since Week 2, 2023.

The Giants also leaned on play-action more this week, doing so on a season-high 35.9% dropbacks. Jones completed 9 of 12 pass attempts for 101 yards and two touchdowns on play-action, this game being the first in his six-year career that he threw multiple touchdowns on play-action attempts.

Losing Weight

One of the headscratchers during the first four games of the Giants’ season was their mostly heavy reliance on “heavy” personnel packages consisting of 12 (one running back, two tight ends) and 13 personnel (one running back, three tight ends).

This week, the Giants drastically reduced their heavy personnel, instead favoring 11 personnel (one back, one tight end). New York ran 12 personnel five times and 13 personnel six times. 

Last week against Dallas, they ran 12 personnel 19 times and 13 personnel three times. As already noted, Johnson, the rookie tight end, saw the most pass targets of his young career this week as the Giants got him more involved in passes over the middle.

Dee-fense! Dee-fense!

Since Week 2, the Giants’ defense has held opponents to 20 points or less. This week, they held the Seahawks offense to just 13 points (the other seven coming from a fumble returned for a touchdown).

League stats will show that the Giants defense has allowed 20.8 points per game this season in five games. However, deduct 14 points due to two turnovers by the offense that were returned for touchdowns (Minnesota Week 1 and Seattle Week 5), and the Giants defense is giving up just 18 points per game.

That’s good enough to qualify for the top ten in that statistical category and, depending on how the rest of the games finish up, possibly good enough for a top-five ranking.