The Seahawks beat two teams Sunday – Team Engram and Team Zebra
While the scoreboard showed the Seahawks defeated the Giants this past Sunday, your favorite team had to defeat more than the G-Men.
Actually, it’s a bit unfair to say the Seahawks defeated the Giants. Other than one player, the team from New York didn’t even show. Luckily that one player, Mr. Evan Engram, wasn’t a key to the game, as I’d written earlier. If even a few other Giants had turned in performances like his, he could have been that key. Happily, Seattle shut down virtually everyone else in blue.
The one team the Seahawks couldn’t stop was the group in black and white. To be fair, some of the 238 penalties called on Seattle were deserved. Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration – but only slight. Seattle was penalized 15 times for 110 yards. New York was penalized less than half as often, seven times, for almost exactly one fourth the total, 28 yards.
Seahawks overcome the almighty Zebras
Let’s put those numbers into perspective. The Giants gained just 177 total net yards. Their offense managed only eight first downs. The Zebras gave New York an additional six first downs. Many of the penalties on Seattle were on the offense, that’s true. There were about 37 false starts called on Germain Ifedi alone, and then we had the terrible awful not-at-all-good offensive pass interference call on Tyler Lockett’s touchdown catch. Whether it was yards given to the Giants on offense, or yards taken from the Seahawks to benefit the reeling New York Defense, a total of 110 yards was gifted to Big Blue. Seven calls were on offense, seven on defense. Just to be extra nice, the refs threw in the fifteenth penalty on Seattle’s special teams.
On offense, the Giants were miserable. They were two of twelve on third down conversions. As noted, six of their fourteen first downs were handed to them by the refs. Yes, seven penalties were called on Seattle’s defense, and six resulted in first downs. New York only controlled the ball for 24:34. Other than Mr. Engram – yes, I’ll get to him – they were awful on offense.
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The refs played an awesome game, but it wasn’t enough
Despite the seven penalties called against them on offense, the Seahawks amassed 425 yards. Russell Wilson was sacked just once, wasn’t intercepted, and even the running game managed to break the 100 yard mark. The team that throttled the Denver Broncos just the week before couldn’t do much at all against the Seahawks. The referees, now, they managed to make it a game. And did they ever play a balanced game. Just look at their stat sheet!
Seriously, look at the stats. The Giants gained just 177 yards. They were given six first downs and another 47 yards by the referees. They gave up 425 yards on defense. The refs docked Seattle 58 more yards, and a touchdown. If not for the mighty Zebras, the Seahawks would have been the first team to hang 30+ on the Giants. They may be just 1-6, but three of their losses are by a combined 10 points. They’re much better than their record. Or would be, if they still had any receivers besides the guy on the next page.