3 pivotal matchups that will decide Seattle Seahawks game vs. Giants in Week 4

The 2-1 Seattle Seahawks play the 1-2 New York Giants in Week 4. The game is on Monday Night Football and will be played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Seattle's 2023 bye week follows in Week 5 so a win against the Giants would give Seattle a lot of momentum to begin a long run of games beginning in Week 6.

New York has been an up and down team already this year. They lost to the Dallas Cowboys 40-0 in Week 1 and then got blown out in Week 3, but they did manage to beat the Arizona Cardinals and the Cardinals beat Dallas in Week 3. Such is the way the NFL goes.

Any team can beat another on any given Sunday. Seattle got destroyed in Week 1 against the Los Angeles Rams but then beat a good Detroit Lions team in Week 2. My point is that Seattle cannot simply assume they are going to beat the Giants. And here are three matchups that could decide the outcome of the game.

Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker versus the Giants run defense

The New York Giants have allowed 4.2 yards per rush so far in 2023, that is 17th in the NFL. But they have also allowed 138 rushing yards per game and that is 28th in the league. In fact, the entire New York defense has underperformed so far this year trying to support an offense that hasn't shown it is capable of accomplishing much.

While one might expect the Dallas Cowboys destroying the Giants 40-0 in Week 1 to skew the rushing statistics, the opposite is actually true. The Giants allowed a total only 265 total yards in Week 1. Dallas scored on a blocked field goal attempt and an interception return and that augmented their point total. New York's defense has actually gotten worse with each game in 2023, at least in terms of yards given up. And in the last two weeks, New York has allowed 146 yards rushing per game on average.

Kenneth Walker had his best game on 2023 in Week 3 finishing with 97 rushing yards and 2 rushing touchdowns, and he also caught 3 passes for 59 yards. Walker is third in the NFL with 4 rushing touchdowns and tied for ninth in the number of first downs run for. He could be in for a huge game in New York (or, I guess, New Jersey where the game is actually played) as long as the Giants defense continues its downward trend and Seattle's offensive line continues to hold up potentially without both its starting tackles again.