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Spotlight on Seattle Seahawks Week 5 opponent Daniel Jones
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Spotlight on Seattle Seahawks Week 5 opponent Daniel Jones

With both teams eager for a win after tough Week 4 losses, a healthier Seattle Seahawks team returns to Lumen Field to host the New York Giants in a pivotal Sunday afternoon matchup between NFC foes.

Despite losing three of their first four games, the Giants were quite competitive, losing two of those games by less than five points to the Cowboys and Commanders. Most notably, their defense has risen from 26th in scoring to 12th in the first four games, showing marked improvement under new coordinator Shane Bowen.

What are the current prospects for Brian Daboll’s team a month into the season? Giants On SI’s Patricia Traina takes a deep dive into everything from Daniel Jones’ return from an ACL tear to new additions on defense, answering five questions ahead of Sunday’s game:

Jones hasn’t been terrible, but he also hasn’t made the plays you expect from your franchise quarterback to take the team to the next level. His deep shooting accuracy was atrocious, while in camp he was knocking guys over, lately he’s been undermining them. This results in the receivers having to stop to catch the ball, allowing the defender to approach and limit YAC on which this offense relies so heavily.

Jones ranks 23rd among 24 quarterbacks with at least 10 deep pass attempts of 20+ yards in adjusted percentage, so that’s not good either. And it seems like all that speed the Giants have on offense right now is being wasted as he struggles to hit those guys the right way.

However, I believe the Giants will stick with Jones until at least midseason. Whether Giants fans like it or not, he gives them the best chance to win, and I think they’ll stick with him as long as they have a shot at a Wild Card berth. We posted an article questioning the wisdom of holding on to Jones, who has an injury guarantee in his contract if the losses continue to pile up.

Sophomore receiver Jalin Hyatt is expected to see some snaps of Nabers. I also expect Wan’Dale Robinson to get his usual workload, and Darius Slayton to see an increase in targets for New York as well.

Ultimately, I think the Giants may lean a little more heavily on the run game this week. I don’t think starter Devin Singletary will play as he’s questionable with a groin, but the Giants may want to take advantage of a worn Seattle defensive line that didn’t defend the series well last Monday night.

When we talk about sacks, it was overwhelming. Burns has just one sack and two quarterback hits to his name so far, but he ranks sixth (28 percent) away from the rim, according to ESPN’s Pass Rush Win Rate. That said, given the financial investment made in Burns, I think everyone would like to see a little more production from him, as there should be no reason why safety Jason Pinnock should share the team lead in sacks (3) with Dexter Lawrence.

Lawrence is in midseason form, by the way. PFF posted a stat last week about Cowboys center Cooper Beebee dealing with Lawrence, but didn’t mention that Lawrence was double-teamed on 20 of his 25 pass rush snaps.

Thibodeaux has 11 pressures and 1.5 sacks, per PFF. He leads the Giants’ edge gainers with an overall pass rush winning percentage of 14.7% per PFF. But in real pass sets, his win rate is 20.5 percent, second among the Giants’ edge rushers, behind only Azeez Ojulari.

The cornerbacks. Deonte Banks should have been a No. 1 corner for this team, but he has struggled mightily against the opposing team’s top receiver. This week, his position coach, Jerome Henderson, openly criticized Banks for allowing a 55-yard touchdown to CeeDee Lamb, and I have to say it was refreshing to hear such honesty.

Meanwhile, it appears the Giants could get one or both of Adoree’ Jackson and Dru Phillips back from calf injuries, so it remains to be seen if they can keep up with DK Metcalf and the other standout Seahawk receivers when the two corners play. Philips is the cornerback and he has been very solid, but again, a lower body injury to a player who has to make a living tracking speedy receivers is not a good thing.

They are not allowed to self-inflict injuries such as drive-killing penalties, missed passes, overthrown/underthrown passes and missed tackles. I realize that expecting perfect play from any team is asking a lot, but the Giants aren’t good enough to overcome the mistakes they’ve made that have cost them scores, distance and wins.

It goes without saying, but New York’s offense needs to be better in the red zone. The Giants have been moving the ball well between the 20s, but the red zone should stop being the dead zone for them. The Giants rank 20th in the league in red zone passing, with a 50 percent conversion rate. They’ve had two games this season – both losses – where they turned up a goose egg in the red zone category. That simply can’t keep happening, regardless of the opponent.