Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
GIANTS EARN signature victory over Seahawks.
GIANTS 17, SEAHAWKS 12
SEATTLE — Laughed at and mocked for being on top of the worst division in the NFL, the New York Giants now have an impressive win to validate their spot as NFC East leaders.
The matchup of first-place teams in the NFC went in an unexpected direction.
“The team had a different swagger about them, had a different juice about them today because we know we played our brand of football,” Giants safety Jabrill Peppers said. “We know we can shock a lot of people.”
Alfred Morris scored a pair of third-quarter touchdowns, the New York defense shut down Russell Wilson and one of the top offenses in the league, and the Giants stunned the Seattle Seahawks 17-12 on Sunday.
Double-digit underdogs, the Giants (5-7) handed Seattle its first home loss of the season, sent the NFC West race into some mayhem, and kept their spot on top of the NFC East for another week.
After an 0-5 start, New York has won five of its past seven, the last four in a row. New York had been close in tight losses to Tampa Bay and the Rams, but picked the perfect time to get its first victory of the season over a team with a winning record.
“These guys do a great job,” Giants Coach Joe Judge said. “They’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do, and they’ve done it as well as they possibly can. And you see the results come in.”
The Giants did it with starting quarterback Daniel Jones (hamstring) a spectator after getting hurt last week against Cincinnati. Colt McCoy was far from spectacular but made key plays after a first-half interception.
McCoy was 13 of 22 for 105 yards, and Wayne Gallman rushed for 135 yards on 16 carries.
For McCoy, it was his first victory since Oct. 27, 2014, when he led Washington past Dallas.
Meanwhile, alarms will be going off all over Seattle (8-4) after a sloppy performance. Seattle’s offense that was once unstoppable couldn’t get started until it was too late. Wilson was 27 of 42 for 263 yards and was often hesitant with his decisions.
“I’m really surprised that this is how we looked,” Seattle Coach Pete Carroll said. “I thought we could do a lot of stuff that just didn’t happen for us.”
Seattle seemed poised for another of its late rallies after Wilson hit Chris Carson on a 28-yard TD pass with 6:09 left to pull within 17-12, a drive kept alive by a key third-and-long defensive holding penalty on New York.
But McCoy made two big throws on the Giants’ ensuing drive, converting a third down with a pass to Evan Engram and hitting Darius Slayton for 14 yards into Seattle territory. New York eventually punted, but the Giants’ defense came through.