This is our only Monday Night Football appearance this year, so live it up!

The Seahawks are 11-2 in games immediately preceeding their BYE week in the Pete Carroll era (a loss in 2010, and a loss last year vs. the Bucs in Germany, so technically 11-1 in games immediately preceeding their BYE week that take place in America). One of those games, oddly enough, came at the Giants back in 2011, so that’s neat!

We’re in an interesting spot right here, because I think this game can teach us a lot about where the Seahawks are as a team as they compare to the rest of the NFL. I know you can argue the Lions were a pretty good test, but they’re obviously a very different team than the Giants. The Lions feature a lot of offense, a solid – if undersized – pass rush, and that’s pretty much it. The Giants, conversely, want to pound it down your throats, and use that to play up their play-action game. They’re the team, quite honestly, that the Seahawks WANT to be.

I know it hasn’t been pretty thus far for the G-Men, but I would argue they’ve played an exceedingly difficult schedule to date. They’re one awesome half of football away from being 0-3 (that was against the Cardinals, who might be better than we thought). The Cowboys are rock solid, and the 49ers might be the best team in football. Conversely, I would say the Seahawks have played a soft – if unfortunately-sequenced – schedule that featured the Rams at their healthiest (minus Kupp). I won’t dismiss the Lions victory, but I will say it’s not super encouraging how ugly our first half was against an atrocious Panthers team.

It’s hard to assess how good or bad the Giants are, because while they might not be in the same class as the Cowboys or 49ers, they haven’t really played a team on their level until now (unless the Cardinals really ARE good, which I don’t think they are). The Seahawks, I would say, are on the same level as the Giants. We just get there in different ways.

The Seahawks match up better against a team like the Lions. But, I don’t know if we’ve got the horses to hang with a tough, hard-nosed team like the Giants. Not that I don’t think it’ll be close; this has all the trappings of a 3-point game either way. But, it also has the trappings of an ugly 20-17 contest. If the Seahawks continue to play the way they’ve played on third/fourth down – on both sides of the ball – it’s going to be a long game.

At this point in the week’s progression, I’m going into this game assuming Saquon Barkley will be in there. That’s … far from ideal. Granted, the Seahawks have looked much better against the run this year, but we’ve also not faced a running back even close to Barkley’s elite level. A guy who can do it all. A guy who can beat you between the tackles, who can run around you outside, who can break tackles, who can catch the ball in space and make something out of nothing. Even at 80%, he’s better than any other back we’ve faced this year.

This one, I think, comes down to Danny Dimes. If he can play a clean, turnover-free game, I think we’re toast. If he takes his check-downs, takes advantage of our various lapses in communication on the back-end, and either gets the ball out quickly (to avoid the rush), or scrambles with his legs (to both avoid the rush and generate positive yards), I think they’ll be able to dink and dunk us to death – with just enough chunk plays on the ground and through the air – to consistently generate scoring opportunities and run time off the clock.

That’s the worst-case scenario. We get run out of the stadium, can’t do enough on offense, and lose by 20.

I’d like to sit here and tell you that’s NOT going to happen. That we’ll continue our strong showing against the run, that we’ll contain Dimes (and maybe sack him a time or three), and blanket their mediocre receivers. That’s what SHOULD happen. That’s what teams like the 49ers and Cowboys have done to them (and what the Cards did for a half).

I’d also like to point to the potential return of Jamal Adams and Riq Woolen as major boosts to this side of the ball. Seeing Woolen and Witherspoon play opposite one another for the first time – with Adams flying all over the place – really has the potential to be something special. But, we might be a week or two away from seeing that (it’d be weird if we saw it next week, since we’ll be on BYE), not knowing their specific levels of health, or willingness to throw both guys into the fire right away.

I would say I’m fairly confident we’ll manage to keep it close on defense, and at least force a few punts. But, we’ll also see some more frustrating big plays given up, to prevent us from actually doing what we SHOULD do, and that’s run away with it.

I don’t have a great handle on what the Giants do well on defense. Based on three games, I’d say NOTHING. This is a team, last year, that really relied on their defense. Tough to run against, underrated pass rush, and good enough on the back end to capitalize on mistakes. Have they taken a step back? I’ll be very interested in finding out.

The Seahawks should be impervious to any and all opposing defenses. We have enough talent at all the skill positions to move the ball against anyone. But, it’s going to come down to the O-Line. And how we help out that O-Line by chipping, leaving TEs in there to double-team, RBs picking up blitzers, and making quick, decisive throws on time.

That blitzing thing will be key. It’s my understanding their defensive coordinator loves to throw out exotic blitzes early and often. We’ve seen two kinds of Genos in those situations. Sometimes, he takes advantage for big gains; sometimes he succumbs to the pressure and we’re chock full of 3 & Outs. The Rams game was a great example of the latter. I would argue in most of our defeats last year, him falling to opposing pressure was a primary reason for those L’s.

I get the feeling the Giants aren’t quite at the level the were last year, but that can change at any moment. This is a game the Seahawks DESPERATELY want to win. If you believe the Giants are a contender for one of those precious wild card spots – and if you believe (like I do) that the Seahawks are destined for the same, given how good the 49ers are – then you’re going to want that tiebreaker over them. And, not for nothing, this is an NFC game. You want these! You NEED these! You’ve already lost one to the Rams, it would be a damn shame to go into the BYE 2-2 in conference.

Getting a leg up on the Lions and Giants would put us very much in the driver’s seat for a playoff berth. At which point, you can start to dream a little bit bigger. A lot can happen between now and Thanksgiving. Maybe the 49ers suffer some injuries to key guys. Maybe the Seahawks start to gel with this young collection of players. Maybe we close the gap not by what we did in the offseason, but how we develop over the course of the regular season.

But, you can’t realistically see that happening if you lose one of these 50/50 games to a team directly on your level, and directly in your way for a playoff spot.

You also, not for nothing, can’t keep bending over and taking it up the pooper against elite defenses. At some point, you have to figure out a way to grind these games out. We have LOTS more of these types of opponents left to come. The entire AFC North, the aforementioned Rams and 49ers, the Cowboys and Eagles, even the Titans manage to have a stout run defense every year (in spite of their offense’s inability to move the ball with any consistency). If we can’t play well on this level, how do we EVER expect to take it up to the next level, with the truly elite teams?

It would be a bad, yet predictable omen for the Seahawks to lose this game. I feel like we, as fans, would be right back to where we were after week 1: left questioning what we have with this team. Whether or not it’s a 10-7 team or a 7-10 team. I would hate to have to stew on that for the next two weeks.

On the plus side, we have our record in pre-BYE games. We also have our record on Monday Night Football, which is among the best in the NFL. Can we ride that magic to victory? We are 1.0 favorites at the time of this writing; can’t get much closer than that.

I am officially expecting the Seahawks to prevail, which is probably bad news for me. It’s going to be an obnoxious evening if I have to sit there and watch us lose for 3+ hours.