RENTON — Consider Lumen Field to also be a proving ground Sunday afternoon when the Seahawks host the New York Giants.
Each team ranks as one of the surprises of the first half of the NFL season with a chance Sunday to only further validate what they have done so far.
The Giants, behind one of the league’s best rushing attacks led by quarterback Daniel Jones and running back Saquon Barkley, are 6-1, the best record in the league other than the 6-0 Philadelphia Eagles.
The Seahawks are 4-3 behind the surprising-to-everyone-but-him play of Geno Smith and the quickly improving play of a half-dozen rookies. The Seahawks find themselves as the leaders of an NFC West that also includes the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers, considered a Super Bowl favorite this year.
And as many have noted this week, who would have thought two months ago that the only matchup in Week Eight in which each team has a winning record would feature the Seahawks and Giants?
The Giants’ odds to win the Super Bowl were 100-1 on March 8, the day Seattle traded Russell Wilson to Denver and saw its odds plummet from 33-1 to 80-1, via BetOnline.
Only five other teams had odds as long or longer than the Seahawks and Giants on that day.
The Giants’ odds have since dropped to 40-1, indicating they have begun to convince some people they are for real. Seattle, though, is still at 75-1, indicating there is still a lot of belief to be won.
The Seahawks were a whopping 500-1 just two weeks ago, following a 39-32 loss at New Orleans, tied with the Bears, Panthers and Texans for the longest odds in the NFL.
That game was the fifth straight to start the season in which the Seahawks gave up at least 373 yards, ranking last in the NFL both in most total yards allowed but also rushing yards.
Seattle was 2-3 at that point, avoiding an 0-5 start due almost solely to Smith and an emerging running attack.
But the Seahawks have beaten Arizona and the Chargers since then, with the defense allowing just three touchdowns and holding each to 329 yards or fewer and a combined 197 rushing yards, barely more than the 170.2 per game they allowed to the first five opponents.
The key has been a few personnel shifts, such as Ryan Neal emerging as a full-time starter at safety and using more nickel and dime packages. Schematic decisions have also allowed the linemen to be more aggressive, essentially playing one gap and attacking instead of playing two gaps and reading-and-reacting, something Seattle went with more early in the year as part of the switch to a predominantly 3-4 defense under first-year coordinator Clint Hurtt.
So, have the Seahawks truly turned a corner with their defense?
“Well, we are going to find out,’’ coach Pete Carroll said this week, assessing a Giants’ team that is averaging 173.4 rushing yards per game, second in the NFL, with Barkley accounting for 103.7 per game all on his own, second in the NFL, and Jones rushing for 49.0 more per game an New York’s intricate rushing attack installed by first-year head coach Brian Daboll.
“We have a lot of room to grow and get better,’’ Carroll continued. “We have made legitimate, significant strides, so we are going to keep doing the stuff that we do, see if we can keep getting better, and show the consistency. One or two games, we’ll forget about that if we don’t keep it going. We started it a couple of weeks ago, there is no doubt. (But) this is the ultimate challenge, this is as good as a running team that we will ever go against. We will find out where we stand.”
What Seattle may also find out is if it can survive life without receivers DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett — or at least, with each hobbling a bit. Metcalf suffered a knee injury in the first quarter last week that appeared significant when he was carted off the field and immediately ruled out. Tests, though, revealed no major damage and Metcalf practiced on a limited basis on Friday and listed as questionable for the game and considered a game-time decision.
Lockett was also listed as questionable after coming down with an oblique injury late in the week to go along with a hamstring injury that hampered him against the Chargers.
The injuries to those two, who have combined for 72 of Seattle’s 158 receptions this year, along with a forecast of rain and potentially soggy conditions, could mean the Seahawks will also favor their rushing attack.
And that could mean the game will simply come down to a battle of what are two top 10 rushing attacks in the NFL against what are two of the bottom four defenses in terms of rushing yards allowed.
“It’s going to be won in the trenches,’’ said Seattle defensive lineman Quinton Jefferson, who seemed to embrace the prospect.
Jefferson has benefitted as much as anyone from the switch to a more attacking style at the line, something that coaches have said the team will continue with as long as it is working.
“They gave us the keys, so we have to take full advantage of that and so we don’t go back to where we were,’’ Jefferson said.
And if they can do that, they can also keep the Seahawks on their current path to maybe going somewhere no one expected this year.
“It’s a great matchup for us,’’ Carroll said. “And these are the kind of matchups that you have to get through if you are going to have a good season.”