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After a entering MNF game, it's time to come home and face a team on the brink of collapse. Brian Daboll, once coach of the year is now probably coaching for his job this season. They are desperate to keep pace in the NFC East, and haven't played great but do have sneaky good talent at certain positions. They are averaging a low 15 pts per game, and their star rookie, Malik Nabers may not play from a concussion. Daniel Jones is a horrific downfield passer, but is an underrated scrambler and can make plays with his feet. They have decent pass rush, and with our offensive line still being the offensive weak point, this could be a game that Hawks find grinding out with a low score. There is some positive news as it seems that we may get Uchenna and Leonard back as they did a full walk through during this week. If Nabers doesn't suit up, then I think the Hawks run away with this one. If he plays, it gives them a fighting chance to keep the game close. It will be grind out, and probably another ugly game, littered with penalties.

Hawks 23 Giants 15

Low scoring, and the major key is to just get the win and stay healthy for the 49ers game.

I'm penciling this in as a win, too. The Giants' offense hasn't done much, but their defense has been solid, so conventional wisdom would dictate a low scoring game. But getting K9 back in the lineup was huge, and I expect him to have another big game, cracking the century mark in rushing yards. I also don't expect Daniel Jones to go 18-for-18. Byron Murphy, Tyrell Dodson, and Boye Mafe didn't practice yesterday, but Williams, Baker, Love, and even Nwosu did practice, albeit it limited, so we should be a little closer to full strength than we were against the Lions.

But it's a classic trap game. We have a huge game coming up a week from today vs. the Niners, and there's the chance that we'll be looking past the Giants and taking them for granted. Nevertheless, I think we win handily.

Hawks 31, Giants 14.

River Dog wrote:I'm penciling this in as a win, too. The Giants' offense hasn't done much, but their defense has been solid, so conventional wisdom would dictate a low scoring game. But getting K9 back in the lineup was huge, and I expect him to have another big game, cracking the century mark in rushing yards. I also don't expect Daniel Jones to go 18-for-18. Byron Murphy, Tyrell Dodson, and Boye Mafe didn't practice yesterday, but Williams, Baker, Love, and even Nwosu did practice, albeit it limited, so we should be a little closer to full strength than we were against the Lions.

But it's a classic trap game. We have a huge game coming up a week from today vs. the Niners, and there's the chance that we'll be looking past the Giants and taking them for granted. Nevertheless, I think we win handily.

Hawks 31, Giants 14.

I like the dominant score, but I just got this feeling the way refs are flagging our games lately, this will be a penalty fest game on both sides, and most likely kill a few good drives.

River Dog wrote:I'm penciling this in as a win, too. The Giants' offense hasn't done much, but their defense has been solid, so conventional wisdom would dictate a low scoring game. But getting K9 back in the lineup was huge, and I expect him to have another big game, cracking the century mark in rushing yards. I also don't expect Daniel Jones to go 18-for-18. Byron Murphy, Tyrell Dodson, and Boye Mafe didn't practice yesterday, but Williams, Baker, Love, and even Nwosu did practice, albeit it limited, so we should be a little closer to full strength than we were against the Lions.

But it's a classic trap game. We have a huge game coming up a week from today vs. the Niners, and there's the chance that we'll be looking past the Giants and taking them for granted. Nevertheless, I think we win handily.

Hawks 31, Giants 14.

4XPIPS wrote:I like the dominant score, but I just got this feeling the way refs are flagging our games lately, this will be a penalty fest game on both sides, and most likely kill a few good drives.

Interesting that you mentioned penalties as I was about to start a thread about them.

You're right, we have had a lot of penalties called on us, 32, which makes us the 6th most penalized team in the league. However, we an even higher beneficiary count, 34, tied for 3rd highest in that category, of penalties that have gone in our favor. It's a similar story with penalty yardage, as we've had 253 against yards vs. 288 beneficiary yards. That doesn't mean that we aren't the victim of a bias, just that there isn't any empirical evidence to support such a claim. Personally, I've never bought into the conspiracy theories that the refs/league is out to get us.

There are more penalties being called league wide this season. Last year, there were 11.3 accepted penalties called per game. After 64 games this season, that average is 13.2, or an increase of about 17% over last season. We seem to be involved in games where a lot of penalties are thrown. The last two games, we've had a total of 20 accepted penalties assessed against us and 23 that went against our opponents. That's 21.5 penalties a game in our past two contests vs. a league average of 13.2.

If you're really interested, there's a pretty good site that tracks penalties:

https://www.nflpenalties.com/

River Dog wrote:Interesting that you mentioned penalties as I was about to start a thread about them.

You're right, we have had a lot of penalties called on us, 32, which makes us the 6th most penalized team in the league. However, we an even higher beneficiary count, 34, tied for 3rd highest in that category, of penalties that have gone in our favor. It's a similar story with penalty yardage, as we've had 253 against yards vs. 288 beneficiary yards. That doesn't mean that we aren't the victim of a bias, just that there isn't any empirical evidence to support such a claim. Personally, I've never bought into the conspiracy theories that the refs/league is out to get us.

There are more penalties being called league wide this season. Last year, there were 11.3 accepted penalties called per game. After 64 games this season, that average is 13.2, or an increase of about 17% over last season. We seem to be involved in games where a lot of penalties are thrown. The last two games, we've had a total of 20 accepted penalties assessed against us and 23 that went against our opponents. That's 21.5 penalties a game in our past two contests vs. a league average of 13.2.

If you're really interested, there's a pretty good site that tracks penalties:

https://www.nflpenalties.com/

I agree with you. I don't think we have been targeted as a team, but I think DK is on the minds of the refs. He seems to be averaging and OPI or holding call per game. He does push off almost on every play(surprised he isn't called for more OPIs), but because he dwarfs almost any CB out there it looks more egregious. His holding penalties are easy to call on most outside run plays, and that is on him 100% of the time because when the tailback is bouncing to the outside, DK is usually on the outside blocking the corner, and it's just an easy call to make. I would say DK needs to clean it up, but I don't want him to lose that physical nature he embodies out there. However, as massive as he is as a WR he just sticks out.

4XPIPS wrote:I agree with you. I don't think we have been targeted as a team, but I think DK is on the minds of the refs. He seems to be averaging and OPI or holding call per game. He does push off almost on every play(surprised he isn't called for more OPIs), but because he dwarfs almost any CB out there it looks more egregious. His holding penalties are easy to call on most outside run plays, and that is on him 100% of the time because when the tailback is bouncing to the outside, DK is usually on the outside blocking the corner, and it's just an easy call to make. I would say DK needs to clean it up, but I don't want him to lose that physical nature he embodies out there. However, as massive as he is as a WR he just sticks out.

Oh, there's no doubt that Metcalf attracts the attention of every referee in the league. But he brought it on himself, with his propensity to commit personal fouls. Over the years, he's let players get into his head and has established a reputation that's going to be hard to live down. Plus, like you, I do think that the bigger, more athletic players tend to get a little more attention than the farts in a skillet do. Metcalf (4) and OG Anthony Bradford (6) have accounted for 1/3 of our entire penalty count and nearly half of all penalties called on our offense.

Ironically, our defense has played pretty clean. Over our first 4 games, our penalty breakdown includes 21 called on the offense, 7 on our defense, with Witherspoon collecting 4 of those, and 4 on special teams.

So, our penalty woes for the most part involves just 3 players: Bradford, Metcalf, and Witherspoon. No one else has more than two penalties.

hows our injury status going into the game?

This is a trap game, with a short week and SF 49ers coming in next.
We also had to travel to Detroit for a MNF game, while the Giants had 4 extra days of rest for this game, coming off a Thursday night game.

I just saw this on morning football: Going back to last year, teams that play Detroit, have lost by an average of 14 points the following week,

Injuries: We had 20 players listed, but only 4 "out" and two of those was PT. It seems that most of our defense that missed last week may be coming back, but who knows at what level as they are all listed as "questionable" - the last couple of weeks, most of the players with that designation have played Sunday.
Biggest injury news is that Giants great rookie receiver, Malik Nabers is out. He is something like 60% of the offense and looked really good.

Spread has moved Tuesdays 5 1/2 to 7 this morning, so evidently we're supposed to win. I agree, 24-13 Hawks.

jshawaii22 wrote:This is a trap game, with a short week and SF 49ers coming in next.
We also had to travel to Detroit for a MNF game, while the Giants had 4 extra days of rest for this game, coming off a Thursday night game.

I just saw this on morning football: Going back to last year, teams that play Detroit, have lost by an average of 14 points the following week,

Injuries: We had 20 players listed, but only 4 "out" and two of those was PT. It seems that most of our defense that missed last week may be coming back, but who knows at what level as they are all listed as "questionable" - the last couple of weeks, most of the players with that designation have played Sunday.
Biggest injury news is that Giants great rookie receiver, Malik Nabers is out. He is something like 60% of the offense and looked really good.

Spread has moved Tuesdays 5 1/2 to 7 this morning, so evidently we're supposed to win. I agree, 24-13 Hawks.

Byron Murphy and Tyrice Knight haven't practiced this week, so it's doubtful that they'll play. There's a slew of other mostly defensive players that had only limited participation in practice, including Mafe, Williams, and Nwosu, which makes it sound like they might play. Here's the full injury report as of this afternoon:

https://www.foxsports.com/articles/nfl/ ... eek-5-2024

The final injury report is out, and it's not bad:

The final injury report is out for the Seattle Seahawks’ Week 5 home game against the New York Giants.

Of the active roster players, only rookie defensive tackle Byron Murphy II has been ruled out due to his hamstring injury. Cameron Young is listed as out as he recovers from his knee injury, but the second-year defensive tackle has only been designated for return to practice and otherwise hasn’t been placed on the 53-man roster.

No one is doubtful, and the questionable players are outside linebacker Boye Mafe (knee contusion) and safety Julian Love (thigh contusion). Perhaps Mafe is a little iffier to play, but Love was named a team captain for game day and has already said he intends to play against his former team.

The biggest news is who’s not received a game designation. Defensive lineman Leonard Williams is back from his rib injury, inside linebacker Jerome Baker is back from a hamstring injury, and outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu is available to play for the first time since suffering an MCL sprain while being illegally chop blocked in the August preseason finale.

This is as good an injury report as you could realistically hope for.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/se ... b4717&ei=9

Nice to have gotten lucky but I'm seriously getting tired of our defense being this bad.

Now that series was very much better.

Back to embarrassing.

How did this defense get so bad? The coverage schemes look like they aren't designed to take away these underneath routes and the LBs aren't getting through traffic to the inside runs.

Damned if I know but it sure is frustrating.

Hope Riq ain't hurt bad...

It's like defense is hung over from the Lions loss, and haven't been able to figure it out. They are making Daniel Jones look like Goff out there. Not sure where we can correct it, but it seems we have never been able to defend these screen passes. It's a hard watch, and I am not sure who is going to step up for the defense.

not impressed with offense or defense!! I think the Hawks are looking ahead to the 49ers game instead of the task at hand.

Well tied at the half is best case for us, hopefully we can make some adjustments.

c_hawkbob wrote:Well tied at the half is best case for us, hopefully we can make some adjustments.

We are lucky that is 10-10 tie at this point, because the Giants are moving the ball at will, and if it weren't for a once in a decade defensive fumble return for a TD we should be down by a lot. Someone on that field needs to step for the Hawks.

Avatar for Oly
Hawks have no business being tied, or even in the game. They got lucky. I can't think of a moment more important in showing us Macdonald's coaching chops than if his adjustments can turn this around.

Oly wrote:Avatar for Oly
Hawks have no business being tied, or even in the game. They got lucky. I can't think of a moment more important in showing us Macdonald's coaching chops than if his adjustments can turn this around.

Well we did look pretty sorry start of the Broncos game, and then we woke up in the 2nd half and amp'd it up. So hopefully we can repeat that. I am little shocked our offense hasn't played better either.

DK, tuck the ball to your chest! What on earth are you doing keeping the ball out in front of you.

Hold onto the ball DK!

I sure hope it's not the case but I fear this is the real us.

still not impressed. Defense looks like swiss cheese.....Hawks are clearly NOT thinking about this game......

Geno sliding short of 1st down, and they call a play action on 4th down, goodness.

At home even.

Geno s*** the bed in this one. So did defense. And definitely coaching takes the cake. Niners are looking to kick our ass on Thursday night. I hate to say it.

Stream Hawk wrote:Geno s*** the bed in this one. So did defense. And definitely coaching takes the cake. Niners are looking to kick our ass on Thursday night. I hate to say it.

if this is the team the NIners play on Thursday night. GOOD NIGHT!!!!!!

Why haven't we been able to drive like that the rest of the game?

Falling back to earth against the Giants at home isn't fun. Rome wasn't built in a day though. I think we all figured it would take some time to build back up.

Ball game, Geno played hero ball way too late in this game. 49ers lost as well, so Thursday matchup will be intriguing.

Alas.

Giants dominated in just about every dimension of this game. They took away the run from us and were able to pressure Geno all game long. I lost count as to how many time they sacked Geno. On offense the Giants were able to do what we couldn't do and that was run the ball. Seemed like they were getting six yards on every handoff and first downs on every third and whatever. This looked like last year's Seattle team. The Giants were a team we should have beat handily.

There's no sugar coating this loss. They played like s*** and deserved to lose. The defensive scheme was poorly chosen, special teams were bad (except Dickson; all hail Dickson), the offensive gameplan didn't make much sense (too few runs), the OL continued to suck, etc. etc.

But I'm not worried. We always knew there would be growing pains this year, and I've still liked what I've seen overall.

On to Thursday. F--- the Niners.

The FG block really sucked. Tomlinson went low but it also looked like he was held down which allowed the jump to happen. Even if that were the case, like trents said, their front 4 dominated us all game. We didn’t play well enough to survive mishaps like the FG block.

Giants came in with a game plan, Hawks didn't. Giants focused on Metcalf like a laser, and it paid off big time. Key fumble. Painful game to watch.

That was as disappointing of a loss as I've seen out of our Hawks in a long time. This was a game that we should have had no problem winning as the Giants aren't anywhere near SB contenders and Daniel Jones is at best a pedestrian quarterback. The game ends on a Kam Chancellor style blocked FG attempt.

One of the most frustrating plays for me came at the beginning of the 4th quarter with the Hawks in a possession that if successful, would have tied the game. On 3rd and long at our own 24, Geno makes a nice decision to run and gets close to the line to gain, but instead of diving and assuring us of the first down, he goes into a slide and comes up a yard short, then on 4th down, he takes a sack, and we turn the ball over on downs on our own 27. The Giants kick a FG and it's a two-score game in the 4th quarter.

I also didn't like Grubbs play calling. We didn't even try to run the ball. Our running backs got a grand total of 7 carries. He was calling the game as if we were down by three touchdowns, and it showed up in our time of possession. Not that I'm excusing our defense as they looked horrid, but that kind of offensive game plan just compounded the problems we had stopping the Giants.

Ane what the hell happened to our defense? I could understand the problems we had last week in Detroit as we faced a Pro Bowl quarterback who had a record setting day where he didn't throw a single incompletion, but how in the hell can we let a QB who is lucky to have a starting job take advantage of us like he did? That was more disappointing for me than Geno's brain fart.

The only good news is that both the Niners and the Rams lost, so we're still leading our division. That will last a couple more days when I fully expect to get embarrassed on national TV. I had thought that maybe this team could be SB contenders ahead of schedule, but now I'm retreating to my original expectation of a 9-8, one and done playoff appearance so typical of Pete's teams. Ugh.

I'm not upset about this loss at all. Maybe a little disappointed, but I expect this in a transition year. I expected us to lose some we should win and also hope that maybe we win some we should lose.
I think, like Bob said earlier, this is actually who we are and I don't expect much more than entertainment.
Right now the coaches are feeling their way with this team and figuring out who fits the schemes, who can play within those schemes and who excels. I also think Grubb is in a learning phase about what works in the NFL and what doesn't.
I would expect by the end of the year there will be a clearer picture of our needs and next year there will be a few surprise changes of players next year.
What is clear is the lack of quality depth and the struggles for control of the Line of Scrimmage. Those are long term issues dating back more than a decade. Maybe this coaching staff can fix that issue at some point.