Thumping by Seahawks gives Giants even more to ponder

The words coming out of the Giants' locker room during the week were all about playing with heart, playing with passion and playing with purpose. Three straight losses had the Giants desperately searching for answers, a process that included some finger-pointing about just how badly all the players wanted it.

After a fourth straight loss, one that featured a stunning fourth-quarter meltdown in which the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks sapped the Giants of their will, the words of choice were far different and far more disturbing than the mid-week chest-thumping.

Embarrassing.

Shocking.

Inadequate.

Jason Pierre-Paul and Antrel Rolle took the floor during the week, pointedly noting that some Giants didn't have enough heart and some didn't play with enough passion.

This time it was Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie who articulated the problems best when he acknowledged the humiliation after a 38-17 drubbing at CenturyLink Field in which the Seahawks scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.

"You're fighting for your season. You come into a hostile environment and you know it's going to be a physical game," he said. "For them to line up and run and hit us in the mouth, that hurt. That hurts. That's shocking. To go out there and not finish? You can't let that happen."

Yet that is precisely what happened in the latest in a series of disheartening losses. The Giants not only were beaten, they were beaten up. And badly.

The Seahawks had three weeks' worth of rushing production wrapped up into 60 minutes, running for a franchise-best 350 yards on 45 carries. Marshawn Lynch had 140 yards and four touchdowns on 21 carries and quarterback Russell Wilson added 107 yards on 14 carries and another rushing TD to complete the beat-down.

It was all the more demoralizing for the visitors after they showed the kind of heart and passion that Pierre-Paul and Rolle had talked about in the run-up to the game. The Giants looked very good in building a 17-14 halftime lead, recovering from Seattle's opening touchdown drive with smart passing by Eli Manning and resilient defense from a unit that had been hopelessly bad for most of the last month.

But the Seahawks' running game -- behind Lynch and Wilson, who ran the read-option with ease and consistently fooled the Giants with his frequent bootlegs off play-action -- exploded in the second half.

The Giants either were gashed up the middle by Lynch and Christine Michael (71 yards, four carries) or fooled by Wilson's outside runs. The Seahawks had 149 rushing yards by halftime -- and ran for 201 yards in the second half to put the game away. And perhaps put the season away for the Giants (3-6), who fell further behind Dallas (7-3) and Philadelphia (6-2).

The Giants now face home games against the 49ers and Cowboys. And get this: If they lose next week, they'll actually have a worse record than they did at the same point last year, when they started off 0-6 but rallied with four straight wins on the way to a 7-9 record.

"It's embarrassing," Pierre-Paul said. "At the same time, we made big mistakes. In the second half, we had a lead and came back out, and we just made big mistakes."

And what about the heart that Pierre-Paul said some of his teammates were missing? He dodged the question, which was put to him in two different ways:

1, You talked during the week about showing heart. How demoralizing is it to see what happened after you said that? "We'll be OK," he said. "We'll be OK."

2. Did you see the heart you wanted to see? "We'll be OK."

Pierre-Paul also was at a loss to explain the fourth-quarter meltdown and whether the Giants had made proper adjustments in the locker room at halftime. "I don't know," he said. "I was in the bathroom."

Rolle wouldn't get into the "heart" and "passion" issues directly, although he continued to lament the problems afflicting the Giants.

"We didn't do anything right," he said. "I think in the first half, we went out there and we played Giants football the way it's supposed to be played. But for whatever reason in the second half, it just seemed like a total shift of gears. I'm not saying that we didn't go out there and we didn't play with passion. I just think we didn't play a smart defensive game."

He also questioned the team's will, and not just during the games.

"I think it goes further and beyond heart," he said. "I think it's a matter of how bad do you really want to win? How hard are you willing to dig in order to get a win? So that means throughout the week in preparation, that means doing extra, that means studying extra, that means putting forth the time and effort to make sure you're doing the right thing. Not just sometimes but at all times. I think that's where we're behind the ball on this football team. We have to do the right things all the time."

He added, "This is an emotional game. If you're not upset about what's taking place right now, you don't need to be here. It's embarrassing as a team. It's embarrassing as an organization, and I personally feel we're better than what we've been playing, what we've been displaying, but then again, those are words. Actions speak louder than words any day of the week, and right now, our actions aren't living up to what we believe our potential is as a team."

There's no better explanation for what's wrong with his team. But at 3-6, it might be too late to figure it out.

By Bob Glauber

Special to NewsdayBobGlauber

Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”