Geno Smith is a big reason the Seahawks are surprising

Imagine being a time traveler from early September and being told there is one game on the Week 8 NFL schedule that features two teams with winning records.

Ravens-Buccaneers?

49ers-Rams?

Packers-Bills?

None of the above.

Try Giants-Seahawks.

Really?

Really.

As little as was expected of the Giants this season, arguably less was expected of the rebuilding Seahawks, but here we are.

The Giants will take a 6-1 record into Sunday’s game in Seattle, where the home team improbably is 4-3 — even more improbably with the well-traveled former Jet and Giant Geno Smith as its starting quarterback.

Fox will show the game in the coveted 4:25 p.m. Eastern Time slot. America actually cares about this game!

Giants coach Brian Daboll said he is not surprised by the fast starts for the two teams, even if everyone else is.

“It’s such a week-to-week league,” he said. “One week, you could be here. The next week, you could be here. You try to stay consistent.”

Lately, both teams have. The Giants have won four in a row. The Seahawks have won three of their past four.

The big story has been the play of Smith, who has completed a league-leading 73.5% of his passes — the fifth-best such mark through a team’s first seven games in NFL history.

“He’s seen it all; he’s done it all,” Giants outside linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux said.

And he is doing it with some unlikely help. Both offensive tackles, Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas, are rookies.

So is running back Kenneth Walker III, whose 265 yards in his first two NFL starts are the most for anyone in Seahawks history. Walker was clocked at a top speed of 22.09 mph last Sunday on a 74-yard touchdown run against the Chargers, the fastest for any NFL ballcarrier this season.

Seattle will be without star receiver DK Metcalf because of a knee injury, but the way Pete Carroll’s Seahawks are going, it might not matter.

For the Giants, this is a chance to lock in their first-half earnings with a 7-1 record going into the open week on the schedule, which will be followed by games against the currently 1-4-1 Texans and 1-5 Lions.

At least they figure to be favored in those games. They were underdogs at Jacksonville (then 2-4) last weekend, and they are underdogs again in Seattle.

Clearly, folks outside the Giants’ facility remain skeptical, which is understandable given their many close calls.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Giants and 1988 Saints are the only teams to win at least six of their first seven games and have all seven decided by eight or fewer points.

The Giants have won three consecutive games after trailing in the second half for the first time since 1988.

And never before in Giants history have they won three games in a row after trailing in the fourth quarter in each one.

Fans understandably are excited. Daboll understandably is doing all he can to stay the course and avoid any temptation to take a victory lap.

Asked about the enthusiasm for the Giants he has seen in the area, Daboll said, “I can only speak of the games. The games have been great. I get in my car and drive home and drive here [to the practice facility]. I don’t really do anything else.”

So he never so much as bumps into people as he goes about his daily business?

“[Not] unless it’s in my driveway or when I’m walking in the building,” he said.

With a bye looming after the Giants return home, Daboll might actually get out a little next week. Doing so at 7-1 would be something no one alive early last month would have seen coming.

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.