Grading the Giants: Defense aces test in Seattle

OFFENSE: B

It wasn’t explosive. It wasn’t pretty. But gosh was it effective. The offensive line bullied its way through the Seahawks and the backs carved out 190 rushing yards, including a 60-yard run from Wayne Gallman early in the third quarter that changed the entire complexion of the game. The only mark against backup quarterback Colt McCoy was his interception in the red zone, which wasn’t even his fault and went off the hands of Evan Engram (as so many often do). The two made up for it with a key first down with 5:15 left that kept the ball away from Seattle a little longer.

DEFENSE: A

Holding the Seahawks to 12 points – and the offense to just 10 – is fairly remarkable for any defense. That it was accomplished on the backs of players such as Niko Lalos, Darnay Holmes, Tae Crowder, Carter Coughlin and Cam Brown, all of them rookies, makes it almost unfathomable. Of course there were some big-name players making plays, too. Jabrill Peppers continues to play the best ball of his career, James Bradberry was able to contain DK Metcalf, and Leonard Williams had 2.5 sacks, including one on the penultimate defensive play of the game that forced Seattle into a do-or-die fourth-down heave that fell incomplete.

SPECIAL TEAMS: D

What’s happened to these guys? Since the bye week, they’ve become the most inconsistent unit on the team. This week, it was a blocked punt that led to the unusual halftime deficit of 5-0 and a missed extra point on a second-half touchdown that could have been crucial. Graham Gano did make up for it with a 48-yard field goal, to give him 25 straight. He needs four more to tie the franchise record for consecutive attempts made, and if you don’t think the team is rooting for him to take Josh Brown’s name out of their record book with 29 straight from 2014-15, you haven’t been paying attention in recent years.

COACHING: B-PLUS

There were no sneak attacks or surprise angles. The world knew that with a backup quarterback, the Giants would have to rely on their running game and defense to beat the Seahawks. That they were able to get those two units to rise to the occasion – even as the Seahawks were ready for it – is a feather in their cap. There were a few glitches. The Giants had trouble making defensive substitutions on the Seahawks’ only TD drive of the game and had to call a timeout to compensate. Offensively, they were probably a little too conservative toward the end of the first half, setting themselves up for that blocked punt. And handing off to Eli Penny with guard Shane Lemieux at fullback is a nice wrinkle on short-yardage plays, but on second-and-8, like they did in the third quarter?

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Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and has been the Giants beat writer since 2008.