Been there, done that
Manning knows what Hawks are going through
SEATTLE – Eli Manning knows what Russell Wilson and the Seahawks are slogging their way through right now.
Manning’s lived it. Twice.
“Well, I think the team faces challenges because you’re always going to get everyone’s best,” the two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback of the Giants said before New York (3-5) arrived in Seattle for Sunday’s game against the defending-champion Seahawks (5-3).
“Everyone wants to go up against the most recent Super Bowl champion,” Manning said Wednesday from Giants’ headquarters. “So you can lose a few guys, have high expectations, and a lot of things can be asked of you – your schedule kind of gets thrown off.”
Manning won it all in the 2007. He led the Giants to a 12-4 record and an NFC East title in 2008, but lost in the first round of that season’s playoffs to Philadelphia.
Manning and the Giants won the Super Bowl again at the end of the 2011 season. In 2012, New York went 9-7 and missed the playoffs. It’s among four times in the last five years the Giants have failed to qualify for the postseason.
The Seahawks vow they will avoid that post-Super Bowl pratfall. And despite distractions, injuries, a franchise-rattling trade and three losses in their first six games, they are on a two-game winning streak. They still control their NFC West destiny with five of their six division games still to play. Today’s test against the reeling Giants, who got trampled Monday night at home by Indianapolis, is the last before Seattle begins this six-game gauntlet: at Kansas City, home-and-aways versus NFC West-leading Arizona and rival San Francisco, and a trip to Philadelphia
“But Seattle is still playing good football, they have good players. And football is hard,” Manning said. “Each year is different. Just because you did well the year before doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically do the exact same thing, and vice versa. … So each year is its own deal.”
This season has definitely been the Seahawks’ own deal, distinctly separate from the last, championship one.
The Percy Harvin trade. The unsubstantiated national reports of a locker-room divide for and against Wilson. Another report saying the team is tired of Marshawn Lynch’s act, even as they feed him the ball more on pass-rush-slowing screen passes on top of his usual runs. And all the injuries. Eight starters missed last week’s win over Oakland.
Seattle will get a reprieve from that last issue today. Strong safety Kam Chancellor is likely to miss his second straight game and second game since 2011 with a groin strain – Jeron Johnson is poised to make his first career start for him. But center Max Unger is playing for the first time since he sprained his foot Oct. 6 in the win at Washington. Left tackle Russell Okung is expected to join him after missing the Raiders game with a strained calf. That means 40 percent of what’s been a porous offensive line is back.
Unger’s experienced protection calls one week after the Seahawks were forced to start fourth-string center Patrick Lewis against the Raiders should be an advantage against New York’s active rush ends, Jason Pierre-Paul and Robert Ayers. They have 6½ sacks between them.
“We definitely have to slow down their ends Pierre-Paul and Ayers. They show up on film and they’re electric coming off the football,” Wilson said.
Or going for their heart. On Thursday, three days after the Giants lost at home 40-24 to the Colts in a game that was 40-10 in the fourth quarter, Pierre-Paul questioned whether enough of the Giants had passion.
“That’s what it comes down to,” Pierre-Paul told New York reporters. “A lot of talking going on, but at the end of the day it’s all about heart, all about that individual and what he’s got. It’s definitely missing from a lot of guys.”