SEATTLE – While today’s game between the Seattle Seahawks and New York Giants has all the makings of a down-to-the-wire finish, it’s what happens in the first few minutes that might make the difference.
Both teams have had success on their opening offensive drives this season, with Seattle opening five of its last eight games with scoring drives and the Giants putting up points on the opening drive of six games this season.
Early success seems to be particularly important to New York. The Giants have a 5-1 record in games when they score on the opening drive, and a 2-2 record when they don’t.
The Seahawks’ results haven’t been so directly tied to fast starts – they are 4-1 when scoring on the opening drive, and 4-1 when they don’t – but it has been an integral part of their success.
In the past five games, Seattle has moved the ball at least 60 yards on its opening possession. Three of those drives resulted in points; the other two in turnovers deep in the other team’s territory. Not since the Oct. 9 game at St. Louis has Seattle had an opening drive stall in its own territory.
The Seahawks have been particularly successful on their first offensive plays this season. Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck has thrown a pass on nine of the Seahawks’ opening plays, and completed eight of them. The 10th game-opening play, against Arizona three weeks ago, was also designed to be a pass, but Hasselbeck got sacked and the play was eventually wiped out by a defensive penalty.
A lot of Seattle’s early success has to do with a weekly script the Seahawks use to chart their first 15 plays of each game. The coaching staff makes up the script during the week leading up to Sundays, in part because coach Mike Holmgren wants to take the game-day emotions out of his early play-calling.
Based on the way Seattle has been moving the football early in games, the scripts have been working.
“The coaches have been doing a good job of putting that together,” Seahawks wide receiver Bobby Engram said. “We’ve got some plays that we think could be successful against any defense they throw at us, but at the same time, they do a good job of picking plays that are going to be successful against what the other team is going to try to do to us.
“It’s been good. We’ve just got to keep it going.”
The Giants (7-3) haven’t been as consistent lately, with their last two opening drives ending in punts. But they’ve made up for it by closing strong, with a 22-10 scoring advantage in fourth quarters of the past two games and an 87-36 advantage for the season.
“The whole team just starts clicking in the fourth quarter,” said Giants quarterback Eli Manning, whose 95.3 fourth-quarter passer rating ranks third in the NFC. “We need to figure out a way to get it clicking a little bit earlier.”
The Seahawks have also been a good fourth-quarter team this season, for the most part, having outscored their opponents 60-29 in the final period of games since Week 3. But last Sunday’s win over San Francisco saw the 49ers score 13 unanswered points in the final period to get within a two-point conversion of sending the game into overtime.
While Hasselbeck ranked fifth in the NFC in fourth-quarter passing entering that game, he was just 1-for-5 for 10 yards last Sunday.
It was a rare fourth-quarter fade for the Seahawks, who have generally been good closers this season.
Just as important, they’ve proven to be solid starters.
“When you get off to a good start, you get your rhythm,” Engram said. “You get to relax a little bit. And you also get to get your crowd involved when you’re at home, and I think that’s a big key.”
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