For a team that seems woefully ineffective offensively at times, the Seahawks have gained over 400 yards of total offense in three of their last four games.
Sunday's win over the New York Giants was much like other games we've seen so far this season. The offense struggled to get points early, found its footing as the game progressed and did enough to win.
It hasn't been pretty at times. The offense isn't a well-oiled machine. A change at left guard with the injury of Luke Joeckel added an additional challenge to the mix as well. However, the Seahawks still finished the game with 425 yards of total offense, Russell Wilson threw for 334 yards and three touchdowns in the game and could have thrown for 400-plus yards easily if he'd connected with Doug Baldwin and Tyler Lockett on a pair of overthrown passes.
What it does show is that there is a high-ceiling potential for Seattle's offense if they can get things on track more consistently.
Here are five takeaways from the Seahawks' win over the Giants:
1. Jimmy Graham is still under performing.
Graham finished the game with three catches for 51 yards and a touchdown against the Giants, but his pair of drops may have been more significant.
Graham has had trouble with drops throughout the season. He dropped a would-be touchdown on fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line on the first play of the second quarter. Graham later dropped a pass up the sideline from Wilson that would have gone for at least a 20-yard gain.
"He owned it coming off (the field) and he makes a great grab on the ball down the middle, you know, and he was back and going and all that. I know I yelled at him a couple times just to make sure he's fired up and he was yelling back at me and we were doing great. When we're both yelling we're doing good."
It's become a consistent thread for Graham this season. He has not played to the level he showed last season when he earned a Pro Bowl berth and set numerous receiving records for the franchise. Mental lapses like the drops have been too commonplace.
Some of the "drops" have been contested passes where he's taken a hit and been unable to hold on. Those are plays you'd expect Graham to be able to make at least some of the time. His drops on Sunday were different in that both cleanly hit him in the hands and he didn't come up with them.
2. Doug Baldwin sideline tiff may have been spark Seattle offense needed.
Cameras caught Baldwin in the middle of a scrum of offensive players on the sidelines shoving against offensive line coach Tom Cable with five minutes left in the second quarter.
The Seahawks were trailing 7-0 at the time and had a promising drive stall out due to penalties in Giants' territory.
"I lost my cool. 100 percent my fault," Baldwin said. "At that moment I was really frustrated with the team as an offensive as a whole - not the coaching staff, the players.
"We had the play calls. We just didn't execute whether it was passing the ball, blocking, catching the ball, jumping offsides, false starting. Whatever it may be, we weren't executing as players. To me, there's nothing a coach can say. We have to take accountability for that. So I got a little passionate about it."
Baldwin reiterated multiple times he is a big fan of Cable's and has a great relationship with him. Wilson had already been addressing the group - according to head coach Pete Carroll - and Baldwin was trying to allow Wilson the opportunity to finish as Cable tried to enter the conversation.
"I already apologized to him," Baldwin said. "He know how I am. At that moment, the players needed to realize it's the players and not the coaches."
Carroll said the offensive struggles early certainly could have led to some fraying nerves.
"We go up and down the field and we don't score from the 1 with about 15 shots down there, there's a lot of frustration on that but the point is what do you do about it?" Carroll said. "Our guys dealt with it beautifully, the coaches handled it well, the leaders on the offense handled it well, the leaders on the defense handled it well in supporting those guys and kept pulling them through it and we turned it around and got cranking. It was great."
The Seahawks, obviously, scored 24 points the rest of the night over the final 35 minutes of the game. Whether there was a direct correlation or not is uncertain, but it may have helped the offense find the extra edge they needed to get things rolling the rest of the nigh
Baldwin also had another fantastic day, finishing the game with 92 yards and a touchdown on nine catches. He had five catches on third downs with four of those catches resulting in conversions to keep drives alive.
3. Jarran Reed is really emerging in his second season.
Reed had seven tackles with a sack, two tackles for loss and a forced fumble against the Giants on Sunday.
Reed's sack of Eli Manning resulted in a fumble that was recovered by Frank Clark to give the defense their only turnover of the night.
"He's a legit starting defensive tackle in the NFL in just two years time," Carroll said. "He got cranking. He's a very responsible, tough kid and he's worked hard and is doing things right and we love him. He's doing everything we want."
Since Reed's biggest impact is his ability to occupy blockers and have an effect on opposing rushing games, his contributions can often go unnoticed. He has just 19 tackles on the year with nearly a third of those coming on Sunday in New York.
A second-round pick last year, Reed is really becoming an impact player for Seattle's defensive front.
4. Mark Glowinski, Ethan Pocic seemed to hold up fine at left guard in place of Luke Joeckel.
Pocic got the start at left guard and rotated consistently with Glowinski throughout the game. Pocic even saw a brief stint at center when Justin Britt was injured and forced to leave the game for a handful of plays.
Russell Wilson was sacked just once, but did take an intentional grounding penalty as well. He was hit seven times in the game.
"Those guys held up their end of it," Carroll said.
"It was great to get both those guys playing and that just helps us. We'll be better for it."
Cable said the idea would be to eventually settle on one guy in the coming weeks, but Sunday gave them the chance to see both play in a real game at that position. Again, Seattle's offense managed over 400 yards of offense and they rushed for over 100 yards on the night as well. Ultimately, neither player hindered Seattle's ability to win the game.
5. Neiko Thorpe is a terrific special teams player.
Thorpe may only see the field a few times a game as a special teams player, but there is no denying just how much of an impact he can have on a weekly basis.
Thorpe made another stop on a punt return by Ed Eagan, stopping him for no gain.
This observation isn't rooted specifically in this game alone, but it seems like Thorpe makes a tackle on kick coverage just about every game. He may not be the best cornerback to ever play for the Seahawks but he consistently makes big plays in the kicking game.
D.J. Alexander also showed up in helping to block a punt from Brad Wing as well.
"The guys were just on it," Carroll said. "Every punt we just surrounded it."
Photo Credit: EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - OCTOBER 22: Jimmy Graham #88 of the Seattle Seahawks scores a touchdown against Eli Apple #24 of the New York Giants during the fourth quarter of the game at MetLife Stadium on October 22, 2017 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)