Eli Manning had a good game throwing against Seattle but Big Blue lost 38-17.

It seems like the Giants went to Seattle with a lot of ammunition they stockpiled during the week and for three quarters the weapons Big Blue tossed at the Seahawks was working.

Unfortunately Eli Manning and company ran out of stuff to throw at the healthier Seahawks at the end of the third quarter when the teams were tied 17-17.

Seattle scored 21 fourth quarter-points to win 38-17…a game that was much closer than the score showed.

Manning, who was 29 of 44 for 283 yards throwing one TD pass and one interception, said this Giants teams is better than last year’s team even though they were 3-6 at this time in 2013.

“Yes, I feel like we are a better team” said Manning, who was sacked twice and fumbled once. “I feel like we are doing some good things. We are just not, for whatever reason, we are not able to put four quarters together. It is not like we come out and totally don’t do anything. I thought we had chances in the second half yesterday to do some good things. We had some decent drives going and it almost felt like the Cowboys game in a sense where we got to the 40-yard line on a couple times in the third quarter and then all of sudden go backwards. [We] got a penalty or we did something like have a turnover, which prevents us from taking the lead or getting some momentum or put us in a better position to end the game. We just have to find ways to keep competing and keep putting pressure on the opposing team and making the plays that are out there.”

Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson threw just 17 passes, completing 10 for 172 yards, no TD passes and was intercepted twice.

Wilson though, killed the Giants rushing 14 times for 107 yards and a touchdown. Marshawn Lynch scored four rushing TDs while carrying the ball 21 times for 140 yards.

Giants head coach was asked how to explain some of the struggles defending the run. Coughlin had said his team in the fourth quarter started to unravel. Did he contribute that to missed assignments?

“You have to look at a couple of things,” the two-time Super Bowl champion coach said. “First of all, you have a very powerful back, there were times where we didn’t tackle as well as we would’ve liked to, and there were times when he ran right through the tackles. I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t say that. On other occasions, there were in particular, for example, when you assigned people to the dive, on occasion he did cut it all the way back outside the guy responsible for the dive, some of that did occur. Then we were out of position and didn’t react well enough in containment or a leverage position to the quarterback when he kept the ball. We had people, it’s option football, assignment football, we had some different varieties of ways in which to try to handle the dive and the quarterback.
“There were occasions where we didn’t have anybody in position to contain the quarterback. He got the ball outside too easily and made yardage. When they did go conventional, they made some yards in their conventional lead blocker concept-type of runs. The ones that hurt us, I think, are the quarterback keeps and the option dives. In the fourth quarter, there was one series in which there were three lengthy runs right off the bat, and one right after the other, I think maybe one of them was an option. One right after the other, and I think only one of them was an option, so we didn’t do a good of that either. Right after the final turnover, the first play was 44-45 yards. We just didn’t get it done at that point in time. I would say a combination of the things I just mentioned.”

Coughlin was asked if this game a teaching point going forward in how you are going to handle facing a mobile quarterback in Colin Kapernick.

“That is what I am hoping,” Coughlin said. “That will be a positive thing for us in terms of learning from the experience we just had, knowing full well what they are capable of doing in the style of offense and the quarterback being involved as much as he is. Perhaps we will learn something that can really benefit us going forward.”

Coughlin was asked if he thought the defensive coaching staff properly prepared the team for the option attack that worked so well for Seattle.

“I do think that they worked as hard as they possibly could,” he said. “I think we took every moment of jog through and practice time and saw the option, the dive, and the quarterback from many different circumstances, from different formations, etc. I don’t think we executed it very well, and we needed to make sure that when you have something as important as to their style of attack as that particular keeper and option are, that you have to spend all of your time doing that and you can’t assume that anyone understands everything. You have to stay on that and harp on that. Sometimes, to be honest, you do that at the expense of other things.”

Manning was asked if he agreed with his coach the Giants were close to turning the season around.

“Yes,” Manning replied. “I think we feel the same thing. I think we feel from the offensive standpoint we can do some good things. We can make plays. We have some explosive playmakers and we can play at a high level. We are close. We are a few plays away. We still hurt ourselves sometimes. We can be dynamic. We can make some big plays and can take short passes and run our offense efficiently. We just have to do it for four quarters. We can’t let one bad series or one bad play dictate the rest of the game.