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Earl Thomas has seen several interception opportunities slide through his fingertips this season, but in a critical moment Sunday, the All-Pro safety finally secured his first INT of the year.

With the score deadlocked at 17 and less than a minute left in the third quarter, Eli Manning and the New York Giants were threatening to take the lead. After advancing his team to Seattle’s 39-yard line, Manning decided to take a shot at the end zone, where receiver Odell Beckham Jr., and Richard Sherman were embroiled in a physical battle for positioning.

Knowing that Sherman had a better chance to grab the ball, Beckham attempted to tip it away from danger. And that’s when ET III took over, snatched the ball out of the air and ran it back 47 yards.

The play set up a touchdown run for Marshawn Lynch and the Seahawks never looked back, cruising to a 38-17 win.

“I learned a valuable lesson today,” Earl said after the win. “You don’t think about anything and just have fun and play the game at its purest form and encourage guys. You just bring that energy. You enjoy watching Marshawn run and enjoy Russell going through his adverse situations, but still overcoming. When the ball comes your way and you’re not thinking and just having fun, you just make the plays like you’re in Pop Warner.”

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In addition to his interception, Earl notched six tackles in the win and helped keep the Giants off the scoreboard in the second half. Lynch had one of the most dominating performances of his career, rushing for 140 yards and four touchdowns. Wilson contributed 107 yards rushing of his own and Seattle combined for a franchise-record 350 yards on the ground.

“It was just a great game,” No. 29 said. “This game was just so awesome. It’s just a humbling experience to play this child’s game that you’ve been playing all of your life and to have all of your teammates with you. The way we rallied and never gave up-this is just a humbling experience for me. I’m just excited to be a part of this.”

Even before kickoff, Earl did what he does best: inspire his teammates.

He pumped up the Seattle squad with one of his customary goose bump-inducing pregame speeches.

“Earl just talked about believing,” said outside linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis. “We have to believe that we can make the plays. We started to believe and the plays started coming to us. We keep working hard—I mean they’re [Giants] coached up too so they’re going to make plays, but we had to allow the plays to come to us.”

Seattle started the game in dominant fashion, as Earl and the defense forced the Giants to punt on their opening drive.

On the ensuing possession, the Seahawks struck quickly with a six-play, 80-yard drive. Wilson kicked it off with a screen pass to Lynch that the running back took for 23 yards and then a pass to tight end Cooper Helfet for 32 yards, which moved Seattle deep into New York territory.

From there, the Hawks went to the ground. Lynch picked up 14 yards to the 11-yard-line on his first carry then got to the 10 on his next touch. Christine Michael came in as a change of pace and got the ball to the goal line where Lynch plowed it in on the next play.

When the Seahawks defense retook the field, ET III and company again forced a Giants punt. But on the opening play of the subsequent Seattle possession, Wilson was intercepted by New York linebacker Zack Bowman, which gave Manning and the Giants excellent field position at the Seahawks’ 24-yard line.

The Hawks defense nearly got off the field with a three-and-out, but Manning found Beckham for an eight-yard gain on 3rd-and-4 and two plays later Manning connected with Preston Parker for a touchdown that tied the game at 7-7 with less than five minutes remaining in the opening quarter.

New York briefly seized the game momentum in the late stages of the first quarter and the opening moments of the second. After a Seattle punt gave the Giants the ball at their own 20, they got a big play from Beckham, who hauled in a 44-yard catch on the final play of the first quarter to put New York at the Seahawks 36.

Two plays later, on the second play of the second quarter, Manning connected with Beckham again for 26 yards to the Seattle three-yard-line. Rookie running back Andre Williams plunged into the end zone on the next play to give New York a 14-7 lead.

But afterward it was Beckham, the rookie receiver, who drew compliments from Earl.

“[Beckham Jr.] is a great player,” Earl said. “They tried to move him in the slot, the Z receiver, and the X receiver just to get him open. He did a great job making big plays for them.”

But that touchdown, scored just one minute and 26 seconds into the second quarter, was the last the Seahawks defense allowed on the day. Just over a minute of game time later, the Seattle D had to step up after a turnover by the offense put their backs against the wall yet again as New York took over at the Seahawks 39-yard line.

But aided by an offensive pass interference call on Parker, the Hawks forced the Giants into a three-and-out. Earl finalized the stop with a third down tackle of New York’s Michael Cox, which forced a punt.

On the ensuing Seattle drive, the Seahawks put their trust in Lynch, who ran the ball six times and helped his team march 85 yards down the field and drain more than eight minutes off the clock before halftime.

Lynch capped the 15-play drive with his second rushing touchdown of the day to knot the score at 14-14.

“A guy like that only comes around every blue moon,” ET III said about Lynch. “It’s so fun to see him run with so much passion. You can tell the guy loves the game. This guy is unbelievable man. When he gets his motor going and gets in a rhythm, he’s running over guys and fighting for every yard. I’m on the sidelines telling everyone, ‘Look at this guy run.’”

Though the long Seattle drive left the Giants just 1:57 to work with, Manning and co. did their best to move down the field in a hurry and advanced all the way to the Seattle 25-yard line. However, Earl came up with a big tackle on second down with 11 seconds remaining that forced the Giants to settle for a short field goal and a 17-14 halftime lead.

But after his defense allowed 17 points in the first half, Seattle defensive coordinator Dan Quinn made some key adjustments to help enhance Seattle’s defensive presence, as Earl told reporters after the game.

“I think we started out of character early with not staying on top, but we made the correct adjustments to get everything together,” No. 29 said. “I think it’s all about strategy and understanding how they want to attack you, but they did some things that we haven’t seen. But [Coach Quinn] did a great job of preparing us for that.”

Those adjustments paid immediate dividends in the second half after Wilson was intercepted for a second time on the opening drive of the third quarter. The Giants started their ensuing drive at their own 10 and drove in to Seattle territory, but the Hawks illustrated the bend-but-don’t-break mentality that has become with synonymous with Seahawks football.

No. 29 made two key tackles on before New York could move into field goal, which forced yet another punt.

Seattle managed to tie the game with a field goal on their subsequent drive, setting the stage for Earl’s game-changing play.

The Giants were poised to answer that field goal with at least three points of their own as Manning drove them into Seattle territory to the 39-yard line late in the third quarter. On third down, the Seattle defense put pressure on Manning, who then scrambled to his left and decided he would test ET III, Richard Sherman and the Legion of Boom.

The play was a perfect example of the “tied-on-a-string” defensive mentality that Earl has been advocating as Seattle’s pass rush, Sherman’s coverage and ET III’s ball-hawking mentality all combined in the key interception.

“It’s great to be a part of [the game’s turning point],” ET III said of his big play. “Credit to Sherm and even the D-Line, getting the quarterback off his spot and making him scramble to our left. We always practice that. When you run, good things always happen. You never know what could happen so you never give up on the play. That’s our whole defense. We always do that.”

Rather than taking a knee in the endzone, Earl decided to take his chances and return the ball, a choice that also paid off.

“Any time you get a chance like that, you never know what could happen,” No. 29 said. “You could run that thing all the way back. Unfortunately I didn’t do it, but it was good to get my hands on the ball.”

Seattle took over the game from there.

After ending the quarter with a run to get the ball into Giants territory, Lynch capped the ensuing drive with a touchdown run to give the Hawks the lead for good early in the fourth. The Seattle defense then forced the Giants into a quick three-and-out and a seven-play, 53-yard drive by the Seahawks ended with another Lynch scoring run to put Seattle up 31-17 with 7:47 to go.

Down by two scores with time running out on their day, the Giants were forced to go for it on fourth down from near midfield and could not convert. On the very first play after Seattle took over possession, Christine Michael rumbled for 44 yards to the Giants 1 and from there Lynch punched in his fourth touchdown of the day to put the game out of reach.

After the game, ET III, who earned plenty of praise for his play saved most of his for Lynch, whose four rushing touchdowns were a career high.

“I would love to play with Marshawn as long as he wants to play football,’’ Earl said. “I never want him to leave, especially when I’m playing. It’s hard to replace guys like that. They don’t come around very often.”

The victory marked Seattle’s third straight as they improved to 6-3 on the season, but perhaps the most impressive thing about that streak is how much the Hawks have accomplished despite the loss of several starters, particularly on the defensive end.

Sunday, they were without linebackers Bobby Wagner and Malcolm Smith and safety Kam Chancellor. In the first half, defensive tackle Brandon Mebane went down with a hamstring injury, further testing their defensive depth.

But Seattle has been undeterred and Earl noted that he and his Seahawks teammates have relished the opportunity to step up in the absence of some of their comrades. Now in his fifth season in the NFL, Earl has been particularly eager to pass on what he’s learned to the younger members of his team as the grasp more important roles.

“That’s the great thing about this season,” No. 29 said. “That’s the great challenge about this season. Through all the adversity early, you’ve been on this team for five years and your role expands and you have the ability to bring guys with you and show them the way and elevate their game, mentally-wise, physically-wise and technique-wise. That’s what I love about this game.”

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Earl is also proud of the way that Seattle has progressed through the various setbacks they have has faced thus far.

“Every week we just get more powerful,” he said. “Guys are binding together. We love each other and keep attacking.”

NEXT UP

Earl and the Hawks will look to keep the momentum going next Sunday when they square off against another surging squad in the Kansas City Chiefs (6-3).

After losing three of their first five games, Kansas City has won four straight games. On Sunday, the Chiefs came from behind to defeat the Buffalo Bills 17-13 behind quarterback Alex Smith who completed 17-of-29 for 177 yards and running back Jamaal Charles who totaled 98 yards on the ground.

The game will mark the second meeting between Earl and his good friend Charles. The two group up 30 minutes apart in “The Golden Triangle” of Southeast Texas and often met on the gridiron throughout their youth before becoming teammates at The University of Texas.

The first time their two NFL teams met was back in 2010, Earl’s rookie year. ET III recorded seven tackles in the game, but Charles got the best of it, rushing for 173 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries in a 42-24 Chiefs win.

But much has changed on both sides in the last four years and the upcoming game is expected to be more of a defensive battle than a shootout. Kansas City ranks second in the NFL in points allowed and is first in passing defense. Chiefs linebacker Justin Houston has already recorded 12 sacks on the year, first in the NFL.

Although the revamped versions of the Seahawks and Chiefs do not have much history, KC quarterback Alex Smith is not a new foe for the Legion of Boom.

Smith served as the signal caller for the San Francisco 49ers for the first three years of his career and met several times with the Legion of Boom. Most recently, in Week 7 of the 2012 campaign, Earl and the Seahawks limited Smith to just 170 yards in the air.

Behind Smith Kansas City ranks 31st in the league in passing offense, having accumulated just 1,609 yards in the air. The team has been buoyed offensively thus far by Charles and the rushing attack, which ranks sixth in the NFL. But Smith has been steady, completing 67.1 percent of his passes, which is good for eighth in the league and the KC offense as a whole has turned the ball over only seven times. The ball-hawking Seattle will be aiming to add to that total on Sunday.

Kickoff from Arrowhead Stadium is set for 1o a.m. PDT and the game can be seen on FOX.