SEATTLE – The Giants wanted to take Seattle’s roaring, allegedly enhanced crowd out of the game early. Plunging into the deepest first-half hole in their 82-year history probably wasn’t what New York had in mind.

Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck threw five touchdown passes — four in the first half. Meanwhile, Eli Manning had three interceptions, the Giants were way behind early and never caught up in a 42–30 loss yesterday.

The rout was so quick, so decisive, it rendered the incessant roaring of a Qwest Field-record crowd of 68,161 moot — but not mute. The fans were mostly mocking the stunned visitors by the end of the third quarter, after the Seahawks completed a 17-play drive that ended with Darrell Jackson’s second touchdown catch for a 42–3 lead.

The Seahawks won their 12th consecutive regular-season home game to become 3–0 for the third time in four seasons. They finally felt good about their previously sputtering offense, thanks to a boost by Deion Branch’s debut.

The former Patriot and Super Bowl MVP caught two passes for 23 yards and ran a reverse 8 yards. He was part of the Seahawks’ new, four-wide receiver scheme, an offensive makeover during the game’s relatively few important parts.

The Giants (1–2) just got plain worked over.

Hasselbeck’s scoring throws to Jackson, Nate Burleson, Bobby Engram and even third-string tight end Will Heller — plus Shaun Alexander’s 2-yard score — put the Giants behind 35–0 for the first time since September 4, 1995, when they lost by that score to Dallas en route to a 5–11 season.

Manning had what many considered to be his “coming-of-age” day the previous week while rallying the Giants from 17 down in the fourth quarter to win at Philadelphia.

Yesterday’s first quarter was his comeuppance.

Manning’s initial mistake was not seeing Ken Hamlin lurking behind Plaxico Burress on New York’s third play, after the Giants’ Corey Webster outfought Darrell Jackson for an interception to begin the game. Hamlin jumped in front of Burress, intercepted Manning’s pass and returned it 37 yards to the New York 15.

Two plays later, Shaun Alexander scored on a 2-yard run to put Seattle ahead 7–0.

Rookie Darryl Tapp sacked Manning for an 11-yard loss to end the Giants’ second drive. Burleson then made a twisting catch of a 12-yard throw for a score.

Manning threw scoring passes of 13 yards to Toomer and 25 yards to Tim Carter in the fourth quarter to make it 42–17.

McQuarters then intercepted a short, Hasselbeck flip and returned it 27 yards for another touchdown with 9:30 left.

New York’s final score came on a 94-yard drive out of the same no-huddle offense in which Manning shined last week. Manning was 7-for-8 on the drive, which ended with a 9-yard scoring pass to David Tyree with 2:42 remaining.