SEATTLE — The Giants entered the fourth quarter Sunday afternoon in a loud, hostile environment very far from home, but also in an extremely familiar predicament.

Trailing. Embroiled in a taut, low-scoring affair. Hanging in with their defense. Needing more from their offense. Going down to the wire, again, with little margin for error.

“We’ve been in that situation more than once this year — we obviously thought we were going to be able to make the plays we needed to win the game,” receiver Darius Slayton said.

“We had not played a great game up to that point but confident in our ability to close out games,” Daniel Jones said.

It does not always work out that way.

Treading a tightrope has worked out remarkably well for the Giants this season but no team can stay upright forever in such a precarious position without slipping up. The Giants pulled even at 13 in the fourth quarter but could not complete yet another comeback and fell to the Seahawks 27-13, ending their winning streak at four games.

Two colossal blunders by way of fumbles by punt returner Richie James helped doom the Giants, who head into their bye week at 6-2, a far better record than anyone could have imagined, yet showing warts that need to be addressed in the second half of the season.

“As a competitor you want to win every single game but I think we put ourselves in position to win every single game so far in the season,” Saquon Barkley said. “Being 6-2, there’s a lot of good out of that but there’s also a lot we can learn from it, to be the team we want to be.”

Down 13-10, the Giants pulled even on Graham Gano’s 45-yard field goal with 11:17 remaining, with Jones’ bullet to Slayton for 21 yards the biggest chunk play on the drive.

The Giants weren’t even for long. The Seahawks on their next possession ditched their running game, with rookie sensation Kenneth Walker at that juncture limited to 33 yards on 11 carries. Geno Smith, playing the best ball of his 10-year career, went to work. He completed all five of his passes on a pass-only drive that covered 75 yards, the last 33 on a perfect toss to Tyler Lockett, who badly beat Adoree’ Jackson on a double move along the right sideline for a touchdown and a 20-13 Seahawks lead.

“That’s a drive where we have to bow up and execute,” safety Julian Love said. “They executed well and we didn’t. We would like to hold them there.”

Any shot the Giants had to get their fifth fourth-quarter comeback of the season vanished when James was leveled after hauling in a punt and lost the ball on a fumble with 6:04 to go. Two plays later, Walker shed a tackle attempt by safety Xavier McKinney on a 16-yard touchdown run that put the Giants out of reach.

This was an ugly offensive showing by the Giants, as their lone touchdown came after they were set up on the Seattle 2-yard line after a turnover. Barkley was limited to 53 yards on 20 rushing attempts and Jones passed for only 176 yards, with the Giants’ deficiencies at wide receiver certainly evident.

The Giants came in having outscored their opponents 58-22 in the fourth quarter this season, but it was 14-3 for the Seahawks in the final 15 minutes.

“They just did a better job than we did,” coach Brian Daboll said.

The Seahawks struck first after an offense-challenged first quarter by both teams, as Smith hit DK Metcalf — playing despite a patellar injury he suffered last week — with a 3-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter. The Giants were stuck in neutral on offense, needed a spark and they got it — from their special teams and defensive units.

Jamie Gillan’s 49-yard punt was downed at the Seattle 2-yard line by Justin Layne and the field position battle turned into great fortune for the Giants. Lockett caught a short pass, was hit instantly by cornerback Jackson, who separated Lockett from the ball and then recovered it. Two plays later, Barkley ran it in from a yard out and it was 7-7.

Back-to-back sacks of Smith, by Leonard Williams and blitzing Xavier McKinney, helped the momentum tilt to the Giants, but James’ fumble on the ensuing punt return put the Seahawks on the Giants’ 19-yard line. The defense rose to the challenge and limited the damage to a Jason Myers’ 35-yard field goal to put the Seahawks up 10-7 at halftime. Given what transpired with the ball in their possession, the three-point deficit was the best the Giants could have hoped for. They had 46 total yards and three first downs in the first half.

James’s turnovers cost the Giants 10 points and on his second fumble he was carted off the field with a concussion.

“Taking care of the ball is one of our main goals and obviously we didn’t do it,” Daboll said. “We got to fix that.”

Daboll’s low-key public reaction to the loss was in keeping with his low-key public reaction after wins. He knows what the Giants have done and where they need to go.

“I’m not happy with what we did today,” Daboll said, “A long trip back, a lot to fix but we’ll fix it.”