Getty Geno Smith still has two seasons remaining on a $75 million contract beyond 2023.
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith did not hold back his feelings about his team’s underwhelming performance against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 1. Smith shouldered a lot of the blame for the 17-point loss but also expressed concern about the Seahawks’ effort level.
“Obviously, we’ll see those those guys again, but it just looked like they were playing harder and that’s why they won,” Smith told reporters on September 10, 2023.
Earlier in his press conference, Smith mentioned that it appeared the Rams wanted to win the game more than the Seahawks. When pressed on his remarks, Smith explained what he saw that prompted him to make this statement and cited the team’s youth as a potential contributing factor.
“You know, that’s something that we got to get better at,” Smith noted. “We got to understand that we got to go earn it every single play, every single down, every single game. Like I said, it’s the NFL. I know we got a lot of young guys who for their first time are playing regular-season football and might not know how hard you got to play to go out there and get wins.
“But they don’t come easy, and so I think this is going to be a great learning experience for us. I think we can look at these moments later on down the season and say that we gain from it.”
Geno Smith Took Blame for Seahawks Loss to Rams: ‘It’s My Job to Make Sure We’re Ready’
This ain’t good: Geno Smith said the Rams “wanted it more” than his #Seahawks
“It just looked like they were playing harder.”
Asked if if this should, thus, be a wake-up call. His answer:
The Seahawks took a 13-7 lead into halftime but were held scoreless by the Rams in the second half. The quarterback was not helped by injuries to both of the team’s offensive tackles as Charles Cross and Abe Lucas ended up sidelined. Smith was candid about Seattle not living up to their own expectations, but the quarterback was quick to point the finger at himself as well.
“I feel like we just didn’t execute when it comes down to it, and I’ll be the first to say that, as always, you can put that on me,” Smith said. “It’s my job to make sure we’re ready. That we’re always prepared. We’re always competing, and I just feel like we didn’t do that to the best of our ability in the second half.
“And so, it’s just one game. Obviously, not the way we wanted to start, but the good part is that it’s not 17 [games]. So, we got to figure out how to get better from this, and we got 16 opportunities to go out there and right this wrong.”
Pete Carroll: ‘I Look at a Little Bit of Misjudgment on My Part’
Pete Carroll says Charles Cross has a sprained toe and Abe Lucas was dealing with the same sore knee he had in camp.
Things do not get any easier for Seattle who takes on a Detroit team that is coming off an upset victory over Kansas City. Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll admitted that he made a “little bit of misjudgment” in assessing how the team would play, particularly on defense.
“I look at a little bit of misjudgment on my part that we would be able to do things we’ve been doing, and we’d be able to play a good football game, and it didn’t work out that way,” Carroll explained during a September 10 press conference. “We needed to pressure ’em more and find ways to get the heat on them to cover them up and get off the darn field.
“So this is really a challenge. It’s a big challenge for us to bounce back and look what we’re going against [in Week 2]. We’re going to go against one of the hottest teams in the world right now coming up in Detroit. And we’ll see how that goes, but now it’s about us and digging back into it.”