Getty Geno Smith is living his best life with the Seahawks.
One week after being the talk of the NFL, Geno Smith and the Seattle Seahawks offense drastically underwhelmed in the team’s blowout loss to their NFC West rival San Francisco 49ers. Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll admitted Smith “couldn’t get rolling,” but indicated that the quarterback did not make many major mistakes either.
“He couldn’t get going,” Carroll said of Smith during his September 18, 2022 postgame press conference. “He couldn’t get started. He just couldn’t get rolling. Nothing worked, we didn’t do anything anywhere.
“I didn’t see him do anything that really took us out of the game. I thought he was going along with it, but we just needed to have a whole compliment of ball on both sides of the football, and it just wasn’t there.”
Statistically, Smith put up solid numbers throwing for 197 yards while completing 80% of his passes against San Francisco. Smith had one interception and did not throw a touchdown. The veteran quarterback was unable to make enough big plays to keep the Seahawks in the game, but Carroll emphasized that there was plenty of blame to go around outside the quarterback.
Carroll on Offense: ‘We Got to Get Some Points’
Tashaun Gipson Sr. will take that! #FTTB
📺: #SEAvsSF on FOX
📱: Stream on NFL+ t.co/5seLjDGe69
The turning point of the game happened in the second quarter when Seattle squandered a red zone opportunity. The Seahawks ran a trick play where running back DeeJay Dallas attempted to throw a touchdown pass to DK Metcalf only to be intercepted in the end zone by the Niners.
As for the scoring drought, Carroll did not single out Smith but sent a clear message to the entire offense. The Seahawks coach kept it simple admitting, “we got to go get some points.”
“We got to get right,” Carroll stated. “We got to score, we got to go get some points.”
Seattle was held scoreless in three of the four quarters against the 49ers and have only scored a touchdown in two of eight quarters so far this season.
Smith Has Been Unable to Make Big Plays Since the First Half vs. Denver
“I taught him that!”
The Manning brothers react to Geno Smith’s jump pass TD to open the game.
Smith has been efficient during his two starts this season, but we have not seen his playmaking ability since the first half of the season opener against Denver. Heading into the season, Carroll left the door open for Drew Lock to potentially overtake Smith, but all signs point to the veteran having a long runway before the Seahawks would consider making a change.
“According to Elias via @ESPNStatsInfo, Geno Smith’s 80% completion rate today is the highest (minimum of pass 30 attempts) in a game in which a QB’s team didn’t score an offensive point since statistics were first tracked for individual players in 1932,” ESPN’s Brady Henderson tweeted.
Carroll on Offense: ‘We Have to Make More Things Happen’
Carroll once again set out a familiar blueprint for how the Seahawks can rectify their offensive woes. The longtime Seattle coach wants to establish the run and have the passing offense be able to play off the team’s ground attack. Carroll praised the offensive line hinting that Smith and the offense needs to “make more things happen.”
“We have to do everything better,” Carroll remarked on the offensive struggles. “We have to run the ball with some consistency. We actually protected pretty well early in the game, for the first three quarters, I guess.
“We just gotta make more things happen. But I think it’s most connected to [having] to fit it off what we’re doing with the running game and make the passing game come to life off the [play-action passes] and stuff that really didn’t even show today.”