SEATTLE, Wash. — If Geno Smith was looking at Monday Night Football against Russell Wilson and the Broncos as any sort of validation or career statement, he wasn’t letting on… too much. There was the bon mot he released to ESPN’s Lisa Salters that will be meme-worthy for a while after Seattle’s 17-16 nail-biter of a win.
"they wrote me off but i aint write back " BARS pic.twitter.com/tEgBKfcKBO
— Tony X (@soIoucity) September 13, 2022
After the game, I asked Smith what that meant, and how it felt for him to complete 23 of 28 passes for 195 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions in a game that saw him as a team’s defined starter for the first time since 2014, when he held that position for the New York Jets.
After a decade in the NFL, Smith had a perspective on the whole thing that transcended the game itself.
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) September 13, 2022
“Yeah, I think when people say what I’ve been through, I think that’s a stretch. man. I’ve been in the NFL for 10 years. To say what I’ve been through is kind of funny, or to say that people wrote me off. I’ve just been working. That’s what it means when I said that I never wrote back. I don’t listed to stuff like that. I know what I have inside of me. God has blessed me with talent, and also, a passion and drive. And so, as far as worrying about naysayers or anything like that, I don’t get into that kind of stuff. People can write you off, but life’s about what you make it. I’ve just been blessed enough to be in the NFL for 10 years ,and we got a win tonight as a team.”
Sure, but as head coach Pete Carroll said after the game, it was Smith who nest distilled his head coach’s idea of a point goard and ball distributor. Both Carroll and Smith spoke to the importance of the common philosophy.
“For me, when he says that, it just means to facilitate,” Smith said of his coach. “I think us as quarterbacks, our QB room, we have some scoring point guards as well. When you have [the receivers and tight ends the Seahawks have]… all those guys, man. You just put the ball in their hands, and watch the magic happen. For me, early on, my thought process was to get the ball out of my hands, get it into the hands of our playmakers, protect our young tackles, as well as just getting the chains moving.”
That philosophy does not preclude the Seahawks from creating big plays in the passing game — as Smith said, he can be a shooting guard, as well. The most impressive three of the Broncos game was probably his 25-yard touchdown pass to tight end Colby Parkinson with 2:24 left in the first half.
TIGHT END UNIVERSITY IS OPEN!
📺 #DENvsSEA on @ESPN pic.twitter.com/mGvjaJ3wPQ
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) September 13, 2022
Smith explained to me what the process was on this play, and how he feathered the ball over linebacker Jonas Griffith.
“He [Parkinson] was the read. We had a couple of… I don’t want to tell you all the plays, but he was in the read, and the way they played it, the safety ended up vacating the post. So, the linebacker had to carry the seam. There was really no one back there, so I had a good spot back to find him. Colby is a 6-foot-7tight end, so you really can’t miss him if you put it high.”
“High” would also explain Carroll’s mood regarding his new quarterback after the game.
“Geno… I mean, he was 17 for 18 in the first half. Who does that? Guys just don’t do that. But you remember, he did it against Jacksonville — he had 12 or 13 in a row, or something line that. So, Geno played like he was practicing. That’s what he’s been looking like. He didn’t look any different. That’s why we had the belief in him, and he was able to go out there and win the job, and win a Monday Night Football game.”
The quarterback story of this game was Russell WIlson’s return to Seattle — at least until the game started. And then, it was Geno Smith, providing career receipts in his own humble fashion.
