Geno Smith sheds rust, Drew Lock, Tre Brown shine in Seahawks’ preseason win over Dallas
Geno Smith got his rust off.
Drew Lock got his game on.
The Seahawks got through a second preseason game with no apparent serious injury — though Lock’s night came to a limping, premature end.
The backup quarterback who badly wants to be an NFL starter again led Seattle to touchdowns on consecutive first-half drives with three impressive passes. That was after Smith started with most of the regulars on offense and completed 5 of 6 passes, as Seattle spotted Dallas’ reserves an early lead before winning 22-14 Saturday night at Lumen Field.
“Definitely a transition from game one (last week versus Minnesota) to game two. I was struggling a little bit early on the first couple drives in that Vikings game...but feeling confident going back out there this time.
“I wanted to show that tonight, not only to the coaches but to the team — that I’m going to be ready at all times. Whenever that time comes.”
Coach Pete Carroll said Lock’s knee was a bit “hyperextended” in the back, but that he expects Lock to play most of Seattle’s preseason finale next Saturday at Green Bay.
“Kind of a precautionary deal,” Lock said of his early exit Saturday.
The Seahawks played 14 of their 22 regular starters on offense and defense, but not Bobby Wagner again. That was a flip from the previous week. Carroll had Smith among 15 of the 22 starters stay on the sidelines watching the reserves play the preseason opener against Minnesota.
“Really pleased with the overall feeling of the game, from start to finish,” Carroll said. “Got our ones some work, selective ones played...enough just to get them out there. That’s what we wanted to get done tonight.
“It starts with Geno getting some snaps. Both Geno and Drew were 5 for 6. Popped the ball around pretty good. Both looked in command, had no problems at any time, really.
“A really clean night for both of them.”
The Dallas game is likely to be the most extensive action of the preseason for most Seahawks starters. Few if any are expected to play next Saturday afternoon in Green Bay.
Wagner got a huge ovation and waved to the crowd while introduced as a starter just before kickoff. That was the first time that’s happened since the team’s final home game of the 2021 season, Jan. 2, 2022. The six-time All-Pro linebacker got hurt that day. He missed that season finale, then played last year for the Los Angeles Rams. That was after Seattle released him to save $16 million against its salary cap for 2022.
Wagner did not play Saturday. Patrick O’Connell started for him next to Devin Bush as Seattle’s inside linebackers.
Tackling remained a problem for the Seahawks’ defense. The team typically has such issues in the preseason and early regular seasons. It doesn’t bring guys to ground in any practices, not even in training camp.
Dallas’ Deuce Vaughn scored on a 14-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to cut the Seahawks’ lead to 17-14. It was the second play Saturday where Seahawks safeties Jerrick Reed and Coby Bryant both missed tackles in succession to create a big play.
Seattle missed seven tackles in the first quarter of last week’s game against Minnesota, by coaches’ count. It could have been more like 10 or more.
Drew Lock continues...
...to gain Carroll’s trust.
Entering Saturday, Lock had played three games for Seattle since arriving in March 2022 from Denver in the Russell Wilson trade. In two preseason games last summer and last week’s against Minnesota, Lock had five touchdown passes but also five turnovers.
“I want him to be ready to start games. I want him to be ready to play football games and win championship games for us,” Carroll said last week. “He needs to play to do that. He sat around all last year.”
Smith took every snap last regular season replacing Wilson as Seattle’s quarterback.
Against Dallas Saturday, Lock was impressive. He was decisive. He was precise.
He showed why the Seahawks brought him back this spring on a one-year contract worth $4 million, even after re-signing Smith to a three-year, $105 million deal.
“Last week was his first time coming out, hadn’t played in front of our fans. He was a little nervous coming out,” Carroll said.
“He could feel the difference tonight. He was calm. He was relaxed. He was ready to go. And he had a blast playing. ...
“This next week is a really important week for him, just get him back getting play time...so he’s ready to pop if the time comes.”
Lock entered to begin Seattle’s third possession, midway through the second quarter. He soon put the Seahawks ahead. The one-time Broncos starter threw a dart just over the shoulder of a tightly-covering defender onto the hands of rookie receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba for a 48-yard catch and run, to the 1-yard line.
Lock joked on the sideline to his receiver that the reason Smith-Njigba got caught from behind is he saw the rookie wide receiver eating burritos Saturday afternoon before the game.
“I saw him at Chipotle today,” Lock said. “I tried to get some before the game. I said, ‘Jax, do you normally get some before the game?’ He was like, ‘No.’
“That’s why he got stopped at the 1, because he had Chipotle today, instead of your normal pregame food.”
Smith-Njigba had two more receptions for a total of 58 yards.
DeeJay Dallas ran it in from the 1 to give the Seahawks a 10-7 lead.
Lock had two more impressive throws on the next Seahawks drive. He pulled up inside a free Cowboys edge rusher on a bootleg into him, and threw 21 yards to tight end Noah Fant in the middle of the field. Then Lock waited for Cody Thompson to break free through Dallas’ zone coverage. Lock’s perfect touch pass found Thompson for 32 yards to the Dallas 24.
Just after that completion to Thompson, Lock got hit low by Dallas’ Sam Williams following a pass. The referee flagged that for roughing the passer. Lock finished the drive with another completion to set up a 1-yard touchdown run by SaRodorick Thompson for a 17-7 Seahawks lead. But Lock limped some.
He went into the blue medical observation tent behind the Seahawks’ bench following the touchdown. A few minutes later he walked out of it, and didn’t appear particularly worried or limited.
Yet coaches put undrafted rookie third-string quarterback Holton Ahlers in the game, anyway, with 1:20 left in the first half. That was earlier than scheduled, as a precaution. Lock was supposed to play deep into the second half.
Like Smith, Lock played with the starting offensive line: Charles Cross at left tackle, Damien Lewis at left guard, Evan Brown at center, Phil Haynes at right guard and Abe Lucas at right tackle. Lock finished 5 for 6 passing for 119 yards.
With Lock running the offense, Seattle had eight first downs, 155 net yards on 12 plays producing 14 points. That was 11 points and more than twice as many yards as the Seahawks gained in two drives with Smith.
“I think he’s a starter,” Carroll said of Lock. “That’s why we’re so excited about having him. We thought that when we got him. It just didn’t work out. Geno was just too much in command.
“But I think he’s playing like a starter.”
As the final seconds of the first half expired, Lock walked the length of the sideline to the Seahawks tunnel. Then he jogged lightly to the locker room, with a slight limp.
Michael Jackson’s tough quarter
Seattle had seven regular starters playing on offense and seven on defense to begin the game.
Tre Brown started at right cornerback, as 2022 Pro Bowl rookie Riq Woolen began practicing just this week following his arthroscopic knee surgery in May. Michael Jackson started at left cornerback, as he has all training camp.
Brown got a long look, playing into the fourth quarter. He had a better game than Jackson. That could determine who starts opposite Woolen to begin the season.
In the first minute of the final period Brown, the Seahawks’ second pick in the 2021 draft jumped in front of Cowboys receiver Simi Fehoko at the goal line and intercepted Will Grier’s pass. That kept Seattle ahead 17-14.
Brown also had a sure open-field tackle, correcting an error he made missing one of those against Minnesota last week.
Brown was starting as a rookie in 2021 when he tore the patellar tendon and two other parts of his knee. The surgery and resulting recovery limited him into 2022.
Asked in the locker room after this Dallas game what he thinks he showed Saturday, Brown said: “I showed that I’m back.”
Jackson allowed a 36-yard completion down the right sideline on a third down on Dallas’ first possession of the game. That was because he didn’t turn his head, as he has on such balls all camp.
On the Cowboys’ second drive, Jackson allowed his receiver to get inside him by three steps on a slant route for an 18-yard gain on third and long. Then on fourth and 4, Jackson was running back in loose coverage when rookie receiver Jalen Brooks broke off his route just past the line to gain for an easy completion for Dallas backup Cooper Rush.
Rush started because Dak Prescott and most of the Cowboys’ starters are not playing in preseason games.
Carroll was asked if Brown may have won the starting cornerback job opposite Woolen with Saturday’s performances by Brown and Jackson.
“No, not at this point. No, I don’t think I can say that about it,” Carroll said.
“He’s a good football player,” the coach said of Brown. “He’s played really well, consistently. We’re really lucky to have him on our side.”
Carroll can’t call that job yet because Devon Witherspoon, the fifth pick in this year’s draft, is due back to walkthrough practices this week from a hamstring injury that’s had him out the last 10 days. Jackson has also proven to be resilient and unyielding to challenges since becoming Seattle’s starter as a three-year practice-squad player last year.
Jackson’s got another challenge now.
Seattle allowed three first downs on third down and the one on fourth down on that 17-play drive for the Cowboys’ first touchdown.
Brown, Seattle’s right cornerback, turned to his teammates with both arms out and palms up, wondering why Cowboys running back Rico Dowdle was alone in the short left flat to easily catch Rush’s pass and walk into the end zone for a 6-yard score early in the second quarter.
Despite Dak Prescott and other Dallas regulars not playing this preseason, the Cowboys succeeded early on offense because Seattle had very little pass rush. The Seahawks had only three pressures of any kind on the first 13 drop backs by Dallas backup quarterback Cooper Rush.
Outside linebacker Boye Mafe charged in, continuing his stellar month. He batted down a pass while beating the Cowboys’ reserve left tackle and knocked down Rush on one impressive play. Rookie second-round pick Derick Hall had a quarterback hit on another pass. And nose tackle Jarran Reed had a sack edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu caused by collapsing the pocket from the outside to end Dallas’ first possession.
Smith-Njigba learns quickly
Along with starring catching passes in his first training camp, Smith-Njigba has been returning punts in practices. He returned 11 punts in the first two of his three seasons at Ohio State.
In the first quarter Saturday, Smith-Njigba fair caught a Dallas punt at his own 4-yard line. That’s where coaches want returners to let the ball land, because odds are it will bounce into the end zone for a touchback and drive start at the 20 instead of where Seattle started that drive, inside the 5.
Coaches talked to Smith-Njigba on the sideline just after his fair catch.
On the next Cowboys punt, also from midfield midway through the second quarter, Smith-Njigba stepped up and allowed the ball to land inside the 10-yard line. It bounded into the end zone for a touchback — just as coaches likely explained to/reminded him after the first punt.
More Bobo
Smith and Lock have said the locker-room saying of the summer has been “More Bobo!”
That is, for undrafted rookie wide receiver Jake Bobo.
He gave them more in the first quarter.
The free agent from UCLA faked a slant pattern and turned it into a go route that fooled his Cowboys cover man out of the play. Smith pump faked then threw to wide-open Bobo for a 28-yard gain. That got Seattle off the goal line Smith-Njigba’s fair catch had put the offense on.
Rookie second-round pick Zach Charbonnet then ran for 29 yards off right tackle, behind a lane-clearing block by pulling center Evan Brown.
““Pretty good, man,” Carroll said of Charbonnet. “We think we’ve got a helluva a player there.”
The drive ended in Jason Myers’ line-drive field goal from 57 yards.
In the fourth quarter, fellow undrafted rookie receiver John Hall side-stepped an outside Cowboys blocker and blocked a punt. The ball caromed into the end zone. Dallas’ Dowdle got it, but Bobo then forced Dowdle across the back line of the end zone for a safety. Seattle’s lead grew to 22-14.
Through two preseason games, Bobo has five catches on six targets for 98 yards and a touchdown. He and Jonathan Sutherland from Penn State, who started again as the primary nickel, are two undrafted rookies on track to make the 53-man roster for the regular season.
Cuts from 90 men to 53 are due by the NFL deadline of Aug. 29.
Remembering Alex Collins
The Seahawks had a moment of silence just before the national anthem for Alex Collins. A picture of him smiling in his Seattle game uniform, number 41, was on the giant scoreboards before the pause.
Collins died last weekend in a motorcycle accident in Florida, near his hometown of Fort Lauderdale. He was 28.
This story was originally published August 19, 2023 at 10:07 PM.
