Geno Smith’s knee is fine. But Pete Carroll is not fine with how the Seahawks QB got hurt
His coach says Geno Smith and his knee are “fine.” It looked that way as Smith practiced Monday.
But Pete Carroll is not fine with how his quarterback got hurt.
Smith was among the Seahawks’ 14 banged-up starters who benefited from the team’s earliest bye in seven years. It ended Monday when Seattle (3-1) returned to practice for its game Sunday at Cincinnati (2-3).
Smith caught his own batted pass in the Seahawks’ last game and ran toward the Giants’ sideline Oct. 2. New York’s Isaiah Simmons ran over, grabbed Smith by the back of his shoulders and pads and pulled down onto the back of Smith’s legs for the tackle through the sideline boundary.
Smith was angry. He got up, limped to the middle of the field and charged at the Giants’ defensive huddle.
Smith, Seattle’s Pro Bowl and record-setting quarterback last season, missed two series. Backup Drew Lock entered the game and led the offense to a touchdown. Smith returned to begin the second half of Seattle’s 24-3 win.
He remained upset. He got an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty and an NFL fine of $10,927 for taunting and yelling. That was immediately after the Seahawks felt the Giants swung Seattle wide receiver Tyler Lockett unnecessarily into the sideline.
Lock re-entered with 3:30 left to finish the Seahawks’ win.
Smith stayed mad immediately after the game. He told ESPN’s Lisa Salters of Simmons’ tackle of him: “A dirty play. Dirty play. You guys can see it. It was a dirty play. It’s no place in this sport for that and hopefully something happens.”
Smith wasn’t as heated in his comments in a press conference about 30 minutes and a postgame shower later.
“Obviously ugly situation, but I feel a lot better,” he said then.
“I was just running out of bounds and kind of got rolled up on. Just an unfortunate situation.
“Initially, I really just was kind of in shock a little bit, just from being rolled up on and having my leg pretty much trapped under the guy. It was some slight pain, but overall, I was just happy that I came out OK.
“So, whatever the case is, God’s good.”
Carroll said after the game Simmons’ action onto the back of of Smith’s legs was similar to why the NFL made the horse-collar tackle illegal years ago. By the letter of NFL law, Simmons’ tackle on Smith was not a horse-collar tackle.
Article 16 of the NFL rule book states “no player shall grab the inside collar of the back or the side of the shoulder pads or jersey, or grab the jersey at the name plate or above, and pull the runner toward the ground.”
Simmons did not grab the inside collar of the back or side of Smith’s shoulder pads or jersey. But his pulling of Smith down toward the ground through the back of his legs had a result similar to the horse-collar tackle the league wants out of the game.
Monday, after a week of Smith healing, Carroll said he heard from the league about Simmons’ tackle.
“Yeah, I did,” Carroll said. “It’s a tackling situation that was scrutinized heavily last year. Then, we heard a lot of opposition from the players side of it and all about that tackle that occurred, and we did not act on it as a league.”
Carroll has been consistent in saying since the game he didn’t see the tackle as late out of bounds. Simmons began his tackle while Smith was running in the field of play, before the quarterback was at the sideline boundary.
“It wasn’t so far out of bounds. It wasn’t an out-of-bounds hit,” Carroll said. “He didn’t get fined for an out-of-bounds hit. So that’s OK and all of that.
“But it is something to talk about again. Let me bring up the topic, because it’s a very dangerous situation.”
Pete Carroll talking to NFL
Seattle’s 72-year-old coach spent the bye week talking to colleagues around the league and NFL executives about the play on Smith.
“I’ve already been in contact and talking about it, trying to get some feel on where everybody is on it,” Carroll said. “But the league had decided last year to not act on changing that (kind of play to a penalty). It’s kind of the horse-collar tackle that in the pocket is different, and so I’m not going to sit and entertain (that) malicious (was) done or not going to say any of that.
“I just think we need to talk about that again and it’s a topic that I hope we’ll bring up when the season is over.”
Smith was full go at the start of practice Monday the media attended.
As Carroll said: “There’s nothing we can do about it right now.”
Simmons?
He said after the game, according to espn.com: “We playing football. He’s mad he got hit? What do most quarterbacks do when they don’t want to get hit? They go down. I don’t really know what else to tell him about that.”
