Geno Smith’s injury, not being physical enough Seahawks’ worst parts of 30-13 loss to Pack
The chants began early, almost as early as Josh Jacobs began steamrolling the Seahawks.
“GO! PACK! GO!”
Gold, foam, triangle cheeseheads, the purely Green Bay costume, dotted more of the first-level of expensive season-ticket seats than they are supposed to in Seattle. And those wearing them kept roaring through Lumen Field.
“GO! PACK! GO!”
Jacobs went. So did Jordan Love. So did Romeo Doubs, catching a touchdown pass just off the turf in the fourth quarter.
“GO PACK GO!” And the Packers went — right through the Seahawks.
Geno Smith went, too. Limping off the field and out of the game.
Smith’s interception in the end zone late in the first half killed Seattle’s only real chance to keep this game close. Then his knee injury getting twisted by Green Bay pass rusher Edgerrin Cooper in the third quarter put his status for the Seahawks’ playoff push in doubt.
Jacobs plowed 26 times for 94 yards and a touchdown, gained 42 more yards on four catches, and the Packers attacked all over Seattle’s defense for a 30-13 victory at Lumen Field that kept all those Green Bay fans roaring well into the Seattle night.
“It stings,” rookie Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said.
“You’ve got to give Green Bay a lot of credit. I thought they out-coached us. We didn’t have a good enough plan in all three phases. I’m responsible for that.
“And then, frankly, we didn’t play good enough. The things that we’d been doing, that won us games, we didn’t do.”
It was an all-around lost Sunday for Seattle. The Seahawks (8-6) lost the game, their starting quarterback and the NFC West lead.
Seattle looked like a team that can beat middling Arizona, the New York Jets and once-grand San Francisco — but isn’t ready to compete with the NFC’s better playoff teams.
The Packers (10-4) are that.
Smith, a Pro Bowl QB in his first two seasons as Seattle’s starter, completed 15 of 19 passes for 149 yards. He took three sacks and threw his latest interception, yet another mistake in the red zone, before his knee injury. The 34-year-old quarterback angrily slammed his helmet to the ground on the sideline after he limped out of the game.
Macdonald said Smith has a knee injury of unknown severity.
“I’ll tell you this: This guy, probably the toughest player I’ve ever been around. Was severe enough for him to not come back in the game.
“We’ll do all the test (Monday), and kind of figure it out as we go. But right now, structurally, it looks like it’s OK. But we’ve got to get an image and all that stuff.”
Smith wanted to re-enter the game, “but he just couldn’t go,” his coach said.
Macdonald said he doesn’t know if Smith will be able to play, and that “he’ll do everything humanly possible” to face the Vikings next weekend.
“Just don’t know right now,” Macdonald said.
Backup Sam Howell, who had taken one snap all season before Sunday, replaced Smith. Howell struggled even more than Smith did against the Packers. He completed just 5 of 14 passes for 24 yards with four sacks and a horrid interception right to a Packers linebacker in the second half.
Howell’s passer rating Sunday night: a meager 14.6.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba continued his standout season with 10 more catches on 12 targets for 83 yards, but the Seahawks lost for the first time in five games to drop into a first-place tie with the Los Angeles Rams (8-6) atop the NFC West. Seattle and L.A. have the same record. But the Rams technically have the division lead because they won in Seattle last month.
Three games remain in the regular season. The final one: Seahawks at Rams on the first weekend of January.
Seattle’s task now is to stay even with the Rams in the division, perhaps without Smith at quarterback. The Seahawks play at home against Minnesota (11-2) next weekend, then at Chicago (4-9) on Dec. 26 before they play at Los Angeles.
“I just told the team: Hey, the good news is that all of our goals are still ahead of us. And we’ll go back to work (Monday)...and get ready for a good Vikings team coming in here. And let’s go.
“We’ve got a lot of football ahead of us. All of our goals are right there. We’ve got to learn from it, which we will, and move on.”
Sam Howell’s struggle
After Smith’s injury, the national-television audience got to see what those who watched Howell in training camp saw. Struggle Town.
The 2023 starter for Washington who went 4-13 with the Commanders and led the league in interceptions last season missed on four of his first five passes with two sacks. His only completion to begin was for minus-2 yards, on a bubble screen to Smith-Njigba. Howell almost lost the ball while getting hit in the fourth quarter, but officials ruled his hand was going forward for a generously ruled incomplete pass.
Howell finished with a passer rating of 14.6. The best is 158.3.
That’s what taking zero reps during the practice week looks like, and having to play a playoff team on no notice.
“I’ve got to be better,” Howell said, and repeated.
“I think at the end of the day, I’ve gotta be better. My job is to be ready to go in, play well and help this team win, and I didn’t do that today. I’ve just gotta be better and watch the film, learn from it. Definitely, we had chances there in the second half. Defense played well and put us in good positions.
“I’ve just gotta be better.”
Seattle’s chance to get back into the game before halftime ended with the one thing Smith and the offense absolutely could not do to win: Turn the ball over.
The Seahawks trailed 17-3 but were at the Packers 12-yard line with 3 minutes left in the first half. On third and 9, Smith got pressured as he rolled to his right. Then threw late back to the left, off his back foot. That lack of balance caused his pass intended for tight end Noah Fant running an out route in the end zone to the left sideline to be far underthrown, yards in front of Fant. Carrington Valentine intercepted that gift, peeling back off Tyler Lockett’s out route 8 or so yards in front of Fant’s.
Instead of cutting the lead to perhaps 17-10, Seattle stayed behind two scores.
Riq Woolen targeted, beaten
The Packers’ passing game plan: Find Riq Woolen, then throw at him.
Green Bay’s two largest plays of its large first half came by doing that.
It took Love’s first incomplete pass in 10 throws to begin the game for the Seahawks to hold the Packers to a field goal early in the second quarter, and keep Green Bay’s lead at only 17-3.
Those points came after Woolen, at right cornerback, turned and appeared to be in position to knock down if not intercept Love’s pass down the left sideline to wide receiver Christian Watson. Woolen misjudged the flight of the ball. He turned too soon, well before the pass was arriving. That put him off balance. Watson drifted away behind him and caught the pass over the flat-footed, helpless Woolen for 36 yards.
After Smith’s end-zone interception, the Packers had a third down facing a 55-yard field goal try to end the half. In press coverage outside near the right sideline, Green Bay’s Romeo Doubs beat Woolen two steps inside his go route. Love threw over both of them deep inside the 5-yard line. Woolen had no choice but to grab Doubs before the ball arrived to prevent the catch and likely a touchdown. The 34-yard penalty made the field goal a chip shot, 21 yards.
Woolen just put his hands out, palms up, to underscore his seemingly — and his Seahawks’ — helpless first half.
Brandon McManus made a short field goal as the clock expired on the first half. The Seahawks trailed 20-3.
Seahawks’ sorry start
There’s smacked in the mouth. Then there’s what the Packers did to the Seahawks to begin this game.
More like: Smacked upside the head. With a frying pan.
Green Bay coach and play caller Matt LaFleur began the game sending receivers in motion before the snap out of formations the Seahawks hadn’t seen in their game-film study for Sunday night. Seahawks middle linebacker and play caller Ernest Jones said the motion distracted Seattle’s defensive players and caused them to lose their responsibilities in stopping the run.
“They did a lot of motion today, a lot of trickery with our eyes,” Jones said.
He also said the Packers “attacked the areas that gave us problems earlier in the year.”
That included quick snap counts that often caught the Seahawks defensive linemen and linebackers still moving and talking to each other where to go as part of Macdonald’s schemes designed to fool offenses. The Packers didn’t want for the Seahawks to change from their pre-snap looks. Green Bay made pre-snap become post-snap, fast.
New England had done that to Seattle in week two, back in September, to catch Seattle not ready for plays that became big gains for the Patriots in their eventual overtime loss to the Seahawks.
“Our feet weren’t set in the ground,” Jones said. “We were moving around and not set in the ground...They were ready to go play, and we were trying to do too much, trying to change things. We just weren’t set.
“We just started too late,” Jones said. “We’ve just got to start faster on defense.
“We’re hell to mess with when we’re on it.”
Jacobs bulled directly into those mistakes. He charged right at Seattle’s defensive front, on rushes and receptions. The first eight plays, and nine of the 10 on the Packers’ opening drive of the game, were to Jacobs.
Woolen had a personal foul on the drive gifting Green Bay 15 more yards. That was for pushing quarterback Jordan Love in the back needlessly after he threw a screen pass Jacobs ran for 13 yards with on the game’s second offensive play.
With 1:54 left in the first quarter the Packers had 128 total yards to the Seahawks’ 12. First downs at that point were Green Bay 10, Seattle one. The offensive plays were Green Bay 18, Seattle four.
In some ways the Seahawks were fortunate to be down only 14-0 in points.
Olu Oluwatimi hurt
The Seahawks lost starting center Olu Oluwatimi to a knee injury in the first half, after his holding penalty ruined an early drive.
“Yeah, it’s like a quad/knee combo,” Macdonald said. “Again, not sure the severity. Severe enough for him to not come back in.”
The 2023 draft pick had replaced Connor Williams in the middle of the season, after Williams’ sudden retirement at age 27.
Undrafted rookie Jalen Sundell from FCS North Dakora State was Smith’s then Howell’s center the rest of the game Sunday night.
This story was originally published December 15, 2024 at 8:28 PM.
