To beat Vikings, Seahawks’ Geno Smith had to be perfect. He was not. His coach defends him
Geno Smith needed his teammates’ help each time he got hit and fell.
In the end, his Seahawks needed his help — needed him to be perfect — for them to beat the Minnesota Vikings Sunday.
On an imperfect knee, behind a very imperfect line, trying to lead his imperfect team, Smith had to be...what he was not. Again.
The statistics show the 34-year-old quarterback who made the Pro Bowl the first two seasons as the Seahawks’ starter completed 31 passes in 43 throws against Minnesota. He threw for 314 yards. The completions were his third-most this season. The yards were his fourth-most of 2024.
He threw three touchdown passes, one each to DK Metcalf, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and AJ Barner. The last one gave the Seahawks a 24-20 lead with 4:21 remaining in their nearly-must-win game Sunday at Lumen Field.
Yet in the end Smith absolutely had to be 33 for 43. He absolutely could not throw either of the two interceptions he did. He couldn’t take the two sacks he did, particularly the second one late in the fourth quarter with his team on the edge of range for at least a tying field goal.
That sack, and the first of his two interceptions — his 14th and 15th picks in 15 games this season — are why the Seahawks lost 27-24 to the Vikings.
“Geno is our top competitor on our football team,” Seattle rookie coach Mike Macdonald said. “We’re not sitting here with life at the end of December unless Geno has done the things he’s done. He’s a fighter, man.
“I thought he played a good game.”
Smith spoke in soft, sullen tones after the Seahawks’ sixth loss in nine home games this season severely damaged the team’s hopes at making the playoffs.
“You know, we gave ourselves a shot,” Smith said. “Obviously didn’t get it done.
”Not how we wanted to close it out at home.”
Geno Smith’s extremes
Smith’s mistakes against 13-2 Minnesota, on top of Seattle’s others, are why the Seahawks (8-7) are on the brink of playoff elimination with two games remaining in their middling, up-and-down season. Those are at Chicago (4-11) Thursday and the first-place Los Angeles Rams (9-6) the first weekend of January.
This game was the best of Smith, with the worst of him.
He was 5 for 5 passing on each of the Seahawks’ three touchdown drives. The best of those was a 2-minute drill Smith ran expertly to end the first half, from the Seattle 12-yard line.
With two time outs remaining, 88 yards to a touchdown and 85 seconds left, Smith completed two throws to DK Metcalf. He fired a daring dart over the helmet of Vikings cornerback Byron Murphy, the former University of Washington star, onto Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s chest for 25 yards. That got Seattle to the Minnesota 23.
A Stephon Gilmore penalty for holding Metcalf preceded Smith’s 18-yard touchdown pass to Smith-Njigba perfectly onto Smith-Njigba’s hands. Smith-Njigba’s sixth touchdown catch this season got Seattle to within 17-14. And the Seahawks were receiving the second-half kickoff.
But Smith’s first interception Sunday, in the second quarter, gifted Minnesota three points in a game the Seahawks lost by...three.
On the first scrimmage play after a Vikings touchdown put Seattle down 14-7 in the second quarter, Smith was about to get sacked. To avoid that, he threw a wild pass wide of tight end Noah Fant by about 4 yards. Minnesota linebacker Dallas Turner intercepted that at the Seattle 31-yard line.
Minnesota turned that into three gift points with a field goal. Just like that, the game went from tied to the Seahawks trailing 17-7.
The key sack
The Vikings took a 27-24 lead on Sam Darnold’s touchdown pass to Justin Jefferson past Seahawks cornerback Tariq Woolen with 4 minutes left. Smith answered by completing passes on the first two plays of the succeeding drive, for 18 yards to Fant and 15 yards on a catch and run by running back Kenny McIntosh. That was while lead back Kenneth Walker was out with an ankle injury he got in the fourth quarter.
The Seahawks had pushed the ball to the Vikings 37. It would be a 55-yard field goal for the tie, at a minimum, from there. On first down, Smith faced a double-linebacker blitz. Blake Cashman blitzed up the middle. At about the 3-second mark after the snap, Smith pumped his arm to throw. Outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel also blitzed, then ran a loop stunt from outside to the middle. He leaped as Smith was about to throw. That caused the quarterback to stop his throw, pull the ball down and scramble to his right.
By that time, 5 seconds into the play — about twice the time most NFL quarterbacks hold the ball before throwing — Van Ginkel was unblocked. He chased down Smith and got what the Seahawks could least afford: a 7-yard sack.
Asked what happened, Smith said afterward: “I got sacked. I’m pretty sure you all were watching it. Figure it out. But I got sacked.”
Left guard Laken Tomlinson blocked his man on the play, Minnesota’s Jonathan Bullard. But he lamented the line as a whole not getting the job done there.
“Just got to execute at the end of the game,” Tomlinson said.
On second and 16, Smith threw a step or two behind DK Metcalf on an in route. That allowed Minnesota’s Gilmore to break up the pass at the 30-yard line. Had the pass been what Smith needed to be Sunday, perfect, it would have led him inside away from Gilmore for a first down easily in field goal range to tie — if not the Seahawks taking the lead with a touchdown.
On third and 16, Seattle needed yards to make a Jason Myers field goal realistic. Smith got 1, on a check-down pass to running back Zach Charbonnet that needed to be longer.
At the 2-minute warning, on 4th and 15, did Smith lobby coach Mike Macdonald to go for the first down down by three points?
“I leave that up to Coach, man. He makes the right decisions, so I leave it up to Coach,” Smith said.
“Obviously, we’ve got to put ourselves in a better position than being in fourth and 15. We got to the logo, didn’t get it across the 50. Didn’t give ourselves a better shot.”
Macdonald chose the field goal, a 60-yard try. Myers kicked it about 57, and wide right. The Seahawks stayed behind 27-24.
By the time he got the ball back again, Smith had 55 seconds and no time outs from his own 12-yard line. A desperate heave down the right sideline to covered Metcalf became his second interception.
The game, and perhaps playoff contention, was over.
Smith was asked to take a questioner through the final play.
“Interception, man,” he said.
“Anything you see that goes wrong, put it on me. Anything that don’t look right, put it on me.”
This story was originally published December 22, 2024 at 7:36 PM.
