Geno Smith responds from worst pass, returns to greatness, Seahawks win 4th in a row
Geno Smith turned to his offensive teammates on the sideline. He tapped his chest.
“It’s on me,” the quarterback told them. “I’ll take it. I’ll own it. And I’ll move on from it.”
He’d just thrown the worst pass of his surprising season, a soft throw too low outside on a screen play. Arizona’s Zaven Collins grabbed it and ran with it to the end zone for an easy interception touchdown. Smith had given away the Seahawks’ lead to the last-place Cardinals. It was the first time this season a play had truly gone hard against Smith.
Smith’s response was like his season.
Brilliant.
He completed nine of his next 11 throws. He converted seven consecutive third downs. He ran twice, on consecutive plays, for 31 yards — including 19 yards on a third and 12 after rookie right tackle Abe Lucas cleared a lane pushing Arizona’s Markus Golden way past him.
Smith’s 12-yard pass to Tyler Lockett on third and 12 got Seattle across midfield. Smith’s 9-yard dart into Lockett’s chest for a touchdown in front of Budda Baker put the Seahawks back in front.
His second consecutive 13-play scoring drive, ending with rookie Kenneth Walker’s 1-yard touchdown run, put the Seahawks in command 24-14. It also restored Smith’s and Seattle’s wondrous season in their fourth consecutive victory Sunday, 31-21 over the Cardinals at State Farm Stadium.
Smith said his thought after his interception: “Next play.
“After all I’ve gone through, a thing like that is not going to faze me.”
Coach Pete Carroll was still smiling about Smith’s and his team’s response 30 minutes after the game ended.
“We saw us respond,” Carroll said. “We turned the ball over, they scored a touchdown.
“And our guys just WENT for it. And we finished the game the way we dream of finishing it.”
After these discarded Seahawks improved to 6-3 and stayed in 1st place atop the NFC West, the bass was bumpin’ so hard the walls of the visiting locker room shook.
Bruce Irvin looked around at the smiles, the laughing, the singing and the noise from this Seattle team that was supposed to have none this season after trading Russell Wilson and cutting Bobby Wagner. The 35-year-old linebacker and Seahawks Super Bowl champion from the 2013 season smiled.
“A lot of people were saying this was a rebuild year,” Irvin said.
“This don’t look like no rebuild year.”
Arizona (3-6) closed to within 24-21 with 3:32 left, on Murray’s touchdown pass to Zach Ertz.
But on the next scrimmage play, Smith calmly rolled out right away from pressure and flipped a pass to Noah Fant. Fant got around the corner, past a block from fellow tight end Colby Parkinson and ran for a 51-yard gain.
It was Smith’s 10th completion in 12 passes for 123 yards since the interception. It set up Walker’s second touchdown run of the fourth quarter for a 31-21 Seahawks lead.
Immediately after the interception, Smith was 7 for 7 on third-down conversions. The mothballed NFL backup for the last seven seasons and four teams before this also rushed twice for 31 yards. He led three touchdown drives. The score went from Seattle down 14-10 to up 31-21.
“What he models to our team, and what our whole team has taken to, is through all our ups and downs and lumps, to just keep playing. And that’s exactly what he did,” Fant said of Smith.
“He was the first one to come to the sidelines and say, ‘OK, let’s go. We’re good. We’re going to be fine...we’re going to win this game.’
“We all took to that very well. It’s really good to have a leader like that.”
It was exactly a response that warrants the 32-year-old Smith a new, rich contract beyond the seven consecutive one-year deals he’s had as a perennial NFL backup.
Until now.
Smith went up to the same teammates on the sideline he’d apologized to two drives earlier. He tapped them on the helmets and backs to congratulate them.
“It’s how you respond,” Smith said. “I think we responded great, as a team, going three straight drives, finishing with touchdowns. Long drives, tough drives. Everyone in the stadium knew the magnitude of those drives. And for us to go down there and get scores, get touchdowns, it’s showing you what kind of team we are — and what kind of team we can be.”
Smith completed 26 of 34 passes for 275 yards and touchdowns to Lockett and DK Metcalf. It was Smith’s sixth game this season with at least 23 completions, and seventh with at least two TD passes.
“You see how he answered the call: He drove us down there for a touchdown,” Metcalf said of Smith after only his fourth interception against his career-high 15 touchdown passes this season.
“It just shows you the type of person, the type of quarterback, that we have.”
Walker rushed 26 times for 109 yards, with his sixth and seventh rushing touchdowns since replacing injured Rashaad Penny as Seattle’s lead back 4 1/2 games ago.
Linebacker Uchenna Nwosu continued his big plays on defense with one of three sacks of Kyler Murray, as Seattle mostly contained Arizona’s offense for the second time in four games.
And the first-place Seahawks (6-3) will not fly as much as soar to Germany this week for a game against Tom Brady and Tampa Bay in Munich. They realize that they can win at their best — and, now, when they are far from their best.
“When you go out and see Geno do something like that, it just shows the theme of this team, the heartbeat of this team,” big-play (again) safety Ryan Neal said.
“It’s us against the world.”
Bruce Irvin, revitalized
Two days after detailing how thankful he was for this chance to end his career his way, Irvin kept making the most of his third go-round with Pete Carroll and the Seahawks.
The 11th-year veteran linebacker again played the majority of defensive snaps, with Darrell Taylor again out injured. Late in the third quarter, Carroll’s first-round pick for Seattle in 2012 used a spin-move to get inside his blocker — and spun into Murray for a sack. It ruined Arizona’s drive with the Cardinals down 17-14.
It was the first sack for Irvin since Dec. 22, 2019. That was when he was playing for Carolina, at Indianapolis.
“I had two that game. ...It’s been a minute,” Irvin said, grinning again. “Jacoby Brissett.
“Yeah, it’s a great day, man. And we got the win.”
Ryan Neal. Again.
Seahawks safety Neal made another big play for his defense. This one kept Seattle in the lead into the third quarter.
The Seahawks appeared to be sacking Murray on a fourth and 4 at the Seattle 40-yard line with 25 seconds left in the first half. The elusive quarterback escaped into open field, past the line to gain. Murray was holding the ball loosely as he ran inside the Seahawks 25. Neal ran up and punched the ball out.
Teammate Josh Jones recovered the fumble at the Seattle 23. Instead of kicking at least the tying field goal, the Cardinals remained behind 10-7.
Neal replaced Jones as the starting strong safety in week five at New Orleans. Neal has resumed doing what he did as a sixth, dime defensive back in 2021: make sure stops in key situations, often on third downs short of the line to gain.
Jones played sparingly early in Sunday’s game as the dime defensive back. The Seahawks began the game with nickel back Coby Bryant on the field for almost all of Arizona’s nine-play drive to a touchdown in the first quarter. After that, Seattle went to a base 3-4 for the next five plays, and for much of the rest of the first half.
The Cardinals didn’t score from then until Smith’s interception in the third quarter.
From Division III to the NFL
Late in the second quarter practice-squad linebacker Joshua Onujiogu lined up on the right edge of the defense. Onujiogu dropped into coverage then ran up the field to tackle Cardinals running back Eno Benjamin after a catch.
It was the 24-year-old undrafted rookie free agent’s first NFL play, completing his journey all the way from Division-III Framingham State in Massachusetts, his home state.
Onujiogu started the second defensive drive of the second half, and was in close to Murray on the sack by Nwosu.
It was Nwosu’s sxith sack of the season, a new career high for the fifth-year veteran Seattle signed from the Chargers before this season.
The Seahawks promoted Onujiogu Saturday from their practice squad to add to depth. Taylor was missing another game with a groin injury.
Onujiogu, an all-region defensive end at Framingham State, was one of two Division-III college players to sign a contract with an NFL team following the draft this past spring.
This story was originally published November 6, 2022 at 4:12 PM with the headline "Geno Smith responds from worst pass, returns to greatness, Seahawks win 4th in a row."
