In his one-plus season as the Seahawks' starting quarterback, Geno Smith has already shown himself to have a folksy but eloquent way with words.
After leading a 17-16 victory in last year's season opener against Russell Wilson and the Broncos, completing 23 of 28 passes for 195 yards and two touchdowns after waiting seven years to lead a team again, Smith memorably declared, "They wrote me off. I ain't write back, though."
Later in the season, Smith downplayed his long hiatus from starting by saying, "My tough times would be a dream to someone else," and characterized himself as "an overcomer."
After an agonizing overtime loss last November to Las Vegas, in which he threw a costly interception and botched a handoff near the red zone that resulted in a turnover, Smith blamed himself for the loss and said, "When I was in college, a coach told me about the difference between a finger-pointer and a thumb-pointer. I've always vowed to be a thumb-pointer."
Last Sunday's brutal 17-13 loss to Cincinnati was still fresh in the Seahawks' minds when Smith fired off a tweet shortly after the game: "We Gon' Be Alright."
It might not make Smith's gallery of famous quotations, but the message was crystal clear, and one he felt was necessary to convey. Despite letting a distinctly winnable game slip out of their grasp with a legion of mistakes and bad plays — a goodly share of them by Smith himself, as he readily admitted — the quarterback was trying to squash the recriminations and second-guessing before they gained a foothold.
Asked whom he was speaking to with the tweet, Smith replied, "Myself, the team, everything in general. I think after that game, (there were) a lot of emotions, and me as one of the leaders, one of the more passionate guys, I didn't want to get caught up in my emotions. I just understand that there's a bigger picture to it. We have a lot of games to play. Like I said, I made some mistakes; it wouldn't be the first time I made a mistake in my life, right? I made some mistakes that I wish I could have back, and just knowing that there's a bigger picture and we'll be fine. We will be OK."
The hard truth is that the performance of Smith will dictate the accuracy of that statement as the season progresses. It's not all on Geno; any fair assessment of the Bengals game has to note that there were deficiencies in protection, the running game and, to a certain extent, play-calling in the red zone that led to his issues.
But Smith's thumb-pointing, both in the aftermath of the game and retrospectively throughout this week, isn't just eyewash. He knows that there are passes he missed and plays he could have executed much better, especially in the red zone.
In fact, with Seattle's surging defense looking like it might be much better than anticipated, the success of the Seahawks' season might well hinge on the ability of the offense to coalesce in the same manner. It must solve its red-zone woes, and Smith must show that he is the quarterback to lead the Seahawks to the exalted heights to which they aspire.
That's still an open question. The Seahawks hedged their bets in the offseason when they gave Smith — following a Pro Bowl season in which he led the Seahawks to a playoff berth, threw for 4,282 yards and 30 touchdowns, and led the NFL with a 69.8% completion rate — a three-year, $105-millon deal. But it came with incentive clauses and escalators that also gave them an opportunity to get out of it after one year.
Smith has just five touchdown passes this year in five games, and his offensive numbers have been trending downward since the second half of last season. One area in which he ranks among the elite, however, is in shouldering blame for his miscues. "It's on me," is a Smith mantra, one that he says is simply a manifestation of showing accountability. And also an ingrained part of what he called his perfectionist nature.
"I think I'm just being honest when I'm up there speaking," Smith said. "I'm really being honest about how I feel about the game. Anytime you get the ball in your hands in the fourth quarter, two-minute drive or with a chance to go and take the lead, which we did, we had the opportunity, those are the moments I live for.
"I look forward to those opportunities, and I feel like when the ball is in my hand, when the ball is in the offense's hands and we have a chance to go take the game, that's what we need to do. When it doesn't happen, I always look at myself and say, 'What do I need to do better?' As one of the leaders on this team, it's always going to be me and never anyone else. I'm always going to put it on my shoulders. It's not a specific reason why I do it; it's just me being honest."
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll called such a mindset "a perfect illustration of leadership." Veteran linebacker Bobby Wagner concurred, but added, "He plays a tough position. When you win the games, it's the quarterback. When you lose, it's the quarterback. I don't look at it that way. There are plays that we could've made from a defensive standpoint that didn't put them in the situation.
"... That was a group thing. A lot of guys could've done stuff different. We collectively take that loss. It's not going to say in the loss column 'on Geno,' it's going to say 'Seahawks.'"
But now, it's time for the overcomer to do so one more time.
