Geno Smith comes back and leads the Seahawks to a touchdown that wins the game.
Last Monday night, Geno Smith felt a lot of different feelings. At first, he was mad that Pete Carroll didn’t start him because his groin was hurt, and then he was thrilled when Drew Lock led the Philadelphia Eagles to a game-winning touchdown drive.
Smith closed a busy week with his own game-winning touchdown drive on Sunday. That drive earned him a place in NFL history.
With these two go-ahead touchdowns, Smith has now thrown six touchdowns in the final period or OT this season.
With 3 minutes and 21 seconds left, the Seahawks were down 17–13 to the Tennessee Titans. Smith led the team 75 yards in 14 plays.
To end the drive, he threw a touchdown pass of 5 yards to tight end Colby Parkinson with one minute left. This put Seattle ahead 20–17 for good.
“I feel like Drew played a great job last week, so we had a chance to match it this week,” said Smith.
“I couldn’t think about anything else as I went out there except the situation and how we could get through the end zone.”
I liked what you did. I thought the defense worked really well. It’s clear that the players did a great job of getting open, or Colby made a great catch to seal the deal.
The lead had changed three times in the fourth quarter. First, Smith’s touchdown pass in DK Metcalf put Seattle ahead 13–10, and then Derrick Henry scored on a run.
The Elias Sports Bureau says this is tied to feed the most in NFL history for a season. There have been five other throws of that many, most recently by Justin Herbert in 2021 and Kirk Cousins in 2020.
“You’ve got to be around him to understand how competitive he is,” said coach Pete Carroll. “He’s really happy.” He really thinks that it will happen, that it will be done, and that his guys will really help him.
That belief makes other guys feel what he feels. All of their plans come together, and everything works out well. Because his attitude is so potent and constant, he has a huge effect on these guys.
Smith missed Week 14 because of an injury to his hip and then filled in for Lock in Week 15. Lock led a “amazing” 92-yard drive that won the game for the Seahawks by beating the Philadelphia Eagles.
Even though Carroll praised Lock after the win, he made it’s clear that Smith would start if he was fit.
This week, Smith trained all day every day. He is now taking over as starter from Lock and hopes to slow him down a bit.
Before beating Philadelphia, Seattle had lost four games in a row. With this win, Seattle is now the eighth place in the NFC. Smith will have to keep the Seahawks in the running for the playoffs.
The Titans had one of the best groups of receivers in the NFL, but their pass defense was bad at halftime. Smith had thrown for 69 yards on 10 of 16 attempts.
That’s four yards for each try. At the half, the Seahawks were down 10–3. They were in a playoff fight against the Titans, who were 5–9 and had to go back to Ryan Tannehill at quarterback.
At receiver, Seattle has DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, or Jaxon Smith-Njigba. At running back, they have Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet. But their attack didn’t do anything in a game they had to win.
It wasn’t good, like most of Smith’s seasons. As the Seahawks move on from Russell Wilson last season, he was a big surprise. With 4,282 yards and 30 scores, Smith had the best completion rate in the NFL at 69.8%.
The deal is for three years and $75 million. He will stay with Seattle. Then he didn’t have the same results this season.
Lock started to appear like a good choice, especially during last Monday night’s great 92-yard drive that helped them beat Philadelphia.
For at least a week, those talks can stop. At the most important time for the Seahawks, Smith led a 14-play, 75-yard drive. There were a few key moments during the drive for the Seahawks, and Smith got the plays that kept the drive going.
With 1:09 left in the game, the Seahawks were inside the 10-yard line thanks to a significant pass interference call. They lost three yards on a second-and-goal run, which put them in another tough spot.
For the game-winning score, Smith threw it to Colby Parkinson with 57 seconds left. Parkinson had already blocked out the defender through the end zone with his body.