3 stars from Seahawks defeat of Russell Wilson and the Broncos
By Lee Vowell
Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith
It was a bit of a tale of two halves for Geno Smith in Week 1 but the second half failure of the Seahawks offense to score wasn’t really his fault. The Broncos defense adjusted at halftime to what Seattle offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was trying to do with Smith and Seattle didn’t do much to re-adjust.
That is, in the first half, Denver tried to rush Smith mostly from the outside and Smith stepped up into the pocket and hurt Denver a couple of times with throws over the middle. In the second half, Denver cut down on its rush angles and Smith had less time. Seattle could have also tried to run a bit more but they didn’t.
Still, Smith played with a lot of emotion but never let his passion force him into a rushed throw or decision. And in the first half Smith played about as perfectly as anyone ever could. He was 17 for 18 passing with 2 touchdowns. The first was when Smith stepped up in the pocket and hit a wide-open Will Dissly. Smith made the play by creating space and time for him to throw.
His second touchdown pass was a beautiful throw over the top of the linebacker to Colby Parkinson in the end zone. Using tight ends to score touchdowns on passes. Hmmm, who knew that was a thing? Not Russell Wilson in 2021. But Geno has picked it up pretty quickly in 2022.