Seahawks week 9 MVP: the man who writes on the field, Geno Smith

The Seahawks won their fourth straight game in a total team effort. Still, one player stood out. On this day, the lead author was Geno Smith. He’s doing all his writing on the field.

The Seahawks have already passed most predictions of victory. Certainly, no one player is responsible for this. It’s been a startingly good season. Okay, let’s be real: it’s been a startingly good month. After a 2-3 start, the Hawks have reeled off four straight wins. Now it’s true that one huge difference in this team has been the performance of the defense. Their only good performance of the first five weeks was against the Broncos. Even that was fueled by not one, but two goal-line takeaways.

But since week six, the Seahawks D has been excellent. In the first five games, they gave up an average of  430 yards and nearly 31 points per game. Since they shut down the Cardinals in week 6, the Hawks have surrendered just 283 yards and just under 15 points per game. That remarkable turnaround has been led by Uchenna Nwosu, Ryan Neal, and Tariq Woolen. Truly, it’s been led by virtually every starter on the Hawks defense.

Geno Smith leads the Seahawks to another huge win

Yes, it’s true the Seahawks defense has been balling out for the past month. But Geno Smith has been playing beyond expectations all season. Well, I should say beyond most peoples’ expectations. Certainly not beyond his own, or beyond Pete Carroll’s. At a bit more than halfway through the season – yes, thanks for the stupid 17-game schedule, NFL – Smith leads the league in completion percentage, is third in passer rating, fourth in QBR, and fifth in touchdowns. To put it lightly, he has been nothing short of a revelation.

That has never been more apparent than in Seattle’s win in Arizona. As our own Jake Luppino wrote, Geno Smith demonstrated next play mentality. You’d think that a guy who has been relegated to the bench for the better part of a decade would be shaken after throwing a pick-six. A pick-six in a tight game, that gave the other guys the lead. Perhaps the Geno Smith of those years with the miserable Jets would have folded.

But Geno Smith was never that guy. He just needed a coach and a team that believed in him. All he did was calmly march the Seahawks down the field on a 13-play 75-yard touchdown drive to retake the lead. The Hawks defense forced the Cards to punt, and Smith took his team on another 13-play drive, this time for 81 yards. When Arizona showed life on offense and scored their first TD on offense since the very first drive, Geno Smith answered, again. He would have made this a methodical grinding drive too, but Noah Fant had other ideas.

Think about that, 12s. The Hawks are 5-3 and just gave up the lead to a division rival. And what does Geno Smith do? Geno Smith – the guy that virtually no one outside of Renton believed in – takes his team on three straight masterful drives to push his team to playoff contention. Yes, Kenneth Walker II had another ridiculous game, as did Uchenna Nwosu. But make no mistake; Mr. Smith isn’t only the week 9 MVP; he’s putting in a serious bid for the league award.