3 major observations from Geno Smith's performance vs. Commanders in Week 10

The Seattle Seahawks moved to 6-3 in 2023 with a 29-26 victory over the Washington Commanders in Week 10. Geno Smith had his most efficient game in weeks. While Smith and the offense still need to be a lot more consistent, at least Week 10 is a sign of hope for future games.

Seattle must have a win in Week 11 as well when they travel to Los Angeles to play a 3-6 Rams team. No offense to the Rams as they did beat the Seahawks in Week 1, but they pose one of the less scary opponents Seattle has left on their schedule. Plus, Seattle might want revenge against the team that beat them so badly earlier in the season.

To make the playoffs, Seattle needs a lot more games from Geno Smith like he produced against the Commanders. If he is efficient, he gives Seattle a chance against the 49ers, Cowboys, and Eagles. If he starts turning the ball over a bunch again, Seattle could miss the playoffs completely. These are some thoughts on Geno Smith's game against the Commanders, though.

Geno Smith's early frustrations

While statistically the Seahawks were dominating, on the scoreboard they were not. Until very late in the first half, Seattle was always playing from behind. The issue was that once against Seattle was struggling to convert promising drives into touchdowns. By the time halftime began, Seattle had scored one touchdown in their last nine quarters. That's not winning football.

Not all of that issue was Geno Smith's fault, of course, but a big part of it was. He is the quarterback, after all, so unless he has a running back who is fumbling all the time or receivers who can't catch, the quarterback is going to take the blame. But Smith didn't play poorly in the first half; His offense simply couldn't score touchdowns.

A lot of this can be credited to what Washington was doing defensively as they seemed to dial up well-designed blitzes to put pressure on Smith once the Seahawks were deep in Washington territory. The Commanders didn't get home on Smith often, but the pressure affected what Seattle wanted to do. Still, after starting the game completing most of his throws, Smith went into a funk for much of the second quarter until midway through the third quarter where he couldn't complete many passes at all.

Geno Smith's second half efficiency

The second half became a different story for Smith, thankfully. After getting stagnant to begin the third quarter, a miracle occurred. Smith dropped back to pass at his own 36-yard line and threw a pass to his right in the near flat to running back Kenneth Walker. As the pass was being completed, the Commanders defender who might have had a solid chance of tackling Walker slipped and could never fully recover as Walker flew past him, gained a head of steam, broke a tackle, and sprinted for a 64-yard touchdown.

That was just the kind of play a Seahawks offense struggling to score touchdowns needed. The offense wasn't close enough to the end zone to overthink what they need to do and how they needed to execute. After kicking three more field goals in the first half, the touchdown had to be a relief for the offense.

Smith played almost flawlessly in the second half. During the game he didn't really put the ball in harm's way - the Commanders almost picked off a pass but only because it was batted at the line of scrimmage - and threw over defenders into small windows. He missed on a couple of throws, like a pass to Zach Charbonnet in the flat, but he certainly played well enough to lead his team to victory.

And on the final two drives when the Seahawks absolutely had to have points, Smith was a fantastic 9 of 11 for 110 yards. He did have an incomplete pass that likely would have stayed incomplete except for a pass interference penalty against the Commanders. But that penalty eventually helped lead to classic Geno Smith to Tyler Lockett pass.

Geno Smith can still make the big throws

The Seahawks second touchdown came on a perfect 5-yard pass from Smith to Lockett. Lockett ran a curl route in the end zone while Smith was rolling to his right and on the run Smith the ball low and toward the front pylon where only Lockett could catch the pass. The throw was the kind of ball that Lockett has caught many times in his career, but he and Smith seemed to have perfected and make the play look easy.

Try the throw at home. Spring to your right or left (depending on which is your dominant hand) and throw as hard as you can to a space of about half-a-yard. Then try doing that with 60, 000 people watching you and the game on the line. Not easy and few quarterbacks make that throw like Smith does.

Smith had another pass to Lockett earlier on the same drive where Lockett had an open window about 20 yards down the field but to complete the pass Smith had to throw the ball with enough speed and arch where the pass went over the outstretched arm of a linebacker playing deep zone and into the arms of the waiting Lockett. Again, not an easy pass, but Smith did it perfectly.

Seattle scored on four of its final five drives in Week 10 and didn't have a turnover. The offense wasn't perfect as the game shouldn't have been as close as it stayed and some early touchdowns would have helped make this a much easier game for the Seahawks. Still, for the first time since Week 4, Geno Smith didn't have a turnover while also having a career-high 369 yards passing. That is good QB1 stuff.

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