Quarterback wins are not a real stat. Or at least they should come with an asterisk sometimes. If it was a thing, Seattle Seahawks Pro Bowler Geno Smith would certainly get one for his team's 24-3 win over the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, pushing their record to 3-0 on the year. While Smith's record as a starter improves to 33-36 for his career, it was Seattle's suffocating defense that got the job done on Sunday.
The Seahawks defense contained Miami's run game to just 3.6 yards per carry and blasted their quarterbacks repeatedly, totaling six sacks, 12 quarterback hits and another constellation of pressures. Meanwhile, Smith was having an uncharacteristic off-game.
If you take out a 71-yard mostly-YAC touchdown pass to DK Metcalf in the first quarter, Smith would have finished with a line of just 218 passing yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions, both of which were entire avoidable. In the end, Seattle needed a breakout fourth quarter from Zach Charbonnet to finish off the Dolphins even though they were hopeless on offense.
Needless to say, Smith wasn't pleased with how he played. Here's how Geno evaluated his performance afterwards, according to Gregg Bell at the Tacoma News Tribune.
Geno Smith on his bad Week 3 game
"I’m going to be honest with you: I’m really pissed off at the way I performed. “I think we’ve got to get better... the fact we scored 17 points right in the first quarter. Felt like we came out great, and then for some reason we couldn’t just get over that hump..."
Smith also threw a bad pick on the team's first drive of the season after his interior offensive line buckled under pressure from the Denver Broncos. That's been a theme for the Seahawks seemingly since the dawn of man, but especially now. Right guard Anthony Bradford has consistently been the weakest link this year, both in pass blocking and with penalties. That's why it's not fair to be too hard on Geno Smith, who is simply not getting the time he needs to get comfortable in the pocket and make his reads. Endless interior pressure will eventually force any QB to make mistakes.
Then again, that was the case last season too and Smith was brilliant at avoiding sacks and delivering strikes while avoiding turnover-worthy throws. There were more than two of those against Miami yesterday and Smith is now at a 3/3 touchdown-to-interception ratio for the season.
Fortunately, Smith has performed quite well historically against Seattle's next opponent. In the last two years facing the Detroit Lions, Smith has put up lines up 320 yards, two touchdowns and a 132.6 passer rating in 2022 and 328 yards, two scores and a 116.3 rating in 2023, both meetings being close wins for the Seahawks.
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