Career passing by Geno Smith. But he can’t play defense in Seahawks’ 42-31 loss at Lions
Geno Smith fell to his knees. He bent over and put his hands on the turf.
He’d had a career throwing night. He couldn’t do anything else.
The quarterback can’t play defense, too.
Six other defensive starters who can didn’t for Seattle on Monday night.
That about sums up why the Seahawks got smashed by the zooming, roaring Detroit Lions for Seattle’s first loss of the season.
Pulling up on wild scrambles and throwing in the face of defenders charging at his chest, Smith kept willing and throwing his team back into this big-play game. But Jared Goff (18 for 18 passing), the running-back duo of David Montgomery with Jahmyr Gibbs and the Lions offense were too much. Much more than new coach Mike Macdonald’s schemes could mask amid all of Seattle’s injuries.
Seahawks’ defense was missing five front-line starters due to injuries and lost a sixth during the game when pro Bowl safety Julian Love left in the first half with a thigh issue. The Seahawks gained 516 yards — but their previously second-ranked defense allowed the Lions 389 in Seattle’s 42-29 loss at roaring Ford Field.
“Not a good enough performance for us,” Macdonald said following his first loss as a head coach.
“They definitely out-played us, on the defensive side of the ball for us.”
Kenneth Walker returned from missing two games by rushing for three touchdowns. Smith continued his standout quarterback play early this season. He set career highs of 38 completions in 56 attempts for 395 yards.
Detroit intercepted his 56th and final pass in the end zone with 1 minute left to seal the win.
In the end — and the start, and the middle of this game — the best game of Smith’s 12-year career couldn’t overcome his depleted defense.
So Seattle (3-1) was denied its third 4-0 start to a season in franchise history.
“That’s NFL football,” Smith, a native of Miami, said. “The only team that’s gone undefeated (to end a league season) is the ‘72 Dolphins.
“We’re just trying to go out there and win every game we can. Today, we didn’t get it done. But that’s why we’ve got next week.
“We’re going to improve.”
This is the first of three games for the Seahawks in 10 days. Up next after a 5-a.m.-ish arrival Tuesday back home: the New York Giants (1-3) at Lumen Field on Sunday, then the defending NFC-champion San Francisco 49ers (2-2) four days later, on Thursday Oct. 10.
“I will tell you this,” Macdonald said. “Our guys fought the heck out of that game. Went down to the last second. That’s what I’m most proud of right now.
“That’s what we’re going to hold onto, that. That’s a foundation that we’ve built here that we are going to push forward with.
“It’s obvious we’re not the team that we want to be yet. And we shouldn’t be the team that we’re going to be, you know.
“We have time to grow as a football team. ...Just wasn’t good enough, especially on the defensive side of the ball today.”
Tyler Lockett rare penalty
The teams traded touchdowns late in the third quarter into the fourth. Seattle still trailed, 35-27.
Detroit had a third and 1, with much of its 95 yards rushing to that point between the tackles. Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson called a toss sweep outside right. The Seahawks’ speed beat Detroit ball carrier David Montgomery for a 2-yard loss, the tackle by linebacker Tyrel Dodson.
Smith and Seattle’s offense had the ball back still down only one score, with just under 13 minutes left.
They moved to the Detroit 38, facing a fourth and 3. Smith rolled right and threw that way to Jaxon Smith-Njigba for an apparent first down. But for one of the first time in Tyler Lockett’s 10-year career, the wide receiver got penalized for one of his subtle, savvy, veteran moves. Officials flagged him for running into the nearest Lions cover man inside as Smith threw his key fourth-down pass, ruling Lockett’s contact illegally freed Smith-Njigba for the catch.
“That one, I was just trying to get into my route,” Lockett said at his locker in a quiet team room following the game.
On fourth and 13 instead of first down, Michael Dickson punted. And the depleted Seahawks defense yielded again.
A 29-yard pass by Goff, runs by Gibbs, and a 30-yard screen pass to tight end Sam LaPorta to the Seattle 10 put the Lions in position to go back up two scores. They did. Goff’s touchdown pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown essentially ended the game, putting Detroit up 42-27 with 5 1/2 minutes left.
Geno Smith stares down pressure
Smith’s fortitude led the Seahawks back into the game late in the third quarter. Smith pulled up from a scramble, stood tall as Lions Pro Bowl pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson ran at him and hit Smith-Njigba over the middle for 11 yards to convert a third and 8. That was their third connection for a first down Monday.
Smith stood in again against pressure and connected with Lockett for 29 yards, to the Lions 16. Three plays later Walker ran for his second touchdown.
New coach Macdonald’s analytics bent then showed up. He chose a two-point conversion. It failed. Seattle trailed 28-20.
That compounded the Seahawks’ night-long chase of points.
“At the time we felt like it we had a chance to get a stop on defense, and then just the way the game was going, we were trying to win it in regulation,” Macdonald said. “We were going to have to score again, regardless.”
Second-half surge
After all but ignoring running plays in the first half, offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb got the Seahawks running to begin the third quarter. That included on fourth and 1 in Seattle’s own end. Smith executed a veteran quarterback sneak, waiting for a possible crease to form in the line following the snap. He found it over center Connor Williams for a first down.
From there, Smith converted on third down with a pass to Metcalf, then for 16 yards to tight end Noah Fant down the middle. The Lions were assessed a pass-interference penalty for grabbing DK Metcalf at the 9-yard line. On the next play Smith threw to rookie AJ Barner, Seattle’s tight end from the nearby University of Michigan. Barner turned the short crossing route up the field with the ball for his first NFL touchdown.
Seattle trailed only 21-14.
But on the next scrimmage play, Seahawks Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon missed a tackle on Detroit running back David Montgomery in the open field immediately following a short pass. Witherspoon hit him, but failed to bring him down. Montgomery then ran across the field diagonally for a 40-yard gain. That switched the momentum back to Detroit.
The score flipped back to Lions by two scores when Goff flipped the ball back to wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown on what appeared to be an end-around run to the right. Goff the quarterback ran left, around Seattle contain linebacker Trevis Gipson. He was playing far more than his season-high 17 snaps coming into the game. St. Brown’s trick-play pass was perfectly past the chasing Gipson onto Goff’s hands for a touchdown.
Ford Field was rockin’ again. And the Seahawks trailed by two scores again, 28-14.
Divergent strategies
What we suspected would happen with the Seahawks’ depleted defensive front happened.
When Macdonald went nickel with Witherspoon the extra cornerback inside and Tre Brown coming into the game as the extra defensive back to offset the five injuries up front, Detroit ran the ball. Right at Seattle, too.
Detroit gained 62 yards rushing on the first two drives of the game. The second drive, when the Lions marched from their own 7-yard line to the game’s first score, 59 of the Lions’ 93 yards were on the ground. The last one was Montgomery for the touchdown. Seattle trailed 7-0.
Meanwhile, Seahawks play caller Ryan Grubb and Smith had Seattle’s offense slinging the ball around Detroit like the city’s playoff-baseball team that plays next door, the Tigers. Twenty-five of the Seahawks’ 30 offensive plays in the first half were pass calls.
It was reminiscent of Smith’s 300-yard passing games in each of the previous two early seasons at Detroit when he led the Seahawks to upset wins over the Lions 48-45 and 37-31.
And it would have been more passes Monday night than 25 in the first 30 plays, but Grubb called consecutive running plays from the 1-yard line following Metcalf’s 29-yard catch from Smith early in the second quarter. Walker, playing his first game since injuring his oblique late in a 103-yard rushing day Sept. 8 in Seattle’s opening win over Denver, bounced the second of his two carries from the 1 off traffic inside outside to the clear for Seattle’s only points of the first half.
Seattle trailed 14-7.
Yet Macdonald and his defense had no answer for Detroit’s continued run versus the Seahawks’ nickel defenses.
That’s how Detroit’s ensuing possession ended with its third touchdown of the first half. Macdonald started a series of downs in nickel. Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and quarterback Goff went back to runs. The sequence ended with a 13-yard catch and run by tight end LaPorta in the short flat on third and 3.
From there, Gibbs’ rushed for his second score of the half. His 1-yard run with 5:11 left in the second quarter put Seattle back down two scores, 21-7.
The score remained that way into the third quarter.
Right guard change
Both times the Seahawks have put in rookie Christian Haynes for Anthony Bradford at right guard for one drive in the 1st half of a game this season, they have driven down the field for a touchdown. At New England week 2, and just now at Detroit.
Haynes returned for the next drive, Seattle’s final possession of the half.
It was the first time this season Haynes played consecutive series at right guard Bradford.
