If there was ever a game to justify why the Seattle Seahawks traded away Geno Smith, it’s this one.
After a very good debut Las Vegas Raiders debut against the New England Patriots, in which Smith threw for well over 350 yards and made several key throws in a 20-13 rainy road win, Smith’s first home game on a Monday night against the Los Angeles Chargers could not have gone any worse. It was the type of performance that was everything his biggest detractors could point to as why giving Smith another
year in Seattle, much less a contract extension, would’ve been ill-advised.
Smith finished a dismal 24/43 for 180 yards and not one, not two, but three interceptions (including a back-breaker in the red zone, what else is new) in a 20-9 loss. Monday night was Pete Carroll’s 74th birthday, and his “gift” was losing to Jim Harbaugh.
The night was ominous for Smith, whose very first attempt was picked by Daiyan Henley, leading to a Chargers field goal.
The second Smith interception was more or less a 3rd down arm punt, and it ended up pinning the Chargers at the 1.
But the third pick was the dagger, as the Chargers tried to Charger their way into another classic Chargers loss, only for Smith to throw a third down pick in the end zone on a Cover 2 shot to Jakobi Meyers. Derwin James made the tip, and Donte Jackson made the catch.
Smith was oddly inaccurate and overthrowing targets (including the giant but hobbled Brock Bowers) on a couple of occasions, and the explosive plays he was easily hitting against New England didn’t come against an elite Chargers defense. Nothing summed up his miserable night more than running for his life on 4th down in the closing minutes, only to throw it away.
A whopping 15 of Smith’s throws were defensed, which seems astronomically high in volume but also in rate (35 percent of all attempts). I can’t pretend the Raiders receiving corps is particularly good outside of Bowers and Meyers, but everything looked difficult and only three picks might have been kind to Geno.
The Chargers are a more talented team with a better quarterback and basically better everything, so it’s no shock they beat the Raiders without much difficulty. For Smith to play like that might already be the end of the honeymoon period among weary Raiders fans.
As for Pete Carroll, another lightning rod topic in his final years in Seattle, having an 11-minute, zero-urgency drive end in a field goal while down 20-6 in the 4th quarter might be one of those moments where making the tough decision to cut ties with the greatest (and only Super Bowl champion) coach in franchise history had to be made.
Oh well, unlike the Russell Wilson trade, there are no future draft picks at stake for the Seahawks to have a strong interest in the Raiders’ future.
