Seahawks' Geno Smith Remains Confident Amidst Skid

The Seattle Seahawks did some much-needed soul searching over the bye week.

Jon Alfano | 2 Hours Ago

Nov 3, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith (7) waits for a timeout to end against the Los Angeles Rams during the fourth quarter at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images / Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

In this story:

Seattle Seahawks

It's been an up-and-down season for the Seattle Seahawks, but with far more downs than ups as of late.

After a 3-0 start, the Seahawks have dropped five of their past six games, many in excruciating fashion. The worst part is that they're beating themselves more often than not, and they feel like they could've easily won some of those games.

Following a much-needed bye week, Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith confidently claimed that his team can go toe-to-toe with any other, so long as they clean up the miscues.

"I think we can beat anybody," Smith said Thursday. "I think we got the guys in this locker room, we got the coaches, we got the right mindset, we got the right work ethic. I think we have to be a little bit smarter and definitely be smarter in the situational area. And then also I think we got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot, stop putting ourselves in backed-up situations early on.

"It's going to be tough in this league playing in third-and-longs. I mean the percentage rate is not high, so the more we can put ourselves in those manageable situations, the better we are and we've been great in the third,-and-medium game, so just thinking about first and second down, those are the big things is being better on first and second down, which will help us out on third down."

As previously mentioned, Smith is absolutely right about the Seahawks shooting themselves in the foot. In their five losses this season, they've turned the ball over 11 times and committed nine or more penalties four times. Eliminating those mistakes is obviously easier said than done, but it goes to show that the Seahawks are their own worst enemy at times.

The Seahawks emerge from their bye week with a road game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, and if they want any chance of winning that game, they'll need to clean up their act. In the previous meeting, a 36-24 victory for the 49ers on the road, the Seahawks had three turnovers and nine penalties for 69 yards. Obviously, that can't happen this time around.

"I think when you think about division opponents, these games matter the most, especially with the 49ers," Smith said. "They've been at the top of our division, one of the best teams in the league for a while, and if we want to be that type of team that we say we are, we got to go through teams like this and I have no doubt in my mind the type of guys that we have, the type of preparation we're going to put in and really the way that we're going to step on that field. I know that I'm going to step on it with that chip on my shoulder, that edge that I always have and I know my guys are as well."