The Seattle Seahawks offense hasn't scored a single point in the past six quarters ahead of Week 3's bout with the Atlanta Falcons. With that backdrop, quarterback Geno Smith stated the obvious Thursday.
"We need to score," Smith said, via The Seattle Times. "We need to score, keep drives alive, get more plays, more opportunities, and just finish drives."
The Seahawks offense didn't score in Sunday's 27-7 loss to San Francisco -- the lone points came on a blocked field goal return. To be exact, the Seahawks haven't scored in 92 minutes 24 seconds of game time. Seattle has averaged 234.5 total yards per game this season, the fewest through two weeks by the Seahawks since 2011 (191.5, finished 7-9).
Smith has passed for fewer than 200 yards in each of the first two games of the year but completed 81% of his passes. It's a dink-and-dunk offense that has gotten little help from the run game through two weeks.
Coach Pete Carroll noted this week he doesn't want to "hold back" Smith and the passing offense, but Smith said that the way defenses are playing shell coverage deep on DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, he's just biding his time.
"We are just going to take what they give us until they start to play us more in man coverage and up in our faces," Smith said. "It doesn't make sense just to try and air it out just for the sake of doing that. I'm always going to take what they give us and try to be efficient on offense. That's the main goal, to be efficient and to move the ball to score."
Seattle ranks last in the NFL in big plays, 29th in scoring, and 31st in total yards through two weeks.
Smith noted he hasn't "felt hindered" by the play-calling through two weeks, even as he generated just one passing play of longer than 17 yards in Week 2. The QB pointed to the run game (ranked 32nd in NFL) needing to step up to force defenses out of their shell coverages.
"As the run game begins to come along more and as we continue to stay efficient, they are going to get tired of the completions and things like that," Smith said. "They are going to press us, get in our faces, and try to make us beat them by getting behind them, which I have full confidence in.
"The past two games, again, it's been a lot of shell coverage. Even when there has been press coverage, the safeties are playing over the top, so they are really mindful of No. 16 (Lockett) and No. 14 (Metcalf) out there. We can expect that, they are great players. Offense is a collective thing, it's not a one guy or two guy thing, so we all have to continue to develop collectively as an offense and figure out ways to move the chains and score points."
On Sunday, Smith and the Seahawks face an Atlanta defense ranked 22nd in passing yards allowed, tied for 27th in points per game given up, and tied for 30th in red zone percent. It's a matchup Smith and Co. need to take advantage of and show the signs of life they displayed in the first two quarters of the 2022 campaign.
