Geno Smith does it all — again — in 1-dimensional Seahawks’ 23-20 OT win at Patriots

Amid his many critics, Geno Smith did it again.

Just as he wants it to be.

“I’ve never been around a quarterback who’s had a big a chip on his shoulder as Geno,” sixth-year veteran Pro Bowl safety Julian Love said following Smith’s latest game-winning drive late in a game.

“Man, he’s got some swagger on the field!”

And the new Mike Macdonald Era Seahawks have a 2-0 start, in first place early in the NFC West.

The 33-year-old Smith had five game-winning drives last season, the most in the NFL. He began Seattle’s overtime possession with three completions in three throws. Smith completed two throws to Jaxon Smith-Njigba plus a 10-yarder for a first down to DK Metcalf.

In between those three completions to begin overtime, Tyler Lockett drew his second pass-interference penalty of the game on New England. The 20-yard penalty on Jonathan Jones put Seattle into New England’s side of midfield.

On third and 6 at the Patriots 45, Smith threw a screen pass to running back Zach Charbonnet, starting for injured Kenneth Walker. Charbonnet’s extra effort to get past a tackler after the catch got him a key first down.

Then, backyard ball: Smith then scrambled right, threw left and found Lockett on an improvisational route for 16 yards to the New England 22. That put Seattle well within range of Myers to win the game with a field goal.

A run by Charbonnet (14 carries, 38 yards) of 9 yards set up Myers’ winning boot of 31 yards with 4:37 left in overtime to send the Seahawks to an uneven, 23-20 victory over the Patriots at warm, sunny Gillette Stadium amid the Massachusetts woods.

“My mindset? Put the ball in 7’s hands, man,” Smith said.

“I always dreamed about these moments growing up. It’s a dream come true just to be here. Whenever I’m in this situation and the game is on the line, I’m so happy and just excited for those opportunities. I look forward to them, actually. I know it’s going to happen more and more times throughout the season.”

This, on top of the NFL record seven go-ahead touchdown passes Smith had in the fourth quarter and overtime last season for the Seahawks.

“Sounds like that’s who he is,” Macdonald said, two games into his career as Smith’s and the Seahawks’ head coach.

“Let the tape speak for itself.

“I’m glad he’s on our side.”

After what Love described as Smith’s relentless optimism on the sideline during the game, overtime began with the Patriots on offense. A touchdown would win the game for New England. But two fine plays inside: By Seahawks nose tackle Johnathan Hankins; then, on third and 1, inside linebacker Tyrel Dodson ran up fast to fill the running line to stop New England’s running play for no gain.

That three-and-out stop by Seattle’s defense made overtime next-score-wins.

Smith won.

“The best quarterbacks always find ways to win. I want to be regarded in that light,” Smith said.

In the first month of his third season as the Seahawks’ starting quarterback, Smith completed a career-high 33 passes in 44 throws (75%) for 327 yards and the touchdown to Metcalf. Five of his 11 incomplete passes were dropped, by Metcalf twice, tight end Noah Fant twice and by Jaxon Smith-Njigba once. Another incompletion was a spike to stop the clock at the end of the first half, so Myers could kick a field goal on the final play of the second quarter.

So he should have, easily could have, been 38 for 43 passing (88.3%).

“I thought Geno played a dynamite game,” Macdonald said.

“Same as he’s been since we got here in February.”

Smith-Njigba, the team’s first-round draft choice in 2023, had his first career 100-yard receiving day. Smith targeting him 16 times. He had 12 catches for 117 yards.

Metcalf had 10 catches on 14 targets for 129 yards — with a 56-yard touchdown on which he was comically alone down the middle of the field on a go route.

Metcalf was asked if he was surprised elite cornerback Christian Gonzalez, who was on Metcalf much of the game, and safety Kyle Dugger both went with Charbonnet’s short route and let Metcalf alone on his go-route score in the first quarter.

“I mean, I wasn’t surprised,” Metcalf said, sarcastically. “Anytime a 6-4 guy, biggest receiver on the field, running down Scott-free, I’d leave him open, too.”

It was Metcalf’s 17th TD on a go route in his NFL career (since 2019), tied for league’s third-most in that span behind Mike Evans and Tyreek Hill.

Smith had to throw, because New England (1-1) bashed Seattle’s offensive line and makeshift running game.

The Seahawks host Miami (1-1) next Sunday at Lumen Field knowing the soft start to their schedule has ended — and that they need to be better against the run on defense, and on the offensive line.

“We’ve got to get it fixed,” Seattle safety Rayshawn Jenkins said above the music boomin’ off the walls of Gillette Stadium’s visiting locker room. “It’s early. I think we will be all right.

“If we are going to be the team we want to be, man, we’ve got to continue to win close games like that, one-possession games like that. We talk about that all the time, and today we were able to do that.”

Jason Myers ties it late

Regulation ended with intrigue, and the Seahawks trying to be tricky.

On third down with just over a minute left and Seattle down 20-17, a quarterback sneak by Smith got stopped short of the line to gain at the Patriots 20-yard line. There was no push at all from the Seahawks’ struggling offensive line.

That was in Macdonald’s mind as he had the Seahawks’ offense line up in a tight formation, as if Seattle was going for the first down on fourth and 1 at the New England 15. The Seahawks tried to draw the Patriots offside then called time out with 54 seconds left.

Macdonald sent the offense back onto the field as if to go for it again. Again, Smith had a long snap count that tried to draw the Patriots into an offsides penalty. Again, New England didn’t move. Macdonald called another time out.

“Yeah, we wanted to take a peek and see if there was an opportunity to go for it,” Macdonald said.

“We weren’t confident enough in the situation at that point, so we felt like, ‘Take the 5(-yard penalty),’ and still (get) a pretty good, manageable field goal to go tie it up.”

Myers kicked a 38-yard field goal to tie the game with 55 seconds left.

New England threw three times, twice incomplete. That gave the ball back to Seattle with 15 seconds and a time out left, the ball at its own 24. But after each team called its final time out before first down, Smith took a knee and the game went to overtime.

Mike Macdonald’s scheme

Multiple times Sunday, Macdonald overloaded the right side of Seattle’s defensive line with three linemen. Then he walked up multiple linebackers on the other side of the line, as if they were going to blitz.

In that scheme in the third quarter, Dodson and rookie fellow linebacker Tyrice Knight dropped off the ball just before the snap. Leonard Williams sacked New England quarterback Jacoby Brissett from that overloaded defensive right side for yet another Seahawks defensive stop. That kept them ahead 17-13.

Multiple times Sunday, Macdonald’s scheme overwhelmed one side of New England’s offensive line.

Patriots aid Seahawks

Macdonald made a curious choice after a defensive stop of a New England running play deep in the Patriots’ own end on first down late in the first half. With 1:20 and all three time outs remaining, the new coach decided not to use a time out there. The Patriots snapped the ball for second time with 58 seconds left in the half.

But then they had Brissett throw twice, incomplete. That stopped the clock and allowed Seattle to preserve all its time outs. New England punted. The Seahawks took the ball at midfield with 34 seconds and three time outs.

Those time outs allowed offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb to use all his playbook and call pass plays into the middle of the field. Smith completed one to Metcalf, then spiked the ball to stop the clock with 4 seconds left.

Myers made a 45-yard field goal for a 17-13 halftime lead, with Seattle getting the kickoff to begin the second half.

On the first drive after halftime, Charbonnet expertly picked up a free-blitzing Patriot on Smith’s right. That allowed the quarterback to slide left and convert a third-down pass to Smith-Njigba on a late crossing route for 24 yards into New England territory.

But the drive stalled when New England stopped Charbonnet’s run on fourth and 1 at the Patriots 24-yard line.

That was one of three possessions the Seahawks failed to capitalize on that could have made it a two-score game in the third quarter.

That became a turning point.

The Patriots — who had thrown 10 times on their first 13 plays of the game — then began to wear down Seattle’s defense with power running. That’s what New England used to drive from its own 34 to the Seattle goal line from late in the third quarter to 2 minutes into the fourth.

On first and goal, 227-pound back Stevenson ran through Seahawks defensive end Leonard Williams for the go-ahead touchdown.

Seattle trailed 20-17 with 12:43 remaining.

Julian Love provides spark

The offense went backwards on the next drive, because of a holding penalty on first down on rookie tight end AJ Barner and a sack of Smith.

Seattle punted. New England’s Antonio Gibson ran 45 yards through missed tackles to get the Patriots to the Seahawks 25-yard line. But Seattle’s defense again held New England from a touchdown.

Rookie Byron Murphy and Williams combined for a third sack of the game on Brissett. Then Julian Love knifed through the line to block New England’s 48-yard field goal try.

It was the first time the 26-year-old Love blocked a kick, from high school in New Jersey through Notre Dame to six years in the NFL with the Giants and Seahawks.

He said he just had a feeling to switch sides with Jenkins on the edge of Seattle’s field-goal block team.

He credited left-edge rusher Riq Woolen, the starting cornerback, for pressuring kicks all day.

“In that moment, I just feel like ‘I’ve got to go get it,’” Love said. “I felt energized in that moment, and something just told me to switch.

“Just kind of one-two (steps) and kind of glide and skinny-up however I can. Thankfully, I’m skinny enough (at 5 feet 11, 195 pounds).”

Sparked, the Seahawks offense got a 6-yard run by Charbonnet, a 9-yard pass to Charbonnet and a 14-yard pass from Smith to Metcalf. That got Myers into position for the tying field goal.

Starting linebackers hurting

Inside weakside linebacker Jerome Baker left the game in the second quarter and went to the Seahawks’ locker room. He’d been questionable to play with a hamstring issue.

Rookie Tyrice Knight, the fourth-round draft choice from Texas-El Paso, replaced Baker throughout the second quarter and second half. Macdonald said the Knight continues to learn, and that again there were plays for him to improve on.

Macdonald thinks Baker is going to be OK.

About the same time Baker left, Derick Hall was getting evaluated for a concussion. Trevis Gipson and Dre’Mont Jones played outside linebacker opposite Boye Mafe with Hall out.

Hall returned in the second half. He finished with two tackles and one hit on Patriots quarterback Jacoby Brissett (15 for 27 passing, 149 yards, one touchdown).

Hall was starting because Uchenna Nwosu missed his second consecutive game. Nwosu sprained his knee getting cut blocked in the final preseason game Aug. 24. The team has been thinking he would be back before week four and the game at Detroit Sept. 30.

Mafe bruised his knee late in regulation. Macdonald thinks he will be OK but said the team will have to see more this week.

Guard-ed

Anthony Bradford had a 15-yard penalty for unnecessary roughness to ruin Seattle’s next-to-last drive of the first half. Then his false start early in the third quarter turned a second and 10 into second and 15. That was his fourth penalty in two games.

On a fourth and 1 at the Patriots 23 with Seattle trying to go up by two scores early in the third quarter, New England’s free-roaming safety Kyle Dugger ran free through the right side of the line as Bradford blocked down on a run play to the left. Dugger dropped Charbonnet for no gain. Seattle’s lead remained 17-13.

Rookie third-round pick Christian Haynes played one drive for Bradford at right guard, in the second quarter. Seattle drove to its second touchdown and a 14-10 lead. Haynes also played one drive for Bradford in the third quarter.

Those appeared to be pre-planned substitutions.