Geno Smith’s pointing thumbs not fingers apt for Seahawks. They are beating themselves

When Geno Smith was playing in college at West Virginia more than a decade ago, he learned a lesson that’s coming in handy right now.

“A coach told me about the difference between a finger pointer and a thumb pointer,” the quarterback of the skidding Seahawks said after their second consecutive loss Sunday.

“I’ve always vowed to be a thumb pointer. I’m going to look at myself, hard, in the mirror.”

He’d better get a large mirror. One that can reflect a lot of thumbs.

Over a seven-day span Seattle has gone from 6-3 on a four-game winning streak and atop the NFC West to 6-5 and outside the conference’s race for seven playoff spots. The Seahawks know they beat themselves in their losses to sub-.500 Tampa Bay and Las Vegas, the latter at home 40-34 in overtime this past weekend.

It’s why safety Ryan Neal said after the loss to the Raiders: “I’m pissed off.

“But we have six more of these things, and we have to make them count.”

Yes, the Buccaneers and Raiders rampaged through the Seahawks’ porous defense for 444 yards rushing the last two games.

Yes, Seattle’s offensive line generated little push as Ken Walker and the running backs gained just 65 yards combined the last two losses.

But the Seahawks could have won both games and be 8-3 right now if not for their crucial mistakes.

They know. Their thumbs are pointing back, not fingers pointing elsewhere.

Mistakes, miscommunication vs. Raiders

The Seahawks had a fourth and 1 at the Las Vegas 11-yard line leading 10-7 early in the second quarter Sunday. On a run-pass option call, Smith looked caught between handing off to Ken Walker, keeping the ball to run himself, or throwing it.

Right guard Phil Haynes and right tackle Abe Lucas thought it was a run. They both blocked yards past the line of scrimmage. When Smith decided to throw and completed a pass for what would have been a first down to Tyler Lockett inside the 5, officials penalized Haynes for being an ineligible receiver illegally downfield on a forward pass.

Seattle settled for a field goal. Those were four lost points that could have prevented overtime.

Later in the second quarter the Raiders took a 21-13 lead after Lockett ran into fellow Seahawk DK Metcalf downfield across the middle. Lockett stopped his pass pattern in the middle of the field on a zone-type route. Smith threw far to the left of Lockett, as if his receiver was going to keep running against man-to-man coverage.

Denzel Perryman intercepted at the Las Vegas 36 to end a Seattle drive that should have at least resulted in a go-ahead field goal. Three more points lost, plus the seven the Raiders scored off it.

“There was a lot of miscommunication,” Lockett said of Smith’s fifth interception against 19 touchdowns in 380 drop backs to pass this season. “But I’d rather let Pete (Carroll) talk about it.”

The coach did.

“We made a mistake on the route. It didn’t look right,” Carroll said. “He probably shouldn’t have thrown the ball, at all. On that one, eat it, because we erred downfield in the route.”

Smith had the thumb pointing back at himself.

“It’s an interception. Bad pass,” he said. “Can’t happen.”

With the score tied at 27 and Smith finally in a groove throwing and moving the offense early in the fourth quarter, Walker and Smith messed up a hand-off exchange. It appeared Walker was grabbing for a hand-off the quarterback didn’t fully want to give. The ball dropped between them at the Raiders 28-yard line. Las Vegas’ Chandler Jones recovered the fumble.

The game remained tied at 27.

Smith took the blame for that, too, and the official statistics credited the fumble lost to the quarterback.

“That’s on me,” Smith said, adding he was trying to pull the ball back from Walker to keep. “My fault, 100%.”

In the locker room, Walker said it was his fault.

“It’s a read. I just ... it’s just a miscommunication,” the rookie running back said. “We had the option to pull it or hand it. The running back is responsible for the miss, so I’ll take blame for that fumble.”

All this miscommunication, 11 games into the season.

Yes, this is a young team. But the mistakes and the lack of execution are on the players, including tight end Noah Fant failing to chip block as assigned on the Seahawks’ final offensive play that should have been a completion into field-goal range but was Smith’s harried incomplete pass.

“We have to fix it,” Pro Bowl safety and defensive captain Quandre Diggs said. “We’ve got to bring it.”

The last two defensive game plans have failed. Carroll and coordinator Clint Hurtt schemed to stop Tom Brady and the Bucs from passing in Munich but ignored the 32nd-ranked rushing offense that killed them. They schemed to limit Raiders receiver Davante Adams in the pass game. Josh Jacobs romped for 229 yards, the most a running back has ever rushed against Seattle.

That’s coaching.

So is this: Carroll volunteering the last two game plans were opposite what opposing offenses did to the Seahawks serves to take heat off his players making the mistakes.

“It goes right to me. I’m the one that’s got to get this stuff organized so it fits together and fits right,” Carroll said Sunday night.

“I’m really disappointed that we’re sitting here talking about a game we didn’t win, because that was a game we should have won, could have won.”

The Rams’ woes

It’s off to Los Angeles Saturday for a game Sunday against the team formerly known as the Super Bowl-champion Rams. They have won eight of the last 10 meetings with Seattle.

But they are 3-8. They are a shell of their champion selves.

All-World defensive tackle and Seahawks crusher Aaron Donald is likely to miss his first start since 2017 and only the third his nine-year career. He has what L.A. believes is a high-ankle sprain.

The Rams lost Super Bowl MVP receiver Cooper Kupp to injured reserve and surgery for a high-ankle sprain two weeks ago.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford has been in and out and back into concussion protocol the last two weeks. Rams coach Sean McVay hasn’t ruled out shutting down Donald and Stafford for the rest of their lost season. Last week, Los Angeles had just six healthy offensive linemen on its roster, including deep reserves.

The schedule is favorable for the Seahawks, who are one game behind Washington for the NFC’s final playoff spot and one game plus a head-to-head tiebreaker behind San Francisco for the division lead. Seattle has the Rams twice and hosts Carolina (4-8). That should get the Seahawks to nine wins (of course, they feel they should have beaten the Raiders and Buccaneers). A 9-8 record could be enough for a playoff spot in an NFC that only has eight teams in realistic position for seven postseason berths.

The Seahawks also have a home rematch against the 49ers (7-4) Dec. 15, plus games at Kansas City (9-2) on Christmas Eve and home against the surprising Jets (7-4) on New Year’s Day.

“At the end of the day, things are still in our control,” Lockett said.

“It sucks to see what just took place. But everything that we want is still right there in front of us.”

Lockett’s, as the captain, and the players’ job is to end the mistakes, no matter whom they are playing.

“Yeah, we can’t let it be a snowball effect,” Smith said. “Reality is that we’re going from the hunter to the hunted. People want to play us.

“As a young team, we’ve got to learn to be able to go out there and win those games. That’s our next step in the evolution as a really young team.

“We’ve got to understand the moment, capture the moments, take advantage.”