Smith says he needs to ‘do a better job’ leading when losing

RENTON — His coach has said he wants Geno Smith to take the next step in leadership, through accountability.

Eight games into this Seahawks season, Smith says—and has shown—he needs to improve at that. At being more even emotionally, for his uneven team.

Seattle’s Pro Bowl quarterback acknowledges his emotions are sometimes affecting his body language and thus the leadership he is projecting during games.

Seattle has lost four of its last five of those. And, on Smith’s face and body, it shows.

“Just losing, that’s the main thing. I’m really not a great loser. It sucks. I hate it,” Smith said Thursday.

It was days after he got a penalty for taunting, then was seen sulking if not crying while sitting on the bench during the team’s home loss to Buffalo.

“I need to, overall when I watch myself, hey, man, continue to uplift the guys,” Smith said. “And, if I’m being honest, do a better job at times when we are down.

“Those are things that I am constantly improving. I’m not going to say I’m perfect at it. I get emotional when it comes to winning, when it comes to doing the right thing. At times, I let my emotions show.”

The 34-year-old quarterback is in his 12th NFL season and third consecutive as the Seahawks’ starter. He said whether letting his emotions show on the field during games is good or bad “is a personal opinion” of others.

Last weekend in the Seahawks’ 31-10 home loss to the Buffalo Bills, officials penalized Smith and Seattle’s sputtering offense 15 yards for taunting. That was for the quarterback flipping the ball into the helmet of Bills defensive end Dawuane Smoot on the sideline at the end of Smith’s scramble out of bounds. Smith, the NFL’s leader in completions, attempts and yards passing to begin this season didn’t appreciate Smoot hitting him under the chin as he stepped across the sideline boundary.

The Seahawks trailed 24-3 at the time.

Fox television cameras broadcasting the game also showed Smith sitting on the bench with a distressed look on his face that some saw as the QB crying. He had thrown an interception on a screen pass into the arms of a Bills defensive lineman.

“I’m going to be myself, at all times,” Smith said. “So I want to continue to bring that fire to our team, to our offense. I want to continue to be competitive, not in a bad way but in a good way.

“So, it’s always a fine line that you’ve got to walk. But I’ve got to be careful in making too many mistakes in that area.”

The TNT asked Macdonald this week about Smith’s frustration and how it impacts the quarterback’s leadership the rookie head coach wants Smith to perfect.

“I think to take away Geno’s competitiveness and fire and energy and passion would take away one of his superpowers as a player,” Macdonald said. “Any time someone gets upset, you want to keep it under control, and you want to stay poised.

“But, we understand the frustration. We’ve got to bounce back, stay poised, mentally poised. Geno knows that.”

Macdonald has said multiple times this half season the Seahawks will go as Smith goes, and that the team follows his lead.

“For the most part he’s done a phenomenal job,” the coach said. “We’re going to follow the demonstration that he provides, for our offense and the rest of the team.

“Give him a chance to take a deep breath and go back and attack. That’s the mentality I want as a football team. When we have adversity, we’ve got to do this. We’ve got to come together and connect in those moments, rather than letting the emotion or the frustration get to us.

“We’ll grow from that.”

Offensive coordinator and play caller Ryan Grubb assessed Smith’s emotions during the Buffalo game this way: “Geno has to manage that. That’s something you never want to take away, is his competitive spirit.

“Obviously, for Geno, he knows the temperature he has to operate at effectively. But I also think if you don’t let him work through those things…that’s who he is. He’s a fiery guy. He’s competitive. He’s in this building a lot. He works his butt off. So when it’s not going right he’s frustrated, at times.

“I would always rather have a guy who has some competitive juices instead of having to poke him out of the chutes (to get going in games), so to speak,” Grubb said.

“But I do think there is something to be said about quarterbacks that can maintain their composure in the biggest moments.”

Grubb said he knows the challenge for Smith is, “when things aren’t going right to bring positive energy. That’s the toughest part.”

Smith was not the only Seahawk “pissed off,” as veteran defensive tackle Jarran Reed put it, during and by the loss to Buffalo.

Reed fought with teammate Derick Hall after Hall needlessly pushed Bills quarterback Josh Allen to the ground after he threw an incomplete pass on third down late in the first half. Instead of a field goal in a 7-3 game, Hall’s “bonehead play,” as Reed called it three days later, gifted Buffalo a first down and a few plays later a touchdown. Instead of trailing by one score going into the third quarter Seattle trailed 14-3.

Reed and Hall grabbed and barked at each other in the middle of the field after the penalty. Then on the sidelines during a time out Hall went at Reed in near punches. They grabbed each other’s face mask then shoulder pads before senior assistant head coach Leslie Frazier and others intervened.

The Seahawks in the first months of Macdonald’s new program have had bad times and bad losses. At home to the now-2-6 New York Giants. A sixth consecutive beat down by division arch-rival and king San Francisco.

Yet the 21-point home loss to Buffalo with 11 penalties, three personal fouls and just one touchdown was the first game the NFL’s youngest head coach saw his players splinter during adversity.

He had a team meeting about it this week, heading into the NFC West game Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams (3-4) at Lumen Field (1:25 p.m., channel 13).

“Yeah. We talked about it on Tuesday,” Macdonald, 37, said. “The guys know. We’ve done a great job of that throughout the season.

“I felt like this game was the first time where it felt like there was a little bit of looking around rather than coming together.

“Again, we’re going to grow from it. Our guys see it. Everybody’s been awesome this week.

“Bump in the road and onward we go.”

This would seem to be a challenge for a first-time head coach, at any level, to not want to take away Smith’s or any other player’s emotions but to orient them in a more productive way.

Macdonald sees it as part of the ups and downs of a 17-game NFL season, with margins of winning and losing razor-thin.

“The season’s a roller coaster. The path to success is not going to be just like everything’s great,” the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator until Seattle hired him to replaced fired Pete Carroll Feb. 1 said. “You’re going to go and just keep growing, and there’s going be things you have to face and go through.

“This is just part of the process, and I think you double down on our core values and the foundation that we’ve been able to build since the players have been in the building. That’s what it is. That’s what I’m thinking about.”

Macdonald’s point to his players this week has been, we’ll have dissatisfaction. Every team does. We don’t need dissent.

“You don’t have to be vocal to be dissatisfied. It’s through our actions how we handle it, and how we bounce back. That’s going to determine our success in the long run,” the coach said.

“We’re never going to be finding silver linings in losing and anything like that. We’re in the winning production business. If we’re not getting that done, then we’re not doing our jobs.”

Smith says this is how he’s always been. And how he’ll always be.

“When I was little, I used to bawl my eyes out. I used to cry. I really used to cry,” he said of growing up playing youth football in his native Miami. “My mom, she hated it. She didn’t understand. I used to cry like a baby.

“I don’t cry tears anymore. I fight them. I hold them back. But, it still feels the same way. It cuts deep, man. I want to win so bad.

“When we don’t win, no matter what I did out there, no matter how I played, it all hurts the same.”