Make no mistake about this 23-20 overtime win for the Seahawks at Gillette Stadium in Boston. Geno Smith’s quarterback play won this game for Seattle.

On the day where New England decided to celebrate the ten year anniversary of their Super Bowl win over Seattle by honoring the dude who picked off Russell Wilson at the one yard line, Geno Smith handed Patriot fans a good old fashioned turd sandwich to chew on in the fourth quarter and overtime. It was glorious, and I soaked it in with absolute joy.

We are now two games into Mike Macdonald’s coaching career in Seattle, but we are starting to figure out who these Seahawks under his coaching are. I can ascertain two things I feel about them under this new regime.

Geno Smith is the Man, and these are not your Pete Carroll Seattle Seahawks.

I do not mean to make this piece a slam on the former coach, but here is how I think things would have went down in New England against the hard fighting Patriots. Being ultra thin at right tackle, and without the explosive qualities of Ken Walker, I think Carroll would have mandated a conservative offensive game plan against a tough Patriots defense on the road. I think he would have had his offensive coordinator staying with the run when it wasn’t working, and he would have asked for a simplistic attack. With a journeyman vet to play against at quarterback, his mantra probably would have been to keep it close enough to hopefully gut out a low scoring victory on the road in the end.

In recent years, Seattle used to drop games like this by making them unnecessarily too easy for the opponent to be in it. They would bumble enough on defense to make a below average quarterback look like a really good quarterback, and they would be so risk adverse offensively, that it would make it more difficult on their own QB than it ever needed to be. We have lost games to Colt McCoy multiple times this way, for God sakes. This would not be the case in New England yesterday, however.

Mike Macdonald allowed his offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb stay with the pass game when it was clear that it was the only thing working against a tough Patriots defense. Sure, it sputtered coming out of half time, and their lead vaporized by the fourth quarter (thanks to an Seahawk defense that got pushed around with the run), but Grubb adjusted enough to create motions to detect coverage, and dialed up necessary coverage beaters, and he leaned into Geno Smith to lead this team to a come from behind drive inside a stadium that is extremely difficult for a road team to get a win in.

Geno Smith took to this play calling, lifted his teammates onto his back, and carried them into an overtime win. It was just like watching Michael Penix Junior at Washington in 2023.

While I prefer to see an offense who can dictate more with the run, I am excited about how much of a fit Geno seems to be for Grubb in this scheme. It’s early, but the matrimony between the player caller and quarterback feels harmonious right now. I fully expect it to continue forth.

This, of course, all being very bad news for Geno Smith haters out there (the few stubborn ones remaining). Let them eat their crow.

Here are the cold hard facts about Geno Smith right now. This coaching staff obviously has full faith in him to win tough games. They are perfectly willing to lean into him. This overtime win is only going to deepen that faith in him moving forward.

Also, through two games, Geno’s QBR rating in the league is strong. He’s demonstrating top level accuracy, poise, athletic playmaking ability, and decision making.

Essentially, he is playing just like a top level quarterback. In fact, through two games, he is the league’s fourth best QBR rated quarterback.

So if, at this stage, you still think all of this pro Geno talk is silly, I vehemently question your ability to know ball. But don’t just take Geno praising from me. Here’s what a few national NFL media had to say about him after this game.

Dan Orlovsky called Geno Smith the best NFL quarterback that nobody is taking about. Albert Breer tweeted that Geno is a much better QB than people give him credit for. Brock Huard (local but also national), who has been somewhat on the fence about Geno over the years, tweeted to put respect into Geno Smith’s name, but here is a tweet that I want you to read and let sink in for a minute.

Make no mistake about it, Geno Smith played ELITE football against a tough Patriots defense defending their own home turf. Period. No debate to be had.

If you are a fan of the Seattle Seahawks winning football games, you should be excited about this moving forward. There is no reason to remain on the fence when it comes to Geno Smith.

I get it if you long term goal is to see Seattle have a young talented quarterback playing on a rookie contract, but Caleb Williams, the first player taken in this draft, on Sunday Night against the Texans, could not make the throws that Geno Smith made against the Patriots to lead his team to a road win. Maybe he will someday become one of the league’s best quarterbacks, maybe, but he is nowhere near the NFL quarterback that Geno is right now.

Seattle fans should be embracing Geno, not being senselessly divided about him.

Last week, I wrote out a piece that spelled out all the reasons why Geno Smith is essentially playing on a trial year with this new coaching staff. I concluded it by saying that I believe he will most likely ace this trial, and earn a contract extension in the following offseason. Two games into this season, I see it even more clearer now.

This team was down its third string right tackle, it was missing it’s big time play making running back, it was having an up and down game on defense, they lost their lead in the fourth quarter, and yet Geno surgically carved up the Patriots defense in the final moments of the game like it was a Thanksgiving Day turkey fresh out of the oven. For two weeks now, Geno and his crew have faced tough defenses and they delivered. What is going to happen when they meet up against softer opponents this year?

Geno is gonna ball. That’s what’s going to happen.

In terms of other standouts in this one, you can feel the bright future of this team in the talents of Jaxon Smith Njigba and DK Metcalf on offense. Eventually, this team will be without Tyler Lockett, but JSN and DK are starting to feel like one of the top receiver combos in the league. With Jake Bobo also on this roster, Ryan Grubb has riches to use with his receivers, and this is exciting stuff for any pass happy Seattle fan to behold.

JSN offers such a unique blend of soft hands, route running, and sudden run after catch abilities. It’s so fun to watch. Essentially, he’s a taller version of Doug Baldwin, and without the Ken Walker to rely on at running back, it felt like Grubb was using JSN on quick passes as a way to compensate. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see him become the next big star athlete in town, to be honest.

DK, on the other hand, proves that no athlete in this offense has more naturally explosive big play potential than he does, not even Ken Walker. The big touchdown catch and run was fun, but watching him now being finally schemed with slant patterns is even more exciting. This was no doubt a huge game for him, but I think Grubb is just getting started with how to finally take advantage of his off the chart skills. I cannot wait for it.

On defense, there were very obvious stars in this game. Leonard Big Cat Williams was a beast, and so was edge rusher Boye Mafe. It was great to see rookie defensive tackle Byron Murphy II get a big run stop and a sack. I thought rookie linebacker Tyrice Knight played pretty well when he had to sub in for injured Jerome Baker. Rookies stepping in and playing well is a really positive sign for this team as it builds its new core and depth.

Also, Julian Love.

Damn, Julian is just so damn good at football. Sticks his nose into breaking up passes to tight ends, plays the run solid, and blocks fricking kicks. In the three point difference in this win, his blocked kick could easily be considered the single biggest play of this game.

Things weren’t always stellar on defense, though. Seeing them getting pushed around with the run in the second half was disconcerting, and gave me some PTSD flashbacks of the 2022-2023 Clint Hurtt Seahawks defense. At least assignment wise it looked like players were in the right places (for the most part), but the lack of proper tackling needs to get fixed right away.

It will be interesting to see how these defenders respond with their tackling efforts against the Dolphins next Sunday, and how Coach Macdonald will get them turned around. With the likelihood of no Tua, I would expect Mike McDaniel to lean further into the Dolphin ground assault after watching tape on the Seahawks defense in this one. They are an offense known for their exotic ground attack, and this feels like an important match for the Seattle tacklers to get it right for this week.

I got faith that they will. In Mike Macdonald I trust.

I feel the potential in this defense. They got lots of work to do to clean things up, but the potential is sky high for them this year. They just need to hone in their fundamentals better as they stack wins.

In this road win, they got three sacks on Jacoby Brissett, but they could have probably had at least four more. They need to finish these sorts of plays, but I have supreme confidence that they will. At least they were in position to make them. Last year, it felt like under Carroll and Hurtt calling the defense, they were never in positions like that nearly enough.

The most encouraging thing about this day was when they needed a big play on defense to happen, it happened, and when they needed their starting quarterback to carry them to a come from behind win on the road, he effortlessly lifted up his team, and carried them on his back. When you marry good defense with really good quarterback play, generally speaking, really good things tend to happen for football teams.

Also, Mike Macdonald is 2-0 as a brand new NFL head coach. How awesome is that?

No Seahawks head coach has ever starting their career here 2-0 before Macdonald. In 49 years of being a NFL team, Macdonald is the first.

It’s early, I know, and a lot of things can happen during the coarse of a long NFL season, but excuse me if I am feeling pretty damn excited about this club right now. I wish they were playing again tomorrow. I haven’t felt this way in years.

Go Hawks.