Seattle - 10, New Orleans - 13
Q. Geno, what's the mood in the locker room right now?
GENO SMITH: You know, it's tough. Man, we lost. No one's happy about it. You know, it's another close game for us. We had a chance right there at the end. It's tough.
You know, but one thing I know about these guys is no one's going to quit. You know, no one's going to point a finger. We're all going to pick up what we need to pick up. And we're all going to get better. You know, find ways to get better and find ways to get a win.
Q. What's your assessment of the offense tonight?
GENO SMITH: You know, I think we had spurts where we were really good. And I think we had times where we didn't finish. You know, we were moving the ball. You know, some costly, you know, sacks where, you know, kind of put us out of position.
A couple penalties that we'd like to not have. But overall, I mean, with the elements and everything else, you know, not to make any excuses, I think we moved the ball pretty well.
Q. Geno, you mentioned the sacks. Some of those came at some really critical moments. What do you kind of think about those plays when you look back on them and you kind of have those moments come about for you?
GENO SMITH: Well, I mean, that's part of playing quarterback, honestly. Playing quarterback, you got to put the team in the best position to win. And whatever I got to do to get the ball out or evade a sack, whatever I have to do to not have that happen, that's a part of my job.
And I put that solely on my myself, honestly. And I got big enough shoulders, I'll take it all. You can put the blame on my feet. No worry. I know I'm going to do whatever, you know, I need to do to make sure that we get a win.
Q. The third down that took Meyers' field goal out to 53 yards there in the open end, what could you do? That looked like a blitz with no pickup. You're saying --
GENO SMITH: You know, I would have to go look at the tape to be exact and to give you, you know, the best answer. But, you know, just -- you know, in hindsight, you know, just doing whatever it takes, whatever it takes to get the ball out.
That's a part of my job, putting us in the best position to win. And, you know, when things like that happen, you know, it's the quarterback's job to make sure it doesn't.
Q. What was it like handling the ball, throwing the ball in these conditions tonight?
GENO SMITH: I thought we did fine, honestly. I didn't think about it once. I didn't flinch once. You know, I think I missed one to DK where I put a touch on it and it kind of floated on me. But other than that, I think we were fine.
Q. You had that great touchdown pass to DK. Honestly, I don't think you threw it to him again until the fourth quarter. Was that something they were doing, the defense, play calling?
GENO SMITH: You know, obviously, we want to get the ball to our playmakers. DK is a great player, Tyler's a great player, Gerald and all those guys. We want to get the ball to all those guys.
To be honest with you, I can't really pinpoint to you why it happened the way it did. That's something we got to look at and correct.
But, you know, it happened like that. And we still had a chance at the end of the game. He made a crucial third down at the end of the game. And that's what he does, he's a great player.
And so, honestly, man, it's just one of those things where we came up short again. You know, these last three weeks, man, we've had the ball at the end with a chance to go win and we didn't get it done.
Q. Geno, the defense gave you -- a recovery fumble gave you a short field. Can you take us through the sequence of that possession?
GENO SMITH: It was a great job by the defense. Man, it was a great hit. I think it was Ugo who made the hit. It was a great hit.
That's what they do, they make plays on defense. They did a great job all night. I feel like we got the ball there. And one thing that, you know, I'll say is finishing drives is huge. And then rewarding our defense whenever they do get a turnover like that. You know, we preferably want to get seven.
So whatever we have to do to make sure that happens. We all got to watch the tape and really take ownership and figure out what each individual can do to make sure that gets done.
Q. Geno, you're not going to be satisfied until you win, obviously, as a competitor. But what can you -- how are you feeling about your control of the offense and your ability to move the pieces when you're out there at the line of scrimmage and in the huddle?
GENO SMITH: I feel great about it. You know, that's all the hard work throughout training camp and all those things we put a lot of work in.
And so, I feel great about what I'm seeing out there and, you know, how I'm getting in and out of the huddle. Obviously, there's a lot that I can improve, as well.
So for me, it's just focusing on those things, the things that I can improve on. And then just continuing to build.
Q. Just what's the next step for this team to kind of get back on track?
GENO SMITH: Man, the sun's going to come up tomorrow and we going to get right. We're going to make sure we do whatever we need to do. Whether it's in the classroom, the weight room. And then when it comes down to executing on the field, we just got to own those moments. We just got to own them.
You know, those are crucial moments and we had chances to really ice the game. And so, we've got to really put that in our mindset just, like, Hey, man, we got to be closers and finishers. And that's something we can really work on.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports