Seahawks 26, Broncos 20
Q. How you feeling after that one, Geno?
GENO SMITH: I feel like obviously a great win. Great to get our first win of the season in front of our home crowd. Thought the crowd was just electric all day. They were rocking.
Didn't start out great, not the way we wanted to start a football game; very ugly. I thought we stayed poised throughout. Really proud of the guys and how the communication was on the sideline. Everyone was picking each other up. No one was getting down on themselves.
Then obviously the defense played a tremendous game. Kept us in it all game. We found our rhythm and found a way.
Q. To what do you attribute the ugly start?
GENO SMITH: Shoot, man, interception on the first drive; can't have that. That's the worst way to start a game, with a turnover. Giving them possession after they obviously deferred the kickoff. Just having penalties, too many self-inflicted wounds, too many setbacks that didn't allow us to go out and execute.
Those things we have to get better and clean up, and I suspect we will.
Q. What did you think of the adjustments Coach Grubb made going into the second half, especially with the run game to take some pressure off the pass game?
GENO SMITH: Yeah, I thought Grubb did a tremendous job staying disciplined and with the run game. Obviously when you start out the way we started off the first quarter and the first half, you know, a lot of the coordinators would say, hey, let's just pass it.
I thought Grubb trusted the O-line. I thought the O-line did a great job settling down and really took over the game. K9, Ken Walker, was a beast today. Really set the tone for us.
Zach got in there and did his thing. Once the run game opened up it allowed us to then get into some of our tempo stuff and pass the ball. Then you start to see our offense really come alive.
Q. What was Grubb's demeanor between plays and series?
GENO SMITH: Same as always. That's what I love about him. Same guy every day no matter the situation, no matter what's going on. He's got that same calming tone and calm demeanor. That's something we love about him. Really rubs off on all the coaches and down to the players.
I think that's a big part of why we were able to find our you are groove later in the second half.
Q. On the touchdown run, were you looking to go down and just show themselves and just kept running?
GENO SMITH: No, I kind of saw the guy in my peripheral, left side, so I gave him a little move. Felt the corner coming from the right. Thought about hurdling him and I was like, Nah, that ain't the move.
I kind of just got in there, got the touchdown, and that was good to give us a spark.
Q. You always tell us you can run and you don't do it a lot. Was that fun to show it off a little bit?
GENO SMITH: Yeah, I felt like, shoot, I was running like the wind out there. I've been saying I've been getting faster and I felt like it out there on the field today, so that was cool.
Q. How would you describe the level of trust you have with Tyler when you know he's going to get one-on-one coverage?
GENO SMITH: Man, Tyler Lockett, again, one of my best friends and one of the best players in this game. He's so clutch. Just think about all the catches he's made in clutch situations. Time and time again, week after week, he's the guy who is going to show up.
I was talking to Grubb about that this week. Wait until you see Lockett on game day. It's a completely different player. He is out there getting in fights with D-linemen and doing all those things.
That big time third down catch really sealed the game for us, that last one. That's who he is and that's why we love him. We are going to continue to rely on him and he's always going to show up in those moments.
Q. The amount of time he missed, didn't play in the pre-season, just goes out there, leading receiver, big clutch third down catch. What does that tell you about his game?
GENO SMITH: That's who he is. Big time players make big time plays in big games. I remember hearing that when I was a kid. Tyler Lockett is the epitome of that. Any time there is a play to be made he's going to play the game.
Q. ...credited you for rallying the guys at halftime. Obviously it was a different offense the second half. What was the message you were trying to give to everybody to keep everybody together?
GENO SMITH: Just stay poised, stay calm. If we don't shoot ourselves in the foot, if we don't beat ourselves, we'll get rolling. That first half we gave them two safeties and a field goal off a turnover, so that's seven points. The defense was playing tremendous.
Felt like if we just settled down, played our game, we would come out on top. There was no panic in the locker room. I thought everyone was poised. I thought, like I said, the demeanor of the guys was great throughout. It allowed us to go back into that second half and get things rolling.
Q. On the touchdown to Zach Charbonnet, can you walk us through what you saw there? Looked like you were able to get Alex Singleton to be baited a little bit when you stepped up in the pocket there.
GENO SMITH: Yeah, we got up there, went on a quick count. We had them in a personnel that we like, so we went on a quick count. We had a great play call on. The corner back who maybe should have peeled off actually chased the guy inside, so the D end tried to peel with him and then Singleton tried to go with them.
So I just tried to no-look him a little bit and I saw Zach get behind him, so I was able to get him the ball. I thought Grubb called a great play. Everyone did their jobs and helped us out right there.
Q. Fun to celebrate that one with Mike in the locker room?
GENO SMITH: Yeah, that was fun. Coach has been great. Just great for him to get that first win. I think he's done a tremendous job with this team. Obviously we got a lot of room for improvement, but so far so good.
Q. What did you say to him when you presented the game ball to him?
GENO SMITH: Man, I couldn't say anything. The whole locker room was just shouting. Everyone was so happy for him. He was holding the ball up. I mean, that was such a cool moment just for Coach to get that first win. I know that was important for him.
Q. The last time you played the Broncos here was the start of 2022. How do you think you have grown as a leader and a player?
GENO SMITH: Hopefully my teammates can speak for that, but personally, I just feel like I have taken the approach to get better every single day. Taken that approach in my leadership, faith walking, as well as all the football stuff.
Hopefully for the guys they can attest to that and say I've grown. Just trying get better every single day. Really just stuck in that mindset.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports