Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith said Thursday he's expecting to play against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday despite a knee injury that knocked him out of last week's game.
"I'm getting better every day. Looking forward to Sunday," Smith said.
Smith was a full participant in practice each of the last two days for Seattle as he appears on track to play this weekend. He said he's not at 100 percent, but said he hasn't been since the start of the season and he needs to perform regardless.
"A lot of guys are less than 100 percent," he said. "I've been that way pretty much the majority of the season. That's just the way the NFL goes. But no excuses. Got to go out there and perform."
Smith was injured midway through the third quarter as Seattle was driving deep into Packers' territory. Edgerrin Cooper pressured Smith into throwing a pass away as Smith retreated from pressure. Cooper forced Smith's feet out from underneath him, but his right shoe briefly caught in the turf and twisted his leg.
Smith had complained to officials about the play in the immediate aftermath, but a flag wasn't thrown.
"There is a lot to be thought of. Honestly, they didn't call a flag, so I'm not complaining. It is what it is," Smith said.
Smith initially got up after the play, but sat back down on the field and was tended to by the training staff. Smith slammed his helmet on the sideline once he left the field and was taken to the injury tent for evaluation. Smith would then be taken into the locker room for further examination.
"Once I put pressure on it and got up and stuff, I just felt it there," he said.
"(It) was definitely like one of those scary falls. Just didn't know what was going on. Definitely didn't feel stable enough to get back out there."
He returned to the sidelines, jogging with a limp back from the locker room. However, the decision was made to hold him out the rest of the game.
"If I can do anything to get back out there I will. Just felt like it was a decision made that was best to not risk it anymore," Smith said.
When it comes to his play in the game before he left, Smith said it felt like they were moving the ball, but fizzled out in the red zone. Of course, Smith's interception was one of those failures.
"Once we get past the 50-yard line, we’ve got to execute a little bit better there. Just feel like we didn't finish when we had our opportunities early on," Smith said.
"It's just something to work on, something we’ve got to strive to perfect. We’ve got to get better at it. We’ve got to execute better. It always goes back to that. I always say this, ‘The coaches can only do so much for us.’ We’ve got to go out there and play the game. Something I'm working hard on, studying, and doing everything I can to make sure we can get better in that area. Something that I feel like we definitely need in order to go where we want to go."
In evaluating the interception, Smith said he knows it was a negative play because the result was an interception, but he believes the process of the decision to make the throw was sound and credited Carrington Valentine for making the play.
"They were doubling DK (Metcalf), so basically Cover 0 (man-to-man) for everyone else to the field. Felt like Noah (Fant) won on his route; gave him a ball that was catchable. The corner wheeled back. He was covering Lock (Tyler Lockett). Wheeled back and made a heck of a play.
"Always going to say that I got the ball, I got the decisions to make. Whenever it's an interception, it's going to be graded as a negative decision. If that guy didn't make the play and Noah catches a touchdown it's a positive. Again, just focused on the process and making sure I'm doing the right things and reading the right keys, and most importantly protecting the football."
If there was an argument to be made, it would be that Smith didn't have his feet set making the throw and was retreating from pressure. Because of that, the ball lacked some of the zip necessary to get to Fant with the timing needed to make the play successful.
"Again, process over results," Smith said. "I think as long as you stick to the process, the results will come. Over the course of my time here I've been exceptionally well in the red zone; this year, not so much. So yeah, got to fix some things. Got to figure out some things. We're doing that internally. I'm doing that myself. So, we're looking to improve on those, the red zone. You never want to have turnovers, and I feel like that's happened to us far too many times. I'm the main culprit so I’ve got to fix that, and I look forward to doing so."
