There is little doubt that Geno Smith cares about how well he plays and that he does want to do well. No matter what happens the rest of his Seattle Seahawks career, he has already proved to be better than many fans would have ever guessed he would have been. He isn't a terrible quarterback, but he isn't a great one either.
The problem was that in Week 9 versus the Los Angeles Rams, specifically, he was awful. Sure, he threw three touchdown passes, and he made some brilliant throws, but the NFL is a tough business. A few bad plays can cost one's team the game. Against the Rams, Smith cost the Seahawks the game with two wretched red-zone interceptions.
Smith began his part of the team's post-game press conference by apologizing to his teammates and to the city of Seattle for his mistakes against LA. Head coach Mike Macdonald did not apologize for what happened in Week 9, but he did say the same thing he has been saying quite a bit on Seattle's losing skid (the team has lost five of their last six games): The team just needs to clean a few things up and all will be OK.
But all won't be OK because words are meaningless. Actions determine wins and losses. Smith's interceptions were the reason Seattle lost to the Rams. Macdonald's lack of cleaning up penalties and alignment issues have led to Seattle now being 4-5.
Being a fan is a weird and illogical thing. We choose to (mostly) randomly pull for a person or a team and spend good money supporting them. Then we get upset when the person or team disappoints with their results. Meanwhile, the players on the team or the individual athlete are capable, even in a loss, of doing things most fans cannot. We feel the right to complain because of the money we spend.
That is all fair, of course. But when fans only hear remarks of how the team or person will try to do better in the future and apologize for their performance, that is all good and well, but all fans really want are positive results. Stop telling 12s that the coaching staff knows the issues and will work hard to correct them, only to see the same problems pop up in future games consistently. Eventually, fans will tune out a coach who keeps saying the same things with the same results.
Geno Smith beginning his part of the press conference on Sunday after the Rams game with an apology is nice, but it does nothing to change the team's losing skid. Only removing the constant mistakes does. Smith was terrible against Los Angeles. He is capable of being better, but he doesn't need to apologize; he simply needs to perform better in the future.
