Geno Smith Redux: Weeks Five and Six
By Alan Schechter
Oct 7, 2013; Atlanta, GA, USA; New York Jets quarterback
Geno Smith(7) runs the ball in the second half against the Atlanta Falcons at the Georgia Dome. The Jets won 30-28. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports
Happy Tuesday everyone. Let’s continue our trip down recent memory lane through the 2013 season. Time for another section of “Geno Smith Redux”. Over the last couple of days, we have been going back over the 2013 season for Geno Smith, two games at a time. In case you missed the first two entries, we looked at the first two weeks here, and we reviewed the second two weeks here.
Let’s move on to the next two games on the road to Geno Smith’s season:
WEEK FIVE: AT ATLANTA
Monday Night Football. The bright lights of primetime, and Geno Smith. The Jets travelled to the Georgia Dome to face Matt Ryan, the retiring Tony Gonzalez, and the rest of the Atlanta Falcons. How was Geno going to respond?
He responded by playing a terrific football game. Other than holding the ball too long, leading to taking four sacks, Geno played quite well. He led the Jets on a scoring drive that ended in a Nick Folk field goal early, which included a third down conversion on a pass to Mike Goodson, and another to Jeff Cumberland.
Early in the second, Smith and Cumberland connected again, this time for a 20 yard touchdown pass. After a three and out by Atlanta, Geno led them on a three play scoring drive, with a 47 yard pass to Jeff Cumberland, and a 16 yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Kerley.
However the Falcons stayed right with the Jets, and took a 28-27 lead with 3:46 remaining in the game. What did Geno Smith do? He only led the team on an eight play, 1:54 drive, ending in another game-winning field goal by Nick Folk, and the Jets won the game 30-28.
For the game, Geno Smith was 16-20 for 199 yards and three touchdowns, no interceptions. He added three rushes for 21 yards.
WEEK SIX: VS PITTSBURGH
The Steelers came to MetLife looking for their first win of 2013. The Jets were coming into the game of their last-minute win over the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night. They were looking to win two games in a row.
Well, we know how they did at winning two in a row for most of the year. It was not a good afternoon for the Jets, nor was it a good one for Geno Smith. This was another case where the offense got nothing going, the defense kept it close until they got tired out. It was a 9-6 game at halftime, but 10 points for the Steelers gave them the game going away, by a score of 19-6.
Geno Smith was sacked three times, and intercepted twice, both of them deep in Steelers’ territory, flaunting his bad decision-making that plagued him a great deal of the season.
For the game, Geno was 19-34, for 201 yards, zero touchdowns, and two interceptions.