With Smith sidelined, the Seahawks turned to backup quarterback Sam Howell, who, thrown into a tough situation with Seattle down big, struggled to contend with the Packers pass rush, completing 5 of 14 pass attempts for 24 yards and an interception that led to a Green Bay touchdown, while being sacked four times.
“It wasn’t good enough to win,” Macdonald said of Howell’s performance. “I know he’s disappointed. It just didn’t feel like we were getting the ball out on time, then it wasn’t complemented with our pass protection. I know we gave up a bunch of sacks, and they did a good job too—they covered the routes and rushed the passer, it was a complementary game on their end on defense.
“We’ve got faith in Sam, the guy’s a great player. If he gets another opportunity, he’ll do a great job.”
Howell assessed his performance by saying, “At the end of the day, I’ve got to be better. My job is to be ready to go in there and play well and help this team win, and I didn’t do that today. I’ve just got to be better and watch the film, learn from it. We had chances in the second half, the defense played well, put us in good positions. I’ve just got to be better.”
For the Seahawks, losing Smith hindered their chance at a comeback, and created a tough situation for the team seeing one of its leaders go down.
“It’s tough, Geno is the heartbeat of the offense, the heartbeat of the team,” said linebacker Ernest Jones IV. “He’s one of our leaders, so obviously you don’t want to see him get hurt. But we’ve got confidence in Sam, confidence in the behind him, so I pray everything’s OK with Geno, but we’ve got to be ready to go, whoever is at quarterback.”
In other injury news, the Seahawks lost center Olu Oluwatimi to what Macdonald said was a quadriceps and knee injury, leading to rookie Jalen Sundell taking over at that spot.
“It’s like a quad, knee combo,” Macdonald said. “Not sure the severity, severe enough for him to not come in. We’ll figure out the extent of it, the imaging and all that kind of stuff tomorrow.”
The Seahawks were without starting running back Kenneth Walker III for the second straight game, and Macdonald said he did not yet know if Walker’s calf injury will keep him out next week or not.
“I haven’t had any new information since Friday,” Macdonald said. “He just couldn’t go this week. We’re not looking at a long-term thing though, structurally he’s OK.”
