Seahawks stars DK Metcalf, Geno Smith are ticked. How their rookie coach’s dealing with it

For the second straight game, DK Metcalf was ticked.

For the second time in four days, the Seahawks’ star wide receiver was angrily gesturing and talking at, not to, his position coach. As he had done last weekend during the team’s loss to the New York Giants, wide receivers coach Frisman Jackson tried to talk with and calm Metcalf.

As on the sideline during the first half of the previous game, that failed.

Then Metcalf asked for Jackson’s headset. He demanded to talk upstairs to the coach calling the plays Metcalf was running against the San Francisco 49ers.

“Hey, Grubb,” Amazon Prime’s television sideline camera caught Metcalf barking into the headset’s microphone, with offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb presumably on the line.

Their talk didn’t last long. Metcalf took off the headset. He walked away from Jackson.

By the fourth quarter of the Seahawks’ 36-24 loss to the 49ers, who continue to dominate them in the NFC West, it was Geno Smith who was ticked off. Almost as much as he’d been picked off.

Late in the game with Smith throwing every down in garbage time, the quarterback yelled to teammates after yet another failed play: “What the (expletive) are we doing?!”

All of the Pacific Northwest has been yelling that. For weeks.

Smith stayed simmering during his postgame press conference 30-some minutes after Seattle’s third consecutive loss, and sixth in a row over three seasons against San Francisco.

At one point Smith said when asked of his pass to Metcalf he underthrew in the first half: “Watch the film, man. Watch the film.”

It was not a grand way for Smith to spend his 34th birthday Thursday night.

Rookie 37-year-old head coach Mike Macdonald, first-time NFL play caller Grubb and this new Seahawks coaching staff are at a crossroads early in their new regime. They’ve got a sinking team whose stars are displaying for all to see — and hear — their frustration at the tailspin this formerly inflated, 3-0 team is fully in.

“As frustrating as it is — and it hurts right after the game, it stings, man, you feel like failed the city, you’re bummed. That’s a natural reaction,” Macdonald said Friday, nine days before the Seahawks play next, at Atlanta Oct. 20. “It’s OK to be...you should be upset, because it also means that you care.

“Guys are so competitive and there’s a spirit to the team. And people get frustrated. And my message to those guys (is) ‘Hey, it’s OK to be emotional. We want to be an emotional team that lives on the line in these high intense situations, but also let’s keep our composure and let’s stick together.’ Which I think we’re doing a great job of.

“So, all those ingredients are there. And it’s just about kind of cooking it the right way, right now.

“And let’s make sure we’re putting our best foot forward.”

DK Metcalf’s night

Smith said “what the ---- are we doing?” after Metcalf improvised and changed his assigned crossing route when he saw 49ers cornerback Renardo Green jump it. Metcalf unexpectedly turned up field and went long, behind Green. But that wasn’t until after Smith began his throwing motion to the spot he expected Metcalf to run, the assigned route.

Green intercepted the pass well in front of Metcalf.

“It was an interception, man. We all saw it,” Smith said. “Bad play by me.”

The was the third of Seattle’s three turnovers. San Francisco had none.

The Seahawks are going to lose to Western Washington University if they have a minus-3 turnover margin. And Western no longer has a football team.

Smith targeted Metcalf 11 times among his 52 throws against the 49ers. Metcalf had three catches, of Smith’s 30 completions, with the interception. Three of those 11 targets were passes so off-target no one could have caught them, not even the 6-foot-4 Metcalf with world-class speed and jumping ability.

After the game, Metcalf was one of the first players dressed and exiting the locker room.

Friday, Macdonald was asked about Metcalf’s game Thursday night.

“I think there is a couple where if you were to ask DK, he probably felt like he should have come down with,” Macdonald said. “And, if you look at it like macro, we have the end of half seven (flag route, back left of the end zone) ball on the corner where he makes a heck of a catch and we’re looking at an inch.”

On that play, with Seattle down 16-0, the defender pushed Metcalf while he was jumping to catch Smith’s pass. The push forced the top of his cleat to land on the back line of end zone for an incomplete pass. The Seahawks settled for a field goal.

“That’s seven points compared to (George) Kittle’s (San Francisco touchdown later), an inch he’s in. I mean, it helps to put it in perspective,” Macdonald said.

“Yeah, we’re not there. But there are opportunities where it might not be as far away as we think.”

With 5 minutes left in the game and Seattle down 29-17, Smith hit Metcalf in stride free down the middle of the field for what appeared to be a 48-yard touchdown. But running back Kenneth Walker kept drifting after going in motion from the backfield out wide left. He needed to stay running parallel to the line of scrimmage, or stop for a full second before the snap, to avoid the penalty he got for an illegal shift.

That penalty negated Metcalf’s TD and kept Seattle from getting within five points with 5 minutes still remaining.

“Then we add the opportunity for him on the deep ball where we had the illegal formation,” Macdonald said, listing all the reasons Metcalf was mad.

“So: ‘Hey, stay in it man. Keep fighting.’

“This guy’s a great player. He’s playing great football for us on the whole, and the targets are going to come your way. And he’s going to make them when we get it to him.”

Geno Smith’s ‘the tip of the spear’

Smith, like Metcalf, has a big-money contract that ends after next season. Smith is in year three of his first starting job in a decade, since his first years in the league with the New York Jets. He endured seven consecutive one-year contracts at veteran-minimum salaries until his three-year, $75 million deal Seattle gave him before the 2023 season.

Macdonald Friday reiterated what he’s been saying since offseason practices in May and June: The Seahawks will succeed and fail as their quarterback does.

Smith has three interceptions with touchdown pass during this three-game losing streak. For the season, the NFL’s leader in completions, attempts and passing yards entering this week has six touchdown passes and six interceptions.

Plus one, noticeably terse postgame interview session.

“Geno, I’m on record that he’s the tip of the spear, especially on offense,” Macdonald said Friday. “We’re going to go as he goes. He’s a galvanizing force for the whole team, especially offensively.

“We were talking last night. This guy is super competitive. You don’t get to where he’s at in his career and in his life without being an absolute warrior mentally through these things in times of adversity. He’s an emotional guy. He cares. He’s competitive as crap. And, good. We like that. We like guys that are going to get after it and put it on the line down in and down out.

“Everybody else, let’s follow his lead. So, of course, we’re always going to depend on Geno.”