Poll: How do you think Geno Smith fared in Russell Wilson’s absence?

Our fearless leader here at Field Gulls Mookie Alexander threw this poll up on the official Field Gulls Twitter account and it clearly got a lot of people thinking, “Did Geno Smith meet, surpass, or fail to live up to your expectations in Russell Wilson’s absence?”

While the reactions from Seattle Seahawks fans did not surprise me in the comments, as they were generally “Met expectations” with Mookie agreeing in a later tweet, but I think that's entirely wrong and unfair to Geno Smith.

I'm a fan of course and I watch the games, also of course, and a lot of the tweets made sense on the eye test that Geno looked great against a horrible defense and he struggled against good defenses and had some poor moments in late-game situations. However the proof is not in the pudding, it’s in the stats.

Going week by week starting with his first start, Week 6 against the Steelers: Geno ranked 13th in the league for passer rating against a defense that ranks 20th in the NFL for passer rating against. He also led the Seahawks to be 6th in offensive DVOA in Week 6.

Week 7 vs. the Saints, Geno ranked 14th in the NFL for passer rating (albeit with much of it on one play) against the 2nd ranked defense according to passer rating against. Seattle came out of that Week 7 loss at 25th in offensive DVOA.

Lastly, against the worst team in the league according to passer rating against (and last in defensive DVOA), the Seahawks ranked 3rd in DVOA and Geno ranked 1st in passer rating.

So to summarize, Geno was on the average in Week 6 vs. Pittsburgh and kept Seattle in that game that went to overtime. Then in Week 7, he went well above the average considering how good the Saints defense has been and kept the Seahawks in that game yet again, and then in Week 8, the Seahawks looked like the offense of the week against the worst defense in the league.

I think he went above and beyond expectations, as the stats show and as the Seahawks went 3-0 against the spread under Geno, quite literally showing that he went 3-0 against expectations. For a QB who has not started multiple games in a season since 2014 and had the same amount of touchdowns as he did interceptions that season, how high could your expectations have been to say that he did not surpass them?

Let us know what you think in this poll below or in the comments.