With Smith sidelined, the Seahawks turned to backup quarterback Sam Howell, who found himself in a difficult situation with Seattle trailing by a large margin, and struggled to deal with the Packers’ pass rush, scoring a touchdown in Green Bay while being sacked four times became.

“It wasn’t good enough to win,” Macdonald said of Howell’s performance. “I know he is disappointed. It just didn’t feel like we were getting the ball out in a timely manner, and then it wasn’t complemented by our pass protection. I know we gave up a lot of sacks and they did a good job too.” – They covered the lanes and pounced on the passer, it was a complementary play for their defense.

“We have confidence in Sam, the guy is a great player. If he gets another chance, he’ll do a great job.”

Howell assessed his performance by saying, “Ultimately, I have to get better. My job is to be ready to go in there, play well and help this team win, and I didn’t do that today. “I just have to be better and watch the film, learn from it.” The defense played well, I just have to be better.

For the Seahawks, the loss of Smith hurt their chances of a comeback and created a difficult situation for the team when one of their leaders was sidelined.

“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 him to get hurt. But we have faith in Sam, faith in the people behind him, so I pray everything is OK with Geno, but we have to get it done. “Ready to go, whoever is quarterback.”

In other injury news, the Seahawks lost center Olu Oluwatimi to a quadriceps and knee injury, which Macdonald said led to rookie Jalen Sundell taking over in that spot.

“It’s like a quad-knee combination,” Macdonald said. “I’m not sure how serious it is. Hard enough that he couldn’t get in. We’ll find out the extent, the imaging and all those things tomorrow.”

The Seahawks were without running back Kenneth Walker III for the second straight game, and Macdonald said he doesn’t yet know whether Walker’s calf injury will keep him out next week or not.

“I have not received any new information since Friday,” Macdonald said. “He just couldn’t go this week. But we’re not thinking about a long-term thing, structurally he’s doing well.”