‘We don’t need to hold him back’

Might it be time to let Geno Smith cook?

A week after Smith’s inspired play helped the Seattle Seahawks upset former franchise quarterback Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos, head coach Pete Carroll’s club came crashing down in the form of 27-7 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

Over those two games, Smith has emerged with a league-high 81 completion percentage but has thrown for just 196 yards per game. Might it be time to let Smith air it out a bit more? Carroll believes it is.

“We don’t need to hold him back at all,” Carroll said on Seattle Sports 710 AM’s Pete Carroll Show. “I think Geno’s got his game ready to go.”

One glaring issue for the Seahawks has simply been they haven’t been on offense enough. Seattle is dead last in the league with 48 plays per game (49 in Week 1; 47 in Week 2). Thusly, it’s all the more imperative for Geno and Co. to do the most with their opportunities. So far, they haven’t. The Seahawks offense hasn’t scored since the second quarter of its win over the Broncos.

Nonetheless, Carroll is fully supportive of Smith and believes it’s time to let the QB take the lead and make some plays.

“We need to trust him and we need to maybe give him a few more opportunities and stuff,” Carroll said. “We’ve been pretty solidly conservative, counting on running the football, and when we didn’t run the football then OK, we didn’t have much of a mix that we needed. We can do better with that. And whether that’s right or wrong, that’s not the point. The point is that we need to keep expanding. We have too many explosive avenues to go to and we’ve got to make sure that these guys show up.”

Carroll is likewise hopeful that by opening things up for Smith it will do the same for star wide receiver DK Metcalf.

Metcalf has only 71 yards receiving so far, which has come on 11 catches off 13 targets. The Seahawks used some trickery to get Metcalf involved Sunday on a double pass in which Smith connected with the wideout for a 49-yard gain. Alas, it was nullified by a penalty.

“Just got to make sure that the ball is going to DK down the field,” Carroll said. “We gave him a shot and he makes a great play. We’ve got to make sure that the tight ends are involved and getting the ball more. We know that they can play and we love the heck out of them, we’ve just got to make sure that that’s more of the attack.

“We have it, it just hasn’t really shown up.”

Geno, DK and the ‘Hawks have another chance to show up Sunday against the visiting Falcons. Whether Seattle opens it up with Smith — and whether it has enough plays to do so — remains to be seen.