“GEE-no! GEE-no!” Seahawks defense turns away Russell Wilson in roaring, 17-16 opening win

Russell Wilson returned. To something he’d never experienced before.

The booing. Oh, the booing.

What Seahawks coach Pete Carroll all but dared Seattle’s fans to do began with the first dozens of 68,965 fans to enter the stadium.

That was two hours before kickoff.

It continued as first Uchenna Nwosu then Cody Barton sacked Wilson. The roaring was like it was inside Lumen Field in 2014, the Seahawks’ last Super Bowl season, one Wilson led.

The press box shook when Geno Smith, Wilson’s replacement as Seahawks quarterback, threw a touchdown pass to left-alone tight end Will Dissly on a improvisation score that was, well, Wilson-esque. The stadium shook again when Smith perfectly lofted another touchdown pass to tight end Colby Parkinson over tight coverage.

Then, a new roar: “GEE-no! GEE-no!”

And through it all, all the hype, the who-did-what to necessitate Wilson’s trade out of Seattle, they were still chanting “GEE-no! GEE-no!” after Brandon McManus’ audacious, 64-yard field goal sailed wide and just short with 20 seconds left in the game.

Smith took three kneel-downs. The crowd kept partying, chanting and roaring like it was 2014. And the underdog, left-behind Seahawks beat Wilson and the Broncos in his return to Seattle 17-16 in an opening game that no one — including Wilson — will forget.

Validating?

You can bet 70-year-old coach Pete Carroll’s Air Monarchs it was.

For one night, this first night, against Wilson instead of with him, Carroll turned over his program, started over at quarterback without Wilson and with a seven-year NFL backup — and still won.

“Yeah, yeah. This is what we are trying to do,” Carroll said.

“We are trying to make great football. We are trying to make the right decisions at the right time...play tough as hell, in all phases that we are doing. And so tonight, that’s what that was.

“That’s a hell of a first game. That’s a HELL of a first game.”

As soon as the game clock expired, Wilson and Carroll met briefly at midfield, surrounded by a throng of photographers.

“Nice game,” Carroll told Wilson.

And that was that.

Wilson stayed there to hug Penny Hart, Cody Barton and some other former Seattle teammates.

And the Seahawks had the most rewarding opening win in a week one like no other.

Former Broncos defensive lineman Shelby Harris, one of three players plus a bushel of top draft choices the Seahawks got from Denver in the trade for Wilson, said: “We feel justified.”

Smith did, in particular. He won in his first game of his first full-time job since he was leading the 2014 New York Jets.

“They wrote me off,” Smith said, on the field after his 23-for-28 game with 195 yards and two touchdowns and again in his postgame press conference. “I never wrote back.”

Smith was outplaying Wilson Monday night, completing 17 of his first 18 passes. Upstart Seattle, a touchdown home underdog, the team Wilson spurned by forcing a trade the Seahawks accommodated in March, led Denver into the fourth quarter.

Then Wilson got the ball back with 4 minutes left and his Broncos down 17-16. He’d been here so many times for the Seahawks, with the most fourth-quarter and overtime wins in the league over the last decade.

And the crowd kept standing, screaming and booing through sunset.

“I’m not wavering,” Wilson said after he lost in his first NFL for anyone other the Seahawks. “They may cheer you. They may boo you. They’ll love you one day and they’ll hate you the next.

“That’s sports. At the end of the day I’m going to keep competing. I’m going to keep battling.

“I know who I am.”

Russell Wilson this clutch time

Wilson began the game-deciding drive at his own 22. Smith and the Seahawks’ offense had stopped: 37 yards and no points since the second quarter.

Blitz, the Seahawks’ human-in-a-bird costume, was demanding more noise from the sideline on the big video scoreboards.

Wilson said he knew McManus had told him and the coaches the offense needed to get to the Seahawks’ 46-yard line, that he could make a 64-yard field goal from there into the stadium’s north, downtown end.

After a 5-yard run by Williams, Wilson threw an accurate pass that was dropped. On third down, more roaring. Denver tight end Albert Okwuegbunam fell onto Seahawks safety Quandre Diggs after his catch and Diggs’ hit, across the line to gain a first down.

Then Wilson faced a third and 2 from the Denver 40 with 2 minutes left. The crowd was perhaps the loudest it had been all night, including when it roared to Richard Sherman being on the sideline. Wilson calmly flipped a pass to running back Williams to where blitzing linebacker Barton had come from, for another first down.

Then Barton stormed in and dumped Williams for a 4-yard loss on a shovel pass by the pressured Wilson. On third and 14, 1:11 left, Wilson completed a swing pass to Williams, who made nickel defensive back Justin Coleman miss on a 9-yard gain — to that 46-yard line that was McManus’ target.

Incredibly, Broncos first-year coach Nathaniel Hackett let the clock run down from 1:11 before that play to :20 seconds before he called Denver’s first time out of the half. Instead of using his time outs and letting Wilson, his newly minted $200 million quarterback get 5 yards and a first down with still 1 minute left, Hackett put all his team’s chances on the 64-yard field goal.

The Seahawks couldn’t believe it. Carroll, the players, they all assumed they’d have to defend Wilson from getting 5 more yards and extending Denver’s drive, and the game.

“I was surprised that they took Russ out of there at the end. We weren’t thinking field goal there,” Carroll said. “We were thinking it was fourth down and they were still going. So it gave us a chance to win the game on that play.

“That was fortunate there.”

On the field, amid the noise and the disbelief at Wilson coming off the field, Nwosu said “I honestly didn’t know what was going on. It was so chaotic.”

“Once they brought out that field-goal (team) I was like ‘OK.’ Because Russ is so dangerous in short yardage,” Nwosu said. “He can make a lot of things happen. So when they took him out of the game and brought in field goal I was like, ‘Maybe they don’t trust him in that situation.’”

Uchenna Nwosu arrives

The defense, specifically Nwosu, kept Seattle ahead midway through the third quarter.

Wilson led the Broncos on a 7 1/2-minute drive to begin the second half. On fourth down from a half-yard outside the goal line down 17-13, Denver went for the lead. Wilson took a shotgun snap and handed the ball to running back Melvin Gordon. Gordon, running laterally to the line of scrimmage, allowed former Broncos defensive tackle Shelby Harris, Nwosu and Diggs to pierce Denver’s blockers and ruin the play.

Diggs forced Gordon to fumble while the Bronco reached vainly for the goal line. Cornerback Michael Jackson recovered the ball at the Seattle 10-yard line. The Seahawks stayed in front 17-13.

And the people kept roaring.

But then DK Metcalf committed the game’s first turnover. The Seahawks wide receiver was heading to the ground getting tackled after a short pass and catch. Denver linebacker Randy Gregory ripped the ball from Metcalf’s right hand and arm. Safety Justin Simmons recovered the fumble at the Seahawks’ 32-yard line, and Wilson had another chance for the Broncos’ first lead.

Wilson got the Broncos back to the goal line again.

And Nwosu came up hugely. Again.

Seattle’s free-agent signing from the Chargers this spring (for two years and $20 million with $10.5 million guaranteed) kept using the roaring crowd to his advantage. He was getting quick jumps off the snap, zooming past Denver’s edge blockers, who had to wait because Wilson and Denver used silent snap counts to counter all the noise.

Nwosu again got a jump on Broncos offensive tackle Cam Fleming on a third down and the ball a half yard from goal. Running back Javonte Williams dropped Wilson’s handoff as he received it back at the 4-yard line. Jackson recovered the fumble Nwosu caused, too, in the end zone for a touchback.

Wilson and Denver ran seven plays from inside the Seahawks’ 9-yard line in the third quarter. The Broncos scored zero points in the period.

The Seahawks still led 17-13 into the fourth quarter.

The Broncos became the first team since the 1987 Kansas City Chiefs to lose two fumbles at the opponent’s 1-yard line in the same game.

The Broncos thought they had the go-ahead touchdown midway through the fourth quarter, on an inside run. But they were called for a false-start penalty before the snap. No one could hear the officials’ whistles.

It was Denver’s third false start to go with a delay-of-game penalty amid the noise.

Denver settled for a field goal by McManus. Seattle still led 17-16 with 6 minutes left.

The Broncos ran 12 plays inside the Seahawks’ 9-yard line in the second half before finally getting some points, that field goal.

Geno Smith’s breakout

Beyond the numbers and Smith’s sterling passer rating of 141.7 (perfect is 158.3), the well-traveled NFL backup the previous seven years appeared in complete command. Far from just “managing” the game and avoiding risk — the reasons Carroll chose the 31-year-old Smith over 25-year-old former Bronco Drew Lock for Seattle’s starting job out of the preseason — Smith was decisive. He ran with conviction. His throws were direct, and probing, not just safe dump-offs.

Amid all the booing and focus on Wilson, Smith was having a breakout night.

He finished 23 of 28 for 195 yards. But he and Seattle managed 35 yards and no points after halftime.

Yet they still won.

Seattle’s first touchdown was all Smith. Blocking running back Travis Homer got run over by a blitzing Broncos linebacker. Rather than throw the ball away on third and 2, Smith calmly stepped up and away from that sack. He looked up, saw Dissly alone in the short left. His flip pass for the 38-yard touchdown had the Seahawks up 7-0 before some of the packed house had found a place to boo

The fans started chants of “GEE-no! GEE-no!” after that touchdown. The Seahawks had the fast start to capitalize on, and extend, the bonkers energy inside the stadium.

Jamal Adams injured

Wilson could have (should have?) been intercepted in the red zone by Jamal Adams on Denver’s first offensive possession. That resulted in a field goal for the Broncos that trimmed the early lead Smith to Dissly had given Seattle to 7-3.

Adams left the game in the second quarter with a knee injury. He got that while blitzing free into Wilson on third down to force a wild, incomplete pass into linemen.

Josh Jones replaced Adams, playing with Pro Bowl safety Quandre Diggs. Jones was in as a third safety, back deep with Diggs to allow Adams to play nearer the line of scrimmage and blitz on the play when he was injured.

The Seahawks led the game 10-3 when Adams got hurt.

On Denver’s next possession, Wilson targeted Seahawks rookie defensive back Coby Bryant by sending wide receiver Jerry Jeudy from the slot on an out-and-up route at Bryant. Wilson’s easy 67-yard touchdown pass past Bryant tied the game at 10 midway through the second quarter.

Tariq Woolen injured

Wilson targeted Seattle’s rookie defensive backs all night. He went after cornerback Tariq Woolen, who was forced to commit two pass-interference penalties, to avoid completed passes after Broncos receivers had badly beaten him.

Woolen left the game early in the fourth quarter getting an upper-body injury while making a tackle.