Vegas scored on his opening drive with Smith, who beat Tre Tucker in 26 meters. The rest of the half was quiet: Smith threw balls into a round that was tipped and interrupted on the second drive, then Raiders with three three and out before he missed the final goal.
After a break, however, Smith dive in Patriots’ defense.
362 meters Smith put the debut of Raiders and exceeded the 317 Dan Pastorini in 1980. His nine shipments of 20 plus meters tied the team record since 1991.
“That’s how we want to play football,” Smith said. “We want to make sure we do right. I want to make sure I make the right decisions and get the ball into the players. We have a lot of great players and that’s something we can use.
Sunday was Smith’s sixth game with 350 plus teams and his third in two seasons. Only Joe Burrow has more 350 plus garden games since 2024.
Pete Carroll, now 4-0 in his debut as a head coach with new teams, placed Smith’s performance, saying it met his expectations to the elder.
“He has done this now. Geno regularly had a game today,” said Carroll. “I don’t think this was a big declaration game or anything like that. I just think that’s what he does. And we’ll do better than that. He has it in him to do better than that.”