From a 'don't' kill the QB' perspective - I agree with some of your points.
However, in this case - it didn't look like he was in danger of being mangled - he could have waited the yard without getting broken in half.
And, apologies, but I just can't accept the fact that the QB doesn't need to know where the FD marker is. I've seen running QB's many times under pressure on the sideline hold the ball out over the marker. Hell that was Russ' signature move IMO.
So, basically the argument might be: Needs to know it when passing to someone else. Needs to know it when running to the outside. Doesn't need to know it when running up the middle? If it's just a visual indicator thing, I still can't really accept the fact that it could be that 'sesame street' - like if there was no visual aid, he's just lost?
Personally, I think it was a brain fart - I don't think he was actually intentionally avoiding contact. So, I guess unless we know which it was: a) avoiding contact or b) not knowing where the F he was - we could probably talk in circles all day.
If it's b) - that's stupid. If it's a) - I kinda get it.
I dont think Geno felt he needed to get down to avoid a hit. I think he slid, thinking his slide was sufficient to get him the yards.
First mistake.
Second, when you are running down the football field, you arent looking perpendicular to the sideline as you are doing it. Its in your peripheral vision unless you gkance over and its at an oblique angle always. So at 20 mph and at a good distance from the marker, unless its a deisgned run and you have it in your mind before the snap exactly ehat point you are running to, it is NOT easy to just find the hash that corrsponds to the 43.5 yardline or wbatever it was that was theine to gain. Its VERY easy to think you are on one yard msrker when you are on the other. Shoot, Refs do it a couple times a game... when they sre stationary, and have side judges helping them.
Its not a gimme. It wanst avoiding a hit (my opinion),.it looked like he was pretty confident he had it.
And he didnt.
Whether it was because he landed sooner in his slide than he thought he would, or he simply misjudged where he was, doesnt matter. he just missed it.
Ozzy was right. I think a lot of this is a Russ thing for the most part and a 'I told you so' scenario. Most of the time that a person brings up something negative about Geno or stats that indicate he's hardly perfect (like the reference void of context for the passes that should have been intercepted as you put it) is because of the constant gushing over him that a lot of people do and frankly it's,,,,gross. You even went so far as to do it in this post whether it was on purpose or an automatic response. Even this thread is an example. The guy made a mistake and slid to soon. Sure it happens, but why can't some admit it was a mistake?
Nobody is saying Geno is playing bad or has played bad. I think some are just saying to calm down with the admiration a bit. How many times do we have to hear about his MVP vote, or his 4th quarter comeback record (one I can't take seriously because of all the ones Russ actually has), or whatever else he's done just so people can defend their opinion? It's as if some are saying no other QB could accomplish what Geno has. Theres always the 'Russ couldn't do it. Look at him now'. Well duh. Russ has been done for years, but the things Russ accomplished in his prime are mysteriously forgotten because people don't like him now.
Bottom line is we all know Geno has played good since stepping into the starters role, but some of us don't see him as the messiah like many others do. As well as he has played (and no doubt has improved), there's still old habits that remind us of our apprehensions. As well as he's played, there's still more to prove. To many, he's proven all he needs to.
You are way overplaying the defense of Geno.
Who is saying he didn't make a mistake?
Calling him a messiah?? It was more like defending the fact that he was a top 10 to 13 qb, despite having crap around him for an o line, running game and defense.
It was more folks tearing him down from THE PLACE HE FINISHED, on the basis of 'yeah, but he was never good so in reality he's not actually as good as he has shown, hes more like 18 or 20'. And others defending thatbhe was actually as good as he had shown.
That's claiming he is a messiah? Because thats what its been. Not lifting up to best qb in history, or the savior of a franchise.
You completely skip over the REASON for many of the debate around him, like calls for him to be bumped to backup so we could draft someone (who at where we were picking, would either cost too much, or be a reach). You don't remember the calls for the like's of Pickett, Lewis and others?? You are turning some fans saying ' we have a top 10 to 13 who could actually be better, so why mortgage the future for an unknown rookie', into claims he's the next coming of Tom Brady.
It was defending that it was actually possible that he could even be a quality starter, vs calls for him being the 33rd best qb in the league and better as a backup to Lock... and even when he played better folks STILL saying Lock shoukd start because heblooked good in the Eagles game.
And in between - defending wantingbto keep him around at a 11 to 13th best contract dollars vs calls for him to be let go.
Its the opposite of what you characterize it as. I dont remember anyone saying he was the forever solution at the position. Just that he should be paid to start here at the level he had proven he could perform at. That he had played at a 10 to 13th best qb level (incidently, where John and Pete decided to pay him) and that the crap pieces around him contributed to him being WORSE than what he could have been if he had better support.
And of all of those points of debate around Geno, which take was correct? These are.
1. That he had won the job fairly and was better than Lock.
2. That his past performance as a backup had no bearing on what he coukd do as a starter.
3. That his play in his first 2 seasons was a sign that he could actually be better than he showed becaise he was being pulled down by a poor line, poor defense, poor running game, and qurstionable playcalling. And that his 'decline' over thr 2nd half of season one and season 2 had less to do with his play and more to do with his supporting cast.
4. That it absolutley woukd have been a mistake to draft a Levis, Pickett or any of the other qbs we actually could have gotten because we'd have hust outright regretted wasting a draft pick or lamented giving up draft capital to address other areas.
5.That he was worthy of the contract - which some argued coukd have included more money and years because if he outplayed the prove it deal, we'd be worse off... and now we are.
6. That he was actually clutch and that a fumble in the Pittsburgh game in 2021 and in the playoffs in 2022 wasnt evidence that he wasn't - setting the NFL record for comebacks settled that.
7. And most of all, that if he had a better OC and was in a better system, he'd actually possibly be BETTER than he had shown in his first 2 years. And he has been.
These have been some of the more debated aspects of his game, him as a qb, and what future he should have with the team. And in each case, defending Geno meant just looking at what either coukd be, without dismissing him for what he hadn't been, or acknowledging with valid context what he was actually doing (playing at a top 10 to 13 level with a crippled supporting cast) rather than insisting that obtuse stats about 'almost interceptions ', fabrications about how he is all around too slow at reading defenses to be good, that hes too old and to the point of breaking in the very near future, or that his play now coukd never stand on its own and had to be viewed through the lens of what he did up to being brought in to start for us.
Defending what he has done is not building a messiah. It has and still is just defending some really good QB play that had all the potential of being better if the team was better. And it has.
Its been far more an effort to throw cold water on everything he did and find every reason to dismiss his play as an abberation or just luck. Luck that was bound to run out and show him for he really is:
-Not Russell Wilson
- Not a player worth investing in for the betterment of the team's future.
. 
