Third quarter, down 10-0: “Well, it’s not like 2025 started that great, either.”
Fourth quarter, as Drake Maye lofts the illest-advised pass of his career to your new favorite player, Joshua Jobe, Esq.
: “Knew it. They had it all the way.”With a season-opening 13-10 rope-a-doping of Maye and his New England Patriots, the Seattle Seahawks began their Super Bowl defense the right way. The confounding questions surrounding the secondary were answered with three picks in the final frame, and the thorniest
question about depth was answered when Drew Lock essentially saved the day in relief of Sam Darnold.
Yes, it took Seattle three nigh-unwatchable quarters to get the bugs out. But once that fumigation was done, we were treated to an evening of fun-igation, punctuated with everything a championship team does when it’s not quite ready to relinquish its title. Including having a kicker who knocks ‘em through the uprights. Did I mention they answered just about all the preseason questions we had?
But first, as is their modus operandi, the Hawks had to torture us like 53 grown versions of Sid Phillips, or maybe the pigeons from that old Bud Light commercial, you know, the ones who see poop targets on every car. Yes that’s it, felt like poop targets. Every time something cool happened, something stinky hit the fan and made you guano tear your hair out.
The Seahawks committed eight penalties before the Patriots’ first flag. And you can’t really argue with any of them except maybe the fourth down offsides on the right side of the line.
They gifted the visitors all ten of their points, through a roughing the punter brain fart and Jobe’s most impactful play of the young season, that foolish DPI on the underthrown ball at the goal line. Of course, Jobe was just setting up his own redemption arc. /puts hand to temple, flashes knowing grin
They lost their starting quarterback on the fifth play of the season and played three scoreless quarters.
Thing is, you play that fourth quarter usually, don’t you (copyright Pete Carroll, if he was more boring). And a lot can happen in the final fifteen minutes. A lot can happen in the final minute!
Let’s zoom in for a second, on the feet, the perfect feet of the world’s greatest ballet dancer. Objectively, also Josh Jobe. What a fortuitous coincidence for the Seahawks and their fans!
Jobe’s end zone pick is the biggest moment of the game, and it will never, ever get old to intercept a Patriots QB in the end zone. I hope it happens 49 more times before I die. Yet if we’re looking for the Plays Of The Game with an s, we’ll be looking all the way up and down the roster and the sideline.
- Drew Lock kicked ass. Yes, he got dinged for a delay of game late, opening the door for the Pats. He also got out of trouble repeatedly, scrambled smartly, took care of the ball, led three scoring drives in the fourth quarter and made more than one big boy throw under duress. No turnovers, 78.6 QBR and a 113 rating is why you keep a guy like that in your system for cheap.
- Julian Love was a handsome assassin everywhere on the field.
- Mike Macdonald and Brian Fleury adapted to the circumstances and pulled out a win when defeat looked certain.
- Nehemiah Pritchett won a starting spot at outside corner tonight in my opinion, and it’ll be incumbent on guys like Trevon Diggs and Terrion Arnold to wrest it from him, should they even get the chance.
- Jadarian Price carried the load like a vet, in his first-ever pro game.
- Jaxson Smith-Njigba might as well be called The Drummer because he missed exactly zero beats.
- The offensive line dominated.
- Uchenna Nwosu ensured he will continue to patrol the nightmares of every Patriot, as he has since February.
- Byron Murphy announced himself on the national stage.
- Michael Dickson pinned New England deep all night.
- Cooper Kupp single-handedly (get it!?) set up the first score, one that could’ve been a touchdown, if not for the meddling Cooper Kupp.
Dang that’s a lot pf pixels. You want a tl;dr? Practically everyone came up huge on a night the Seahawks needed practically everyone up and down the 70-man roster. Let’s put their highlights in the recap, even though nobody should have to fully relive that first 45 minutes of football-adjacent behavior.
Q1: SEA 0, NE 0
An opening drive that began about as auspiciously as possible, with matching explosives to Price and JSN, ended with a sack of Darnold. He limped to the sideline and originally didn’t go to the blue medical tent, but once he did, his night was over. It looked so innocuous, too.
The Patriots’ first drive was strangely foreshadowy. A Maye scramble and two short gains set up third down and the NE quarterback being chased out of bounds on third down, where Derick Hall’s inexplicable late hit extended the drive. No matter, Nwosu’s very explicable domination of his counterparts did the job.
With Lock now in under center, it briefly appeared the offense would start humming, with eight yards to JSN to set up second and short… but the Seahawks failed to convert twice and settled for punting one fourth and one, a perfectly acceptable choice with Darnold out. The Patriots racked up 20 quick yards before reaching their own third and one. Which Julian Love saw coming. Did he ever.
Each quarter of game action gets its own Predator-Prey highlight this season, that’s how we’re gonna do it. It’s clearly Nwosu discarding Eli Raridon to meet Rhamondre Stevenson in the backfield and kill three birds with one stone: the TE, the RB and the second drive. The ease with which Chenna helped himself to Stevenson, as a snack, provided hope when it was in scarce supply.
Q2: NE 7, SEA 0
Lock’s first pass of the second quarter, on a third and five, was more to Christian Gonzalez than Kupp. Almost intercepted and could’ve changed the game. Thing is, almosts and could’ves don’t pay the bills and the NFL’s richest corner will have to settle for taking the ball away some other day. We didn’t know it at the time, but that would simultaneously be Gonzalez’s best opportunity to flip the field and Lock’s worst toss.
And yes, the Pats would score on their next drive anyway, aided by Jobe’s inability to look back for the ball, A.J. Brown’s veteran slowdown, and Josh McDaniels’ nifty goal-line playcalling. Raridon scored the first touchdown of the 2026 NFL season after a dummy block left him wide open, and somewhere, his mom’s fantasy team briefly took the lead in her Week 1 matchup. Smart play, Mom. Don’t know if it’ll work twice.
The Seahawks looked poised to answer right back, driving to midfield when Lock fired an ICBM to Smith-Njigba for 21 yards on 3rd and 22. Replays suggested Macdonald could’ve successfully challenged the spot and won, but the Barnyard formation took the field, converted with an inspired second effort, to the crowd’s great delight, but what’s this ANOTHER FLAG, somewhat less to the crowd’s delight. It turns out Abe Lucas or Anthony Bradford set up in the neutral zone, maybe. Take a look yourself if you haven’t yet.
The language gives it away: I was big mad at the time but have changed my tune since. (Hey, just like in a game thread!) In the game’s highest-leverage moments, you cannot, you absolutely cannot execute in such a way that allows the referee to make a judgment call that goes against you. You have to be cleaner than that when it matters most and you’re already playing catch-up. Don’t let the refs decide! You already knew it was a point of emphasis, they told you! Don’t even give them the chance to make an example out of you! Unless you plan on intercepting the MVP runner up three times later, of course. Then all’s forgiven.
Knowing the end result, it’s a little easier to swallow the pill of the three flags already mentioned plus the last one to come, a roughing penalty that placed New England in field goal range and gifted them their final score. But if I’m a coach in that V-Mac tomorrow, I’m calling out the sloppy play and reminding my guys they will lose snaps and jobs if their focus is anything less than professional.
Let’s be real for a microsecond. Riq Woolen is absent from this secondary NOT because he was the tenth-best corner by yards allowed per coverage snap. He was that, by the way.
He’s probably absent for other reasons, which might include stuff besides raw statistics. This coaching staff is not afraid to move on from top talent if the work ethic or concentration disappoints. I am just saying.
With a couple minutes to spare before half, Maye scrambled for a first down, only to get folded in half on the very next play by counternamesake Drake Thomas. It’s our Predator-Prey encounter for the quarter, even. With footage, even.
The ensuing punt pins the Seahawks at their own six, and time runs out of them before they can begin to approach field goal range. Their scoreless first half ends, which I’d describe as merciful if it were true, but it was nothing of the sort. A humiliating home shutout looked plausible, the 10 percent ABV Ninkasi Triple IPAs in my fridge beckoned way ahead of schedule, and seven months of anticipation were setting up to be, for the lack of better words, a giant bummer, dude.
Q3: NE 10, SEA 3
The Patriots’ sixth drive ended in points because of the aforementioned penalty, a personal foul on Chazz Surratt for roughing the punter. Put them square in field goal range and everything. Which was too bad because the defensive possession had been full of promise: relentless pressure on Maye, Love blowing up Hunter Henry over the middle with a perfectly legal hit, Nehemiah Pritchett breaking up a third down pass.
Turns out those promises were more than nice feelings. They were prophecies.
And although the next Seattle possession gained only 19 yards, it ended with a regal Dickson boot that died at the six. Maybe, just maybe, if the defense produced a stop, the Hawks could finally enjoy a short field, turn the tide and make this a one-possession game.
Also prophecy, although I guess it doesn’t count if you’ve already watched the game. Love came up to the box for another TFL — one of nine on the night, holy catfish — to set up a Rodney Thomas Predator Experience on second down. DeMario Douglas, welcome to your turn as Prey.
Finally feeling the effects of a home crowd starved for reasons to cheer, NE took a delay of game on fourth down, punted from their own touchline at the back of the end zone; Rasheed Shaheed crossed midfield on the return and found a seam to the 43. Seattle was truly in business for the first time all season.
Small, safe gains on first and second down set up a third and three that felt a littie like a free play in four-down territory. So Lock let it fly, and Cooper ODell Beckupp came down with it like this, because why the hell not, it’s 2021 somewhere:
Kupp even caught the next pass for a touchdown, six points that would’ve been far more legal had he not committed an illegal shift. As the drive ended with a red zone field goal, it definitely felt like the Seahawks had left points on the board. It wouldn’t even be the last time they did that! There are plenty of parallel universes where New England prevails in this game, but even more where Seattle walks away with a 21-3 win that makes everybody who doesn’t play for them take notice.
And although the Patriots converted a long third down to cap off the third quarter, feeding Stevenson four times to cross midfield, the Seahawks were about to channel their inner Seahawktitude, because plus Sea change, plus Sea la meme chose.
Q4: SEA 13, NE 10 (final)
Sometimes you glimpse the nature of a competitive contest with total clarity and think, my dudes, if you can just get a stop, or another explosive, or generate a turnover in a critical spot of the field, or be rewarded for boldness, we can win this thing. We might not, because the other team has dawgs too, but we could.
When Nehemiah Pritchett stopped playing hot potato long enough with that pass deflection at his own goal line, and reversed course with revenge yardage on his mind, that was one such glimpse. It was the second play of the closing period. It’s also when the Seahawks started closing.
Don’t discount the initial deflection by Thomas, a practice squad promotee. You think Macdonald is joking when he says the roster is 70 deep? Note the 30-yard return, too. It’s oodles easier to score when you’re two big plays away rather than four.
Big Play 1 was Lock’s throw under extreme duress to JSN, picking up 13 yards. Big Play 2 came after three straight runs brought Seattle’s offense to the edge of the sticks, albeit on the wrong side. Not much choice except to go for it, so of course Fleury gave Lock the green light to run a new play for the first time ever.
Per John Boyle on Seahawks dot com, Lock said, “it’s like a classic football play. But no, no, definitely never ran it. Looked kind of funny before the snap.”
It worked, you could say. Pretty decent use of fourth and one in the clutch.
The reward for boldness was a tie game, but the Seahawks defense had just finished cracking its knuckles. Back to work, Murphy started things off with a devious move up the middle that erased an offensive lineman completely and knocked Stevenson back four yards. An assist from fate came next, as Romeo Doubs dropped a sure 30-yard dart from Maye. If you were in the stadium, you heard and participated in the sound of 69,000 people exhaling and thanking their chosen deity. No matter. The Patriots quarterback, unfazed, stepped up on 3rd and 14 and hit his receiver right in stride over the middle, as long as his intended receiver was Julian Love.
Back on the attack right away. Price for four, AJ Barner for nine, JSN for 11, Kupp for 11 of his own, then Lock scrambling? Picking up 14 yards? I recognize these Seahawks. This is how they won 14 games, with boa constrictors across the d-line, hungry linebackers erasing the middle like the frosting of an Oreo, deep-ball devouring defensive backs all over the third level, and a pinpoint offense that zigs exactly where your defense wasn’t zagging.
Second and one at the New England six and a touchdown felt preordained. Except Lock had been flirting with delay of game all evening, and he finally got her number at exactly the wrong time. Backed up five yards, Seattle went to the air, where unusually tight coverage on JSN prompted two incompletions. The field goal they had to settle for gave the Seahawks the lead at last, except that 5:50 on the clock did not reassure.
No worries. It was almost exactly the right amount of time.
Given life and four downs per series, the Patriots marched and marched. 2nd and 21? No problem, Mack Hollins will get us 19. Fourth and two? Easy designed run to the sideline for Maye. Fourth and nine with the game on the line, out of the two-minute warning? Hollins again when the Seahawks drop seven but leave him unaccounted for. Another Maye third-down keeper flips the down marker around again, and while it would be fun to celebrate the ensuing Hall sack, all it led to was another Hollins conversion, this time to the 16.
Either the defense was going to make a play in the end zone, or it was going to be overtime. You won’t mind a spoiler here, will you? Sound on.
That’s Jobe, and could you want a more pure quote from your cornerback after he made the play of the game? I think not. (Transcription: “Ball ball ball ball get ball get ball see ball get ball.” Destined for quote greatness alongside “I ain’t write back though.”)
Yes, our final Predator is Jobe and the final prey is the ball. Although Handsome Julian can be the runner-up for tracking his prey Maye through the trees and putting a little flair into his own game-changer.
It was the type of game where you couldn’t possibly mention every individual exploit. Two teams that figure to be playing divisional weekend, built in much the same way, kicking off the regular season in style, that’s what we tune in for. The bonus reward is getting to reconnect with our favorite form of collective therapy: four hours of clammy palms, yelling through the screen, and courting borderline cardiac events.
So maybe we spent most the night praying for something good to happen to our Seahawks, and so what if we did? It ended properly, with them preying and making it happen themselves. We could get used to that, again.
