The Seattle Seahawks unveiled a new Super Bowl banner, welcomed a new ownership group, and that’s could’ve easily been the high point of the night.
If the Seahawks’ 2025 season was a dream come true, the start to the 2026 season was shaping up to be a Nightmare on Occidental Street. Sam Darnold left early with a hip injury, the Seahawks fell behind to the New England Patriots and were shut out at halftime, and things were looking bleak.
But these are Mike Macdonald’s Seahawks, and they will find a way
even when they’re down key players in the secondary and their star QB.
Let’s get to the Winners and Losers for Seahawks 13, Patriots 10.
Seattle Seahawks Winners
The secondary shows up and stands out
Riq Woolen and Coby Bryant are on other teams. Ty Okada and Nick Emmanwori are out injured. Rodney Thomas II was elevated from the practice squad, Nehemiah Pritchett hadn’t had a start since his rookie season. Thomas and Pritchett combined for a huge interception at 10-3, then Julian Love did a Super Bowl redux for another interception that resulted in the go-ahead field goal, and Josh Jobe called game with a toe-tapping pick in the final minute.
Love was phenomenal and played down in the box more than he usually does, while Pritchett had a PBU outside of the INT and Thomas looked like a quality veteran option.
Three picks, all from the secondary, and all led to points or the end of the game. Outside of Mack Hollins, the Patriots receivers were relative non-factors. A.J. Brown did beat Jobe and drew a pass interference, but that was the only really bad play all night.
Uchenna Nwosu is a beast
What a superb game by Chenna. His run defense was outstanding and he was flying all over the place at the line of scrimmage. I think he was the best defensive lineman on the team, with Byron Murphy II and Leonard Williams not too far behind. This is a contract year for Chenna and we’ll worry about that later, but a healthy Nwosu—he did leave for a concussion check—changes so much for Seattle’s front.
Drew Lock to the rescue again
Lock was admittedly shaky to start the game, but he is a backup quarterback who is dealing with his own offensive coordinator change. I think that partially explains the late huddle breaks and delay of game penalties when communicating with Brian Fleury, in which case that can be cleaned up during practice. In the second half, Lock was 10/14 for 136 yards, a touchdown, and a 15-yard scramble that was straight out of the Russell Wilson playbook.
I was really harsh on Lock as an NFL QB during the whole Geno Smith competition back in 2022, but over the years I’ve learned to tone it down when warranted. Lock may not be a franchise QB but he can win you games, and he was a big help once he settled into the game.
Brian Fleury adjusts on the fly and succeeds
This was a tough spot for the new OC. You prepare all camp and preseason with your starters and then your QB goes out on the fifth play. Fleury did not panic when Lock was subbed in, and the second half saw a lot cleaner execution (as long as the plays were actually snapped on time). The 4th and 1 call to JSN was a Big Balls Brian moment that was beautifully designed.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is still the best in the business
When Sam Darnold went out, JSN had the one catch for 13 yards. When he was with Drew Lock, he had 7 catches for 109 yards and a game-tying touchdown. It helps that Lock already has chemistry with JSN as far back as his rookie season, but unless you have an all-time bad QB under center then JSN is going to feast. What a player, what a superstar, what a way to start a season.
Jadarian Price showcases his skills in a solid debut
I will take 10 carries for 52 yards and a couple of catches if that’s the appetizer for a long career in Seattle for the first-round running back. He looked fast, he slipped out of tackles, and there will be home run opportunities in the future. Unfortunately, the game plan got thrown out of whack and that limited his touches.
Cooper Kupp still got it
Seattle’s first points came courtesy of a one-handed Cooper Kupp effort 24 yards down the field, while his other catch helped put the ‘Hawks in the red zone for the would-be winning field goal. He had a touchdown taken away due to an illegal shift, but Seattle committed a clear delay of game that somehow was missed. Kupp is still WR2 until further notice.
Jason Myers bounces back from tough preseason
I wouldn’t ordinarily celebrate making three kicks all no further out than 32 yards, but the way Jason Myers was in shank mode throughout August had me worried. We’ll see what happens when the kicks are longer later on this season, but he didn’t miss his cues this time.
Michael Dickson is the best punter who’s ever lived
Slight exaggeration but tell me I’m wrong.
Mike Macdonald has his guys ready for anything
Key players hurt before the game? Quarterback injured during the game? A shit ton of penalties that gift the other team points? No problem. Seahawks still win. That’s the hallmark of a great coach who has his squad connected. This was the most adversity the Seahawks have faced since the Los Angeles Rams Thursday night thriller and Seattle pulled it out of the fire.
This isn’t to say we haven’t seen Pete Carroll teams pull off games (well, not with Russ out) where they’re beaten up and far from their best—there’s a deep collection in the LOB catalogue of “how did they win that?” performances—but something about the way Macdonald has got this level of buy-in from the roster is downright admirable.
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Seattle Seahawks Losers
Sloppy penalties all night
The starters didn’t play in the preseason and the Seahawks’ reserves were sloppy. We saw some sloppiness with operation issues in training camp, some of which was documented on Hard Knocks. Well, the starters played in this game and were very undisciplined.
Chazz Surratt committed a roughing the punter penalty that turned into a field goal. Josh Jobe’s pass interference might have saved an A.J. Brown touchdown but it led to an Eli Raridon touchdown anyway.
There were false starts, blown blocking assignments on offense, it all just felt out of sync. If Sam Darnold didn’t get hurt then there would be less reason to panic. He is hurt, and the Seahawks’ margin for error is a fair bit smaller.
Too many George Holani touches, but maybe this will soon be phased out
I like George Holani, whom despite Mike Tirico’s insistence, is not Brady Russell. He’s a good special teams player, great pass protector, solid receiving back. Holani had eight carries for 29 yards but outside of maybe his first or second carry it felt like the drives were dying with his touches. He just doesn’t have that extra strength to barrel over first-team caliber defenders, and he’s not very fast. I get why Holani had to play quite a bit tonight, but we’re now at 40 career NFL carries and he still doesn’t have an explosive run.
Not too worried yet. Holani will still be a part of this offense, but when Jadarian Price is more up to a heavier workload + Zach Charbonnet comes back his touches should be reduced.
Abe Lucas was not at his best
It felt like there was constant pressure coming from the right side of the line, and Lucas looked to be struggling more than any Seahawks offensive lineman. Not Abe’s best work, to say the least.
Final Notes
- Cris Collinsworth kept talking about how well the Patriots learned from the Super Bowl, only for the Patriots to put up fewer points than they did in February while Drake Maye committed the same number of turnovers. I definitely commend the Pats for an improved pass-protecting offensive line, and Maye did well to scramble for a lot of yards, but that’s about it. Getting a lot of dump-off passes and underneath throws kept them on schedule and they still were outgained and didn’t score without the aid of penalties.
- Field Gulls is another big winner. We hit 4,786 game thread comments, which averages out to almost 1,200 per quarter. I hope your browser held up and if you used the new SB Nation app it enhanced the game chat experience.
- Derick Hall picked a good time to show up with his sack in the final minute. It felt like a mostly disappointing night by the pass rush until they finally started getting home and bothering Maye late.
- If Sam Darnold misses minimal time, the Seahawks can win the next two games with Drew Lock. Anything beyond that gets a little dicier with the likes of the Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Denver Broncos on the horizon. But the important thing is Seattle pulled out a win that looked improbable given the circumstances, and now there’s a mini-bye week to come and hopefully some more definitive good news on Darnold to be announced.
- Football is back, it’s great to be back. If you’re new to Field Gulls, stick around because we’re a great Seahawks community and there’s no other Seahawks site that can give you this level of fan interaction. We WILL have a game thread tomorrow night for the Rams and 49ers.
