Seahawks vs. Patriots Week 1: Drew Lock, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Three Late Picks Sink Drake Maye

Josh Jobe tapped his toes down in the end zone with 26 seconds left, and Lumen Field made the kind of noise this city usually saves for a grunge reunion. Drake Maye had the Patriots at the Seattle 16, aiming for Mack Hollins in the back of the end zone. Jobe got there first.

Final: Seahawks 13, Patriots 10. Seattle raised its Super Bowl LX banner on Wednesday night, lost Sam Darnold on the opening drive, trailed 10-0 in the third quarter and still opened 1-0, because the defense picked off Maye three times in the fourth quarter and Drew Lock played like a backup who had been rehearsing this exact night in the mirror.

Banner Night Turned Into a Rescue Mission

The pregame was a pure victory lap. Kam Chancellor fired up the crowd, the banner went up, and rookie Jadarian Price ripped off 13 yards on Seattle's first snap. Then Dre'Mont Jones sacked Darnold on third down, Darnold came up limping with a hip injury, and the champs spent the rest of the night without their starter. Mike Macdonald said initial tests showed no broken bone, calling the news “positive.”

What followed was three quarters of offense stuck on a loading screen. Seattle's first seven possessions ended in six punts and a halftime whistle. New England kept getting help. Jobe was flagged for pass interference on a flea-flicker shot to A.J. Brown, a 34-yard gift that set up Maye's 2-yard touchdown to rookie Eli Raridon. After halftime, Chazz Surratt was called for roughing the punter on a drive that should have been over, and Andy Borregales banged home a 50-yarder for a 10-0 lead.

Seattle finally found a pulse late in the third. Lock hit Cooper Kupp for 24 yards, then appeared to hit him again for a touchdown until an illegal shift wiped it out. Jason Myers settled for a 30-yard field goal, and Seattle entered the fourth down 10-3.

The Understudy Who Stole the Show

Lock finished 16 of 22 for 187 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions, good for a 113.3 passer rating. Per the Seahawks, that's the fifth-best single-game rating of his career with at least 20 attempts and his best in a Seattle uniform. He threw just three passes last season, and his path since Denver drafted him in the second round in 2019 runs through eight wins in three Broncos seasons, the Russell Wilson trade, a Giants backup stint and a return to Seattle. Wednesday gave that winding résumé a headline.

“It was a blast,” Lock said. “So proud of everyone around me tonight on the offensive side of the ball. I can't say enough about the defense turning over the ball.”

Jaxon Smith-Njigba, meanwhile, picked up right where 2025 left off. The reigning AP Offensive Player of the Year, who led the league with 1,793 receiving yards last season, caught eight of 11 targets for 122 yards and the tying score. It was his 11th 100-yard game since the start of last season, playoffs included, per the team. He's less a receiver than a cheat code wearing a helmet.

The defense handled the rest. Ernest Jones IV made 13 tackles, and Julian Love had six tackles, two for loss and an interception, the first time in his career he stacked multiple tackles for loss with a pick in one game.

Fourth-and-1 Flipped the Whole Script

The swing took under nine minutes. On the second snap of the fourth quarter, Maye went deep, Rodney Thomas II got a hand on it, and Nehemiah Pritchett tracked down the deflection and brought it back 30 yards. Four plays into the next drive, Seattle faced fourth-and-1 at the New England 45. Macdonald kept his offense on the field, Lock found Smith-Njigba underneath, and 45 yards later it was 10-10.

Maye's next series died on third-and-14 when Love sat on a throw over the middle. Lock then scrambled 14 yards to the New England 3, a delay of game turned second-and-1 into second-and-6, two incompletions followed, and Myers knocked through a 26-yard field goal for a 13-10 lead with 5:50 left.

New England's final answer was a grind: 15 plays, 57 yards, two fourth-down conversions and 5:29 off the clock. It ended like the previous two.

“I was trying to get rid of it, and I realized Mack was back there in the back and I didn’t put enough on it to get it out,” Maye said. “It was unacceptable.”

The Numbers Behind the Comeback

• 3: Fourth-quarter interceptions, one each for Pritchett, Love and Jobe. Per the Seahawks, it's the first time they've had three picks in a single quarter since October 2016.
• 11: Straight wins for Seattle dating to last season, playoffs included, which the team says ties the longest streak in franchise history.
• 10 for 98: Seattle's penalty line, including the illegal shift that turned a touchdown into a field goal.

Seattle's Bad Night Still Ends in a Win

Scary thought for the rest of the NFC: this is Seattle when almost everything goes sideways. No starting quarterback, a pile of flags, three quarters of sludge, and they still beat the team they beat in February. Per the Seahawks, they're now 14-0 under Macdonald when they win the turnover battle, postseason included.

“We didn’t panic. We still liked our plan,” Macdonald said, and the fourth quarter proved him right. Darnold's hip is the storyline to track before a Sept. 20 trip to Arizona, and new offensive coordinator Brian Fleury survived his debut with his backup quarterback.

Maye, last season's MVP runner-up, had his team up 10-0 and then threw three interceptions in the final 15 minutes. A.J. Brown, an offseason addition, left in the third quarter with an injured right ankle and didn't return. The Patriots host Pittsburgh on Sept. 20. For the history nerds, the AP notes this was just the third Super Bowl rematch in Week 1, and the last one, in 2016, also went to the defending champ when Denver beat Carolina.

Until the Clock Hits Triple Zero

Smith-Njigba nailed the vibe afterward. “We knew coming in it was going to be a four-quarter game and that’s who we are,” he said, adding that the Seahawks are “going to keep fighting until the clock hits triple zero.”

Seattle's opener played like a prestige TV premiere: 45 minutes of slow-burn exposition, then three cliffhangers in the final act. Frustrating to watch. Impossible to stop talking about.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes as reported by the Associated Press. Additional notes from Seahawks.com.