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# Rapid Reaction: Seahawks Rally Behind Drew Lock, Intercept Way Past Patriots for 13-10 Win
- URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/rapid-reaction-drew-lock-seattle-seahawks-rally-new-england-patriots-win/
- Published: 2026-09-10T04:25:55.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-08T05:55:19.000Z
- Author: Corbin Smith
- Tags: Analysis, Game Day, Seahawks, Drew Lock, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Julian Love

SEATTLE, Wash. - Overcoming an early injury that knocked Sam Darnold out of action, the Seattle Seahawks roared back from a 10-point second half deficit to open the 2026 season with a 13-10 win over the New England Patriots.

Filling in admirably for Darnold, Drew Lock outplayed Drake Maye, completing 16 out of 22 passes for 187 yards and a 45-yard touchdown to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who finished with 122 receiving yards to kick off the new year. The trio of Julian Love, Nehemiah Pritchett, and Josh Jobe recorded fourth quarter interceptions, with the latter picking off Maye in the end zone to ice the game inside 30 seconds to play.

Diving into a wild, adversity-filled opener, here are five takeaways from a big-time win in a Super Bowl LX rematch at Lumen Field:

### 1\. Despite Darnold scare and a slow start for the backup, Lock comes up clutch again.

On the path to a Lombardi Trophy a year ago, Seattle had relatively positive fortunes on the injury front. But only a few minutes into Wednesday’s opener, that luck got twisted upside down in a heartbeat, sending a frenzied crowd into a silenced panic. Sacked by Dre’Mont Jones on third down to end the opening series, Darnold gingerly jogged off, trying to shake off the discomfort as he headed to the sideline. Only a few minutes later, he spent a brief spell in the blue injury tent before hobbling to the locker room, sending Lock in for sub duty.

Playing his first meaningful reps since starting for the Giants in 2024 after Darnold exited midway through the first quarter, offensive coordinator Brian Fleury eased Lock into the game, having him hand the ball off four of his first five plays and throwing just twice on his first two series. That passive approach led to a pair of punts, and even after the veteran gunslinger finally had a chance to open things up with a 21-yard completion to Smith-Njigba, the ensuing “Barn Yard” sneak by AJ Barner was negated by offensive offsides, leading to another punt as Michael Dickson racked up frequent flier miles with his powerful right leg.

But to Fleury’s credit, as the game started to feel like it was teetering on slipping away, he took the training wheels off and started to let Lock gun it. The former second round pick hit Cooper Kupp in the third quarter on a deep corner route, with the veteran bringing in a spectacular one-handed grab for 24 yards to set up a Myers field goal. On the next drive, on a bold fourth down play call trailing by seven, he rolled out to his left and hit Smith-Njigba in stride, allowing the Offensive Player of the Year to turn on the afterburners as he raced 45 yards for a game-tying touchdown.

### 2\. No rust evident for Jadarian Price in impressive NFL debut toting the rock.

Encased in bubble wrap for most of the final two weeks of training camp as well as the preseason, Price earned his first NFL start shrouded in mystery without any carries since last November at Notre Dame. But it didn’t take long for the dynamic runner to showcase why the Seahawks tabbed him as their new feature back with the 32nd overall pick in April’s draft. His first career touch went for 13 yards as he cut back to find a massive crease and accelerated into the second level for a first down. By the end of the half, he had rushed six times for 42 yards, averaging a healthy seven yards per carry with four first downs, providing one of the few positives in a challenging first two quarters.

In the second half, Price didn’t get as many opportunities to show what he could do, but he still turned a couple of carries into hard-earned yards to facilitate scoring drives. He also made two catches to aid Seattle’s first field goal drive to jumpstart the comeback efforts. Macdonald will want to revisit how the team splits up running back reps moving forward between the rookie, George Holani, and Emanuel Wilson, but it was an encouraging debut by all accounts with the back finishing with 52 yards on 10 carries with a stellar 5.2 yards per carry.

### 3\. Maye's wheels helped offset an increasingly feisty Seahawks pass rush, but ball hawks ruled the night.

Finishing second in MVP voting in just his second NFL season, Maye set the AFC on fire with his dual-threat talents in Foxboro, ranking among the league’s best downfield passers while also being a problem as a runner. For the most part, the Seahawks silenced those tools in Super Bowl LX, however, bottling the quarterback up with relentless pressure and timely blitz packages. Some of those similar pressure packages sped up his clock again on Wednesday night, notably with Devon Witherspoon getting to him a couple of times on corner blitzes, but far more often than the first go around, he managed to extend plays outside of the pocket or create with his legs with wide open running lanes.

During the first half, Maye took off for multiple first down scrambles, starting with 10-yard bolt for a new set of downs on New England’s opening series. He constantly seemed to slip his way out of pressure, multiple times sneaking out of Byron Murphy II’s grasp, though one of those turned into a partial sack for Leonard Williams and Uchenna Nwosu in the fourth quarter. Through it all, Maye managed to rush for 47 yards, picked up two crucial first downs with his legs on third and fourth downs on the decisive final drive, and only took four hits despite a frequent flood of pressure coming after him, but those theatrics only went so far with three pivotal mistakes in the final stanza.

Trying to take a shot downfield to Romeo Doubs early in the fourth quarter, Rodney Thomas high-pointed the ball and tipped it in the air, allowing Pritchett to come underneath the deflection for his first career pick. On the next series, Love jumped in front of Maye’s intended target, recording his second pick in as many games against the Patriots young quarterback. Finishing things off, when New England had prime field position to at least tie the game at the end of regulation, Jobe exhibited some toe drag swag in the end zone, calling game with a game-ending dagger.

### 4\. The lone survivor at safety, Love sets the tone from start to finish.

Carrying a laundry list of injuries at safety going into Wednesday, the Seahawks had to reach down to their practice squad to promote Thomas and AJ Finley as replacements for Nick Emmanwori and Ty Okada, leaving only Love remaining of the expected starters on the back end. Apparently, that wasn’t a big deal for the savvy vet, who grabbed the bull by the horns and put the defensive backfield on his shoulders with one of the finest games of his career. In the first half, he rocketed into the backfield twice for tackles for loss, knifing through traffic and demonstrating his all-around skill set playing near the line of scrimmage.

Then, to open the second half, Love made a jarring hit on tight end Hunter Henry on the first play from scrimmage, and though the tight end held on for a first down, the tackle seemed to enliven the Seahawks sideline. Later in the fourth quarter, after adding another tackle for loss to his resume for the night, he baited Maye and jumped a deep ball for an interception, which led to the game-winning field goal by Myers. He wrapped up a remarkable performance with six tackles, two tackles for loss, and an interception, putting himself in early contention for Defensive Player of the Week honors.

### 5\. Back-breaking penalties loomed large in a game with minimal margin for error.

The Seahawks can take solace in the fact that they managed to eek out a win without Darnold, but there’s going to be a lot of mistakes for Macdonald and his staff to harp on over the next 10 days that nearly cost them. Most notably, they had 10 penalties called against them, getting flagged in all three phases of the game in crucial moments. Before halftime had even arrived, a defensive pass interference against Jobe on a flee flicker set up New England’s only touchdown. Later in the half, Barner’s sneak was erased by a questionable offensive offside penalty, leading to a punt instead of an extended drive.

Sloppy play continued in the second half, this time infiltrating special teams. After orchestrating a stop early in the third quarter, linebacker Chazz Surratt got busted for roughing the punter, giving the Patriots a new set of downs and setting up three free points on a gifted field goal to extend the advantage to 10\. Moments later in the same period, following Kupp’s outstanding one-handed grab, an illegal shift penalty wiped out of touchdown from Lock to Kupp, forcing them to settle for a field goal. Turnovers on defense ended up cancelling out many of those miscues, but in future games, they will have to play much more disciplined football to come out on top on the scoreboard.