The Seahawks had barely finished celebrating their championship when the night took a sharp turn.

Seattle raised their banner and looked ready to start defending their title. Five offensive plays later, Darnold was headed to the locker room with a hip injury, and Drew Lock was suddenly responsible for keeping the defending champions afloat.

Lock had thrown only three passes all of last season. Brian Fleury was calling his first regular-season game as Seattle’s offensive coordinator. The offense kept committing penalties, had a touchdown wiped out, and didn’t score until the final three minutes of the third quarter.

Somehow, the Seahawks still won 13-10.

It wasn’t pretty, and it certainly wasn’t the kind of offensive performance Seattle expected when they went to bed the night before the game. But it may have shown us more about this team than an easy Week 1 win ever could have.

Seattle Lost Their Plan On The Opening Drive

The first few plays made Darnold’s injury feel even more deflating.

Rookie running back Jadarian Price took his first NFL carry 13 yards, and Darnold followed with a completion to Smith-Njigba that moved Seattle to midfield almost immediately. Even a false start didn’t completely derail the drive, with George Holani picking up nine yards on the next snap.

Then Jones got to Darnold as he tried to escape the pocket. Darnold walked off under his own power, but the limp never really went away. He went into the medical tent, then headed to the locker room, and Seattle ruled him out before the end of halftime.

The initial fear was a fractured hip. Further testing ended up ruling that out, and Mike Macdonald said Thursday that the injury was just muscular. That’s genuinely good news considering how painful it looked and the fact that Darnold spent part of the night getting checked out at the hospital.

It doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be ready when Seattle visits Arizona on Sept. 20th. Macdonald said he didn’t know Darnold’s timetable yet and acknowledged that, in his own mind, he was already preparing for Lock to start that game. The Seahawks expect to have a clearer plan when they get back to work Monday.

For one night, though, the Seahawks couldn’t wait around for a diagnosis. Lock had to play.

That made Fleury’s debut as a play-caller a lot more complicated than anyone expected. Seattle didn’t have the quarterback they built the game plan around, and Lock hadn’t spent much of any time this offseason taking first-team reps with Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp, or the starting offensive line.

The adjustment didn’t happen right away. Seattle punted on each of Lock’s first four possessions and went into halftime trailing 7-0. New England added a 50-yard Andy Borregales field goal early in the third quarter after Chazz Surratt extended the possession by roughing the punter.

Seattle also kept making things harder on themselves. The Seahawks were penalized 10 times for 98 yards, including three false starts. Lock appeared to throw a third-quarter touchdown to Kupp, but an illegal shift wiped it away and forced Seattle to settle for their first three points.

New England, meanwhile, played the patient, mostly disciplined game Mike Vrabel wanted for three quarters. The Patriots weren’t explosive, but they controlled the ball, handled the noise, and didn’t ask Drake Maye to keep testing Seattle’s coverage downfield.

That was enough to build a 10-point lead against the defending champs.

Then Seattle's defense decided to wake up.

Lock Didn’t Need To Become Darnold

Lock’s job obviously changed once Darnold went down, but it wasn’t to swoop in and save the Seahawks all by himself.

He just needed to keep a bad situation from getting worse and give the defense enough time to take over. He did all three.

Lock completed 16 of 22 passes for 187 yards, one touchdown, and a 113.3 passer rating. New England blitzed him on 46% of his dropbacks, but he still completed nearly 73% of his throws and never really put the ball in danger. He had a 122.9 passer rating and a touchdown on the 12 dropbacks where he was blitzed.

That mattered more than anything else.

The Seahawks are now 14-0 under Macdonald, including the postseason, when they win the turnover battle. Lock understood what kind of game this was. He didn’t give New England a short field or a cheap possession that could’ve turned a manageable game into a hole Seattle couldn’t climb out of.

There were still some operational issues. Even with them, Lock stayed patient. He took what was there and trusted that Seattle didn’t need to score 30 points to have a chance.

Charles Cross helped make that possible by allowing zero pressures across 27 pass-blocking snaps, according to Next Gen Stats. Lock was sacked once, but Seattle generally gave him enough time to operate against an aggressive defense.

That patience finally paid off after Nehemiah Pritchett’s interception gave Seattle the ball at their own 33 early in the fourth quarter.

He Finally Settled In

Lock hit Smith-Njigba for 13 yards. Price followed with runs of five and four yards. Then Emanuel Wilson got stuffed on third-and-1, leaving the Seahawks with fourth-and-1 at the New England 45.

Fleury kept the offense on the field and called a play Lock couldn’t remember running once in practice.

That’s probably not the ideal way to introduce the biggest offensive snap of the night, but hey, it worked.

New England was expecting the run. Christian Gonzalez followed the running back releasing into the flat, which left Smith-Njigba wide open behind him on a simple curl route. Lock saw it and let the best player on Seattle’s offense take care of the rest.

The Patriots’ coverage and tackling were rough. A fourth-and-1 completion that should’ve just moved the chains turned into a 45-yard touchdown because Craig Woodson took a bad angle and couldn’t bring Smith-Njigba down.

He picked up 41 yards after the catch, 35 more than expected, and the play added 28.5 percentage points to Seattle’s win probability. Gonzalez had done a really good job when matched directly against him, allowing one catch for five yards while shadowing him on 16 routes. Seattle found ways to get their star away from New England’s best corner, and Smith-Njigba caught seven passes for 117 yards against everyone else.

He finished with eight catches for 122 yards and Seattle’s only touchdown. Lock deserves credit for finding him. Fleury deserves credit for putting the ball in his hands on fourth down. But Smith-Njigba deserves the biggest share for turning a routine conversion into the play that changed the game.

Price deserves some attention, too.

The rookie finished with 52 yards on 10 carries, averaging 5.2 yards per attempt. His 70% rushing success rate was excellent, and 56% of his yardage came after contact. The burst he showed on his 13-yard opening carry kept popping up whenever Seattle got him moving toward the edge.

Price never started a game at Notre Dame because he shared a backfield with Jeremiyah Love, yet Seattle still made him the 32nd pick in the draft after losing Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III to Kansas City. Price came into the league with only 295 college touches and immediately looked comfortable when Seattle needed him.

With Zach Charbonnet still recovering from an ACL tear, the Seahawks don’t really know what their backfield will look like later in the season. Price at least made the immediate picture feel a little less scary.

The Dark Side Took Their Time

Seattle’s defense didn’t dominate this game the way they overwhelmed New England in Super Bowl LX.

They didn’t have to.

For the first three quarters, the Seahawks were perfectly willing to let Maye take what was underneath. He completed 17 of 22 passes for 127 yards and a touchdown during that stretch, but he didn't really test Seattle’s split-safety coverages downfield.

The Patriots also kept trying to establish a running game that just wasn’t there.

Rhamondre Stevenson carried 18 times for 51 yards, but even those basic numbers make the performance look better than it was. He posted a 22% rushing success rate and finished 22 yards below expectation. Nearly a quarter of New England’s rushing attempts went for no gain or lost yardage, and the Patriots averaged just 0.35 yards before contact per carry.

The problem showed up right away. Seattle’s defensive front kept knocking the Patriots backward, closing interior lanes, and beating blockers to the edge. Stevenson never had room to build momentum, and New England kept putting themself in situations where Maye had to keep possessions alive.

The Patriots ran the ball 16 times on first down and came away with a successful play on only 24% of those attempts. That’s an extremely conservative way to protect a lead against a backup quarterback, but for a while, it worked. Seattle’s offense wasn’t doing enough to make them pay for it.

The problem was that New England never really created any separation. The Seahawks spent the entire night leaving the defending champions just one takeaway away from making things uncomfortable.

That takeaway came 33 seconds into the fourth quarter.

Maye tried to push the ball down the left sideline to Romeo Doubs, but safety Rodney Thomas II got in front and tipped the pass. That gave Pritchett a chance to finish the play, and the second-year corner came down with his first career interception before returning it 30 yards.

Five offensive plays later, Smith-Njigba was in the end zone, and the game was tied.

At That Point, They Had All the Momentum

Seattle’s defense felt the shift right away. Uchenna Nwosu said the unit’s “antennas went up” once the game hit 10-10. New England had controlled the night for three quarters, and then one forced throw and one missed tackle wiped most of that away.

Maye got the ball back and threw another interception five snaps later.

This time, Julian Love stepped in front of a pass meant for DeMario Douglas and returned it to New England’s 39. Seattle drove close enough for Jason Myers to hit a 26-yard field goal, giving the Seahawks their first lead with 6:47 left.

The Patriots still had two chances to answer. The first ended in a punt after Seattle forced back-to-back incompletions. The second nearly sent the game to overtime.

Maye converted two fourth downs and got New England to Seattle’s 22 with 32 seconds left. Borregales had already made a 50-yarder, so the Patriots were well within the range they needed to tie it. On third-and-5, Maye escaped pressure and tried to give Mack Hollins a chance toward the back of the end zone.

He just didn’t get enough on it.

Josh Jobe tracked the ball near the sideline and somehow got both feet down to lock in the interception. According to Next Gen Stats, the play swung Seattle’s win probability by 47.9% and ended the game with 26 seconds left.

It was Maye's third interception of the quarter.

Maye went 6 of 11 for 51 yards in the frame after spending most of the night taking whatever Seattle gave him. His average target depth jumped from 2.4 yards over the first three quarters to eight yards in the fourth. As Maye admitted afterward, he got impatient.

Seattle’s coverage was built to push him there.

The Seahawks played zone on 88.1% of Maye’s dropbacks and used split-safety zone on 24 snaps. He completed 20 of 23 passes for 134 yards and a touchdown when targeting receivers fewer than 10 yards downfield. On throws traveling at least 10 air yards, he went 3 of 8 for 44 yards and three interceptions.

All three picks came on throws of at least 20 air yards.

The pattern goes back to February. Maye has now thrown five interceptions on deep attempts across eight quarters against Seattle after throwing just one of those interceptions during the entire 2025 regular season.

This wasn’t Maye randomly falling apart at the worst possible time. Seattle kept taking away the throws he wanted, trusted the pass rush to make him uncomfortable, and waited for him to get tired of taking five yards at a time.

That’s what a defense looks like when they adjust on the fly and get more dangerous as the pressure builds.

Seattle Still Knows What They Can Trust

The easiest way to talk about a champion coming back is to focus on continuity. But Seattle didn’t bring back every piece of last season’s defense.

Riq Woolen left for Philadelphia. Coby Bryant signed with Chicago. Boye Mafe went to Cincinnati. Nick Emmanwori and Ty Okada were both out Wednesday night, which left Thomas to step in after being elevated from the practice squad.

That’s what made the fourth quarter more encouraging than just a repeat of the Super Bowl.

Pritchett got the first interception with help from Thomas. Love, one of the leaders who stayed, made the second. Jobe bounced back after giving up a 34-yard pass-interference penalty on New England’s touchdown drive and then made the play that ended the game.

The names and roles changed. The bigger idea didn’t.

Seattle still trusts their coverage structure, their pass rush, and their ability to figure things out as the game unfolds. The Seahawks still believe that if an opponent gets impatient, the ball will eventually find its way to them. That identity made it through an offseason of change and immediately helped cover for an offense that lost its quarterback.

The defense also showed they can give Lock some breathing room if Darnold misses time.

That doesn’t mean Seattle can expect three interceptions every week. The Seahawks can’t keep piling up nearly 100 yards in penalties and waiting until the fourth quarter to score touchdowns or asking their backup quarterback to run important plays he hasn’t practiced. Arizona will have a full week to prepare for Lock instead of finding out 12 minutes into the game that he’s playing.

There are still reasons to believe Lock can hold up for a short stretch. He was accurate and protected the ball. Fleury seemed more comfortable giving him easier completions after halftime, and Seattle has enough talent at the skill positions to turn those throws into something bigger.

More importantly, Lock understands the team around him. He doesn’t have to chase a highlight on every possession when Seattle can defend like this. He can take the completion when it's there, punt when he needs to, and trust that the game might look completely different five minutes later.

Darnold’s injury is still the part of Wednesday night that matters beyond the final score. Seattle got encouraging medical news, but until he’s back on the field, there’s going to be some uncertainty around the most important position on the roster.

The Seahawks learned something useful while they wait.

They can win with Lock. Price looks ready to help replace some of what left the backfield. Smith-Njigba can still change a game even when an elite corner is on the other side.

And when everything else falls apart, Seattle’s defense still looks capable of putting the pieces back together.

All stats courtesy of Fantasy Points Data.

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