The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Recap: Seahawks beat Patriots in season opener

Episode Date: September 10, 2026

Well, that's not exactly how the Seattle Seahawks drew up the start of their Super Bowl title defense. It's not exactly a portent of good things to come when your starting quarterback gets injured five plays into the season. But a great defense can do a whole lot for any team, and it did so for the Seahawks once again in the first game of the 2026 season, a 13-10 win over the New England Patriots. Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman recap the game on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Join The Athletic Football Show Discord Server: http://discord.gg/theathleticfootballshowHost: Robert MaysCo-Hosts: Derrik Klassen and Dave HelmanExecutive Producer: Michael BellerSenior Producer: Katy DuffySocial Producer: Scott KrinchFollow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.socialFollow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.socialFollow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.socialFollow Robert on X: @RobertMaysFollow Dave on X: @DaveHelman_Theme song: HauntedWritten by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love SongsCourtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Athletic Football Show, brought to you by the U.S. Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card. I'm Robert Mays. Game 1 is in the books. The Seahawks somehow pulled this one out despite losing Sam Dern on the first drive. Some inexplicable decisions by Drake May in the fourth quarter. We dug into all of it with me, Derek, and Dave. Let's get to that conversation right now. Football is back, baby, and did not disappoint. It seems like we might get a little bit of a stinker early on

with Drew Locke coming in, Sam Darnold going out on the first drive, and then we get a pretty exciting game with some very questionable choices and some curious moments there in the fourth quarter. It was a rock fight for a lot of it, but at least it came down to at the end, it was like JSN makes a crazy play, it still comes down to the final drive,

really for both teams having like really impressive or really important drives there at the end. It started off slow, the Sam Darnal injury was weird, but it became a game that reminded me why this sport is awesome. I don't want to be the ungrateful person. Like, we waited nine months and there was a lot to like about this game. But that was so stupid. Like everything we just saw was so stupid from the darnold injury to whatever the hell

Drake May was doing in the second half of that game. Like just a bizarre way to get back into it. Like a very, a very sick start to the 2026 season. I mean, I can't believe that just happened. It's ridiculous. I was ready to just walk off into overtime. I was like, all right, well, you know, they'll get the field goal. We'll go to overtime.

And then I looked up, and as the play was finishing, I cannot believe he just did that. Everything like, okay, the pick is one thing, and we can talk about it. And it was really dumb. And Drake May just, worst, worst game of his career? That is the worst game of his career. At least the worst. He played pretty poorly in the Super Bowl, too. Well, yeah.

Yeah. The Super Bowl, they felt somehow more outgunned than they were in this. I think they were completely outmanned in the Super Bowl, where the past protection plan just completely fell apart. And like they were just, yeah, there was worse. They had scattered issues against pressure looks today, but they weren't completely overwhelmed up front the entire game like they were in the Super Bowl. Yeah, my memory of watching the Super Bowl was like, well, this is ugly,

but what do I expect Drake May to do? In this game, I was like, the Drake May could have done more than he did in this game. Yes. But what I also wanted to mention is, and I know A.J. Brown got hurt, but Matt Collins is your go-to guy all the way down the field to try to get a win against the defending champions. It's so bleak that that's where the Patriots were at the end of this game, even if there was a good reason for it in the AJ Brown injury. After the AJ Brown injury, we get to an unfortunate place where the offense felt very similar to what we were dealing with last year,

where they couldn't run the ball consistently throughout this entire game. Until that last drive, they were getting punked on the ground. They might have had more successful runs on that drive than they did for the entire rest of the game before that. They ended at 24% rushing success rate per next gen. I'm looking at the stats right now. With 723 left in the third quarter, they had two successful runs on 12 running back carries. It was 12 carries for 22 yards.

And then you're throwing the ball to Mack Hollins because weirdly Romeo Dobbs was not involved in a lot of the game before A.J. Brown got hurt, which dropping one of what would have been probably three explosive plays might do that to you. That was a swing play for New England. If he catches that ball, they probably win this game. Because May throws the pick right after that. It was on the next play on that third and 14.

is the pick. But the intercept, I mean, let's just, yes, that play doesn't happen if Romeo Dobbs catches the ball. When you look back at a box score and you see a game where the, the quarterback threw three interceptions, a lot of it is, ah, there were two bad plays, there was one tipped ball, whatever, all three of these, there was a tipped interception, but the decision that led to the tipped interception was completely indefensible. Like, all three of these are balls just should not be throw. And I think they got like progressively worse. The first one is they're trying to, The last one is the worst one. And the first one, they're trying to throw this, like, play action shot play down the left-hand

side, and they're playing cover two to that side. They hadn't thrown a shot all game. Sometimes you call it, you just throw it. It's never open. He throws it up for Romeo Dobbs. It's intercepted. It's a bad play. The checkdowns are, like, wide open on that play, too.

I think he probably just was tired of checking down in this game. I think that is exactly what happened. Yeah. When you watch the first half, when he was just picking on things underneath, they did a really good job against the blitz on those third and shorts and mediums throughout the entire first half. They had quick answers. even on plays, there was one specific third down where Spoon was untouched. They got rid of the ball so quickly that it didn't matter.

The checkdown to Stevenson up the left sideline in the second half. When they were taking what was there underneath, they were consistently finding positive plays. Every single time he tried to bite off a little bit more in the second half. We had three straight drives and with interceptions for the exact reason that you're talking about. When you get bored, this team wants you to get bored. Yes, that's the whole point. That's exactly what they're trying to do.

They want to put you in a spot where we're going to stop the run and we're going to put you in disadvantageous down-and-distance situations. We're going to make you consistently make completions underneath. And as soon as you get bored doing that, the pass rush is either going to get home or we're going to force you into a bad decision. They force them into three of them. I would also like to say, and Drake May deserves the criticism that's coming his way

if this is how you're going to start your season after last year. But our line on the Seahawks heading in, of the year was secondary is a little thinner than you would prefer. Nickyman Worry didn't play in this game. Granted, it's one week. But my lasting memory of Nehemiah Pritchett from last year was not being ready for prime time against the Buccaneers. Well, he had a phenomenal game and came away with that weird bobbled pick and was just generally very good.

In the P&U on the play where Brown got hurt. Very good contesting plays. Yeah, I mean, it sucks that Brown got hurt, but that was a sick play by Pritchett. And then Rodney Thomas, who got called. up from the practice squad because Iman Worry couldn't go had a fantastic. Because O'Kada couldn't go. O'Kada, I'm sorry, not even Worry. Fantastic night from Seattle's quote-unquote no-name D-Bs in this game.

And that doesn't mean this isn't something we have to keep our eye on, but very encouraging if you're Mike McDonald watching those guys in this spot. And then the front, I don't think the four-man pack. The pressure numbers are going to look okay. I think that's a combination of some of the actual blitz and points. pressure looks and may holding out of the ball a little bit. He had answers as a scrambler at times when the pocket shot are collapsing. But other than the Byron Murphy play where Leonard Williams picks up the sack in the second half, there were not a lot of very quick four-man pressures in this game.

But you felt that front against the run. You felt that front against the run the entire game. I mean, Eli Rarden having to, the little split zone where he's having to kick out, Echinobu, and I think the second drive of the game, that front, when you're having to try to run the ball against them, even if they didn't take over as past rushers today. They made their presence known throughout the entire game and then they pieced it together on the back out well enough. Nosu might have been the player of this game for them.

Like he was phenomenal. He has that play against Raritan where he, I mean, it was like, yeah, second or third play of the game. That was a welcome to the NFL buddy. And then early on in the third quarter, Rousseau had an insane two play run where they tried to run outside run his way. He explodes Hunter Henry and the play is just like dead in the backfield. And then the very next play after that, they run this like,

it's kind of a gun toss. It's kind of like they're throwing it. It ended up being ruled incomplete. But NWosu has a hand on the running back, like as the ball is arriving. Like he almost gets a hand on it and like puts it down. And like just what he was doing for them, especially in run defense in this game was it's phenomenal. He's like the unsung hero, I think, of that front.

It was really fun to see them kick into high gear in the second half of this game. Not that they were bad in the first half. I mean, the score was seven to nothing. But they just, they were humming the way. we remember from last year from like the mid third quarter on and then even you know the the patriots managed to string together which ironically i love the way the pads played that drive like it was so methodical they were so liberal with the clock they like they got the ball with five and a half minutes to play and we're going to have that drive be the end of the game one way or the other either overtime or we win and then you know drake may kind of derailed it with that decision making there but i guess to your point

Derek. I mean, he gets paid a lot of money to do this, but watching DeMarcus Lawrence hurdle an offensive tackle, maybe that short-circuted his brain. I don't know. Morgan Moses, yeah, tries to cut block DeMarcus Lawrence coming off the right edge. And Lawrence just like hops right over him and just gets a hand and make May's face. And Lawrence is massive. Well, that's just there's one thing you cannot do that situation. That's the thing. I don't mind him trying to throw to the end zone and giving Matt Collins a chance. Matt Collins is like six-four. If you're going to miss, you have to miss out of bounds. You cannot miss a yard inside of bounds where a guy like, who's that, Job, I think, ended up making that play,

which you can't give the DB a chance there. If you want to throw it fine, but leave it three feet over his head. I meant to shout out Job when I shouted out the younger guys. I mean, he gave up the DPI on the underthrone flea flicker, but to come back and he's got to be the guy this year. He got the money and Torek Will and didn't. That's a hell of a way to start your first, you know, your season as, as, as, you know, as the guy that needs to step up in the secondary. Those corners were tackling too.

Oh, absolutely there. Job had one on, they threw a checkdown to Stevenson in the right and he just blew him up. And then there was one. They have to play that way, right? Yeah. You're going to, there are so many pressures where they're trying to make you get rid of the ball quickly in this game. And if you're going to play like that, your guys in the second and third level have to tackle. And this team does exactly that.

It's just so awesome seeing literally guys who were not supposed to be week one starters for them, especially like Pritchie had one on the five. final drive where it was third and two and they throw a flat route to Mario Douglas, he just stops him in his tracks and it's they force the third and one and obviously they still end up converting, but just incredible how well this team tackles on the back end. You mentioned the flea flicker. It's an important play to point out just because that was the only play down the field that the Patriots had the entire game.

They may finish 0 of 4 with three interceptions on passes of 20 plus yards per next gen. They had nothing down the field this entire game. That was the one play where they had a positive outcome while trying to push the ball and it was on a trick play. Yeah. I mean, he had a couple darts that were probably like

16 to 18 yards. The D's in the intermediate area, yes. But yeah, like anything beyond that, nothing doing whatsoever. Those were all three interceptions came on deep throws.

And again, just two of them were into cover six looks, the one you said that that was the corner sinking underneath it when he tried to throw like the de facto whole shot to Dobbs. And then the one to Julian Love is just, there's nothing going there.

I mean, that scene ball, Spoon does a great job of carrying it. And then as soon as, It gets into the middle of the field. Julian Love is able to clamp down on that thing, and it's just a decision that can't happen. And it's frustrating because May is at his best last year.

It was so methodical at his ability to just create positive plays over and over and over again. We've seen him do that for long stretches. And then you get to a game like this, and you just watch him press way more than he needs to in some of these moments. This was a game where the Seahawks tried to beat themselves pretty often for two-thirds. of this game. When you think back to some of those moments, the fall start or the lining up off sides on the sneak

on what should have been a huge third, like third into fourth down conversion, you have multiple other penalties. The drive that probably should have put it away when they kick the field goal to go up 13 to 10, they have the delay of game there. This is a brutal game to lose when the other team loses its starting quarterback

on drive number one. And then throughout the game has four or five. notable mistakes that should put you in the driver seat and then you consistently fumble this thing away. I'm not going to say gift wrapped because you still have to go against that defense, but this is a unique opportunity where no matter how good the Patriots might be, you're just like defending champions almost never lose these games anyway. And this is a loaded team playing in that building. Even if the Patriots are great, I don't like their odds of winning this game. And then you lose Sam Darnold on the first possession of this game.

it is absolutely brutal to lose that opportunity knowing that the schedule on paper at least looks a hell of a lot harder this year. All right. Let's take a quick break here and then come back and chat a little bit about the Seahawks offense in this game. Obviously the Seahawks defense deserves a ton of credit for keeping them in this game and really making sure that they were around at the end. Not only with the way they played down to down, but obviously taking the ball away three times. But enough moments from Drew Locke and the Seahawks offense in this game to get things over the finish line. I was worried early on. I was worried early on.

The couple third downs we saw, and Seattle, or New England mostly played a ton of zone on early downs and then was playing men on third down early in the game. And the first couple third downs, I think the second and third drive, we have, well, there were multiple kind of flubs on third down

for this first Seattle in the first half. That second drive that they had, they had a second and two where Price bounces it and probably easily could have gotten the first down if he had just hit the hole. He bounces it. outside, get stuffed on third and two. Christian Alas makes a great place screaming downhill.

They force a punt there. Third and five on the next Seattle drive. Locke is nearly picked by Gonzo and man coverage. And then on the first drive, I'm pretty sure that was when Donald was still in. Gonzo, they had a bunch on the right side with JSN and Gonzalez had fantastic coverage on him there. So you had three third down failures for Seattle on their first three drives. Then you get the Barner sneak with the offside.

and then in the second half, I mean, the biggest play of the entire game is obviously the fourth and one to Jassan. Like that is the biggest play of the entire game where that's a good call to get a conversion that a great player turns into a play that breaks the game. It was such a cool call because they really just end up running spot where JSN's running the little snag. But they run it with like a boot action into it, which you don't see a lot. But the whole defense is fast flowing. They're seeing boot. They're seeing the fullbacker running back into the flat. They're seeing a guy running a deep corner and everyone just kind of clears out this little space for, yeah, that should be a conversion and a, I don't know, 12 yard completion.

But Craig Woodson is the safety who's trying to come down from depth and make that tackle. Making a tackle on depth from J.S.N is really hard. He's really quick. And so he misses that tackle. And then A.J. Barner just goes up and finds Kevin Byard, who I thought could have made a play and made a little bit of a squeeze on that tackle attempt. And he kind of lets Barner get in his face. And then JSN's just, it's the gas. I watched a lot of Kevin Byron last year. I watched a lot of Kevin Byer tried to make plays in space last year. The interceptions are cool. A lot of the other stuff can be frustrating.

That's all sick. As somebody who watched a lot of Kevin Byer football last season. The idea that they were upgrading its safety by moving on from Jalen Hawkins and getting Kevin Byrd, I never really understood that. And we're one game in, but just that's that play right there, I think, is a very good encapsulation of the 2026 Kevin Byard experience, who is now how old? Oh, man. I mean, if you're having to Google it, it's a problem.

33? I was going to say. He just turned 33. 16, 17. So just throwing it out there. I thought, and this might have been the plan for Sam Darnold as well as Drew Locke. But with Drew Locke in there, the amount of boot stuff or the threat of play action, like, it seemed like it did a lot to mitigate what the Patriots were able to do. And like attacking the flat, like on the JSN play, you can see them crashing on the route to the flat because the Seahawks did that.

that so many times in this game, I thought they did a really great job of keeping the Patriots off balance enough to give Drew Locke easy throws. Doesn't mean it always worked. But, although I will say, like in this, he found a really nice rhythm there, which ironically was disrupted by the penalty that screwed up. That was the best drive of the game that they had. Yeah.

In terms of like stacking completion, when they actually kicked the field goal. When he got the snap off correctly, he was fine. They just had like three different procedural. That was definitely a game one from a new play caller performance today. With the backup quarterback. With the backup quarterback. But that drive was specifically that you're talking about.

They have Barner kind of blocking down, sneaking into the flat for an easy completion. They did the same thing with JSN on the next play. The play after that, the completion that they had a little quick motion to the flat with the back. It essentially turns into slat flat with Cooper Cups sitting down in that hole. That's an easy completion. And so just making sure, all right, how can I consistently find those easy options for my backup quarterback. I think they really did a good job of tapping into that during that drive in the second half.

And they should have just put it away right there. And then again, this was a game where just too many self-inflicted moments from Seattle that ended up not mattering. But it was a frustrating game overall. You could see like the seam coming out of Mike McDonald's ears at a certain point with all of these things that were just stacking up over the course of the game. Drewlock didn't play poorly all things considered. But his, if you're just box score watching, his stat line is fantastic. Oh, that's fantastic. It helps when JSN takes a five-yard completion.

And then the other big completion that I'm going to give more credits of the receiver on that play than the quarterback. The Cooper Cup. Yeah. That was nasty. That slot fade to Cooper Cup on that. I think it was a slot fade. But that, like, a deep corner. Yeah, it was deep corner.

Yeah. But just a deep corner out of a bunch. But that's a play where that's really good coverage by Marcus Jones. And it just doesn't matter. Cooper Cup makes an incredible play on that ball. All right. Before we move on, let's take one more quick break. Are you the kind of sports fan that wants to dig into the story behind the same?

stats, join the Athletic Live on YouTube to cover all the sports stories you can't stop talking about. On game days, we'll watch the biggest matchups alongside the athletics most tapped in reporters, and you can become part of the show in the interactive chat. The Athletic Live is presented by Google Gemini. Subscribe now on YouTube. This is purely just rooted in the fact that I picked Judarian Price for offensive rookie of the year a couple days ago, but, and I know the Seahawks are going to, they're going to do their committee thing, and that's fine, but I don't know.

tick that share up for Judarian Price. He's going to make some mistakes. He's a rookie. I get it, but he's got the juice. And we knew that. He was drafted in the first round for a reason, but just seeing it on an NFL field in a real game. First play.

Yes. So the first play. He had an explosive on his first NFL carry. And even like you mentioned the one where he took it outside when he probably shouldn't have. But good stuff happened when they gave him the ball, the vast majority of the time. Yeah.

I would like to see a little bit more, especially if we're going to have to spend any extended time without Sam Darnold, I would like to see a little bit more Gendarian Price. Hwani had eight carries in this game. One successful run on eight carries, Judarian Price had five on his 10. And you just feel it. You just feel the difference in the explosiveness when he is in the game right now.

And so I would like to see them lean on him a little bit more. I guess we have to talk about what the outlook would be for Seattle without Sam Darnold. I mean, there's a chance. It sounds like a hip injury. He was limping very noticeably when he was walking off. And the fact that he was already getting x-rays on it, and I think he was taken somewhere from more testing, that genuinely concerns me.

Like, there is a chance that he has a serious hip injury and is going to miss a ton of time. Yeah. And even if you're excited about what Seattle's defense can be and they do a good job of pulling out a game like this, the outlook drastically changes if Drew Locke has to play for any extended period of time. It just does.

It absolutely does. Like, you hope it's just a short-term thing because in the short-term, they get Arizona and Washington. They can survive those games with just about any way. a quarterback, I think. After that, it gets really hard. You get the chargers, you get the Niners, you get the Broncos, you get the Chiefs, you get the Bears.

Like, it does get difficult after that, where some of those you might have to win some games where you're going to have to score more than, I mean, they needed, what, 13 today? You're going to need more than that against a majority of those teams. And so I do think that there's a chance that you get Drew locks in practice reps. You still have a guy like JSN. If Judarian Price gets a little bit more comfortable, it can pop a couple of explosives. I think they can live through it. You just hope that it's not a multi-month.

issue here for Sam Darnold. And he broke a sip. He's out for the year. Oh, wait, he broke it? If he did. Oh, yeah, yeah. I was like, whoa, if we already got there yet. But no, if he did, he's, yeah, he's done. You can't do it. You can't play quarterback without a hip that's where all your power comes from. I mean, I don't want to, I don't want to forecast too much. Although, oh, Tom Pelliserro, we're just, we're just live right now. McDonald's said that they got good news on Sam

Darnold. So I can't, I don't know. It's hard for me to imagine that means he'll be ready for week too, but I mean, you're breathing a sigh of relief if it's like a month or less. Totally. In fact, I mean, he just said ruled out a fracture. What that's huge. So the fact that we've ruled out. That literally just happened. That's coming across the time.

As we're sitting here right now, Pallisero, Garifolo, Brian Nemhouser all tweeting, I mean, he's doing live from the press conference. And so that's fantastic. That would be, that's huge. Then if it's a couple weeks and you just said they play Arizona and Washington, you can survive that stretch. I was going to say, though, without trying to forecast Sam Darnel, like in the first half of that game, it's easy to sit there and say like, okay, what trades can you do? Who's available?

Like, what might the Seahawks need to do? But by the time you get to the end of the game, you give Drew Locke the starter reps in practice. And this defense is going to drag almost everyone they play into the deep water. And like, that's just how it's going to have to be. Like I, obviously the ceiling is lower without Sam Darnold. But I think the way they're built that they're going to try to be a 10 or 11 win team with Drew Locke. Like, I don't see a more realistic path forward than that. I think that's right. I'm not sure that there is, like, a better option out there than what Drew Locke can give

you, especially for a short stint. And the idea that it's not broken and that he might be back sooner or rather than later, we don't have to have that conversation. I think that's, can we get by for a couple weeks? I think the answer is absolutely yes based on everything else that you have. Do we want to, is there any need to have, like, a broader Patriots offense conversation after a game like this? Or are we just off of a,

it's one game stacked on to four games against really good defenses. Those are the last five glimpses we've gotten of the Patriots. It's really disappointing that Drake May played this way, but, and like, I don't want to sound like I'm letting Drake May off the hook because I'm like, I'm deeply disappointed by some of the decisions that he made.

And he clearly played a really poor game, but I expected this to be a slog. Like, you're going into Seattle to play this. defense. Rec Willans not there. I get it, but this is still a fantastic unit. We were concerned going in about the Patriots offensive line, even Derek and I who were bullish on the pats. I knew they were losing this game. And like, granted, I thought Sam Donald would play all 60 minutes, but I'm not going to drastically change my opinion just yet, unless, which now it would be really great to get some good news on AJ Brown. Hopefully he's not out for a prolonged period of time.

if he misses a significant amount of time, I'm pretty worried because the schedule is tough. Like I think it's Pittsburgh next and Jacksonville after that. Like the Patriot schedule doesn't let up. And so if we're throwing to Mack Hollins in crunch time for the foreseeable future, I can't say I like that very much. Yeah, then you're very close to, again, what they were at the end of last season. The offensive line theoretically is better.

And I think the run game will probably look better than it did tonight, but it wasn't good tonight. I mean, if you had any concerns about the Patriots, This was like worst case scenario in every way. And I think I'm with Dave with May specifically. I mean, I do think he's very good. This is probably the worst game he's ever played. But I expect him individually to be better and smarter than he was,

especially in some of these critical moments. But some of the other were stuff like Josh McDaniels, I thought clearly outgunned in this game. And Mike McDonald is going to do that to a lot of people, but it just did not look like they had learned a lot of lessons. I mean, even though a lot of those backup and, you know, guys like Job who is a starter, but not necessarily a star quarterback, that to me feels like if you have AJ Brown and I know he went out,

you know, relatively early in this game, and you sign Romeo Dobbs. Let's, like, drop back a little bit more and, like, try to target those guys. And they just did not really do that. It seemed like they were, that's probably them being scared of their offensive line. But that's the other issue. They made some investments in shuffles on the offensive line, and they still kind of got punked in this game. Not as much one-on-one, but still just not being able to pick stuff up.

I think I'm weirdly encouraged by the offensive line in this game compared to what it looked like last time. I kind of agree with Dave. I don't know. I'm not saying it's good, but it's... I think the plan leaves something to be desired, but when they brought four, it was not a situation where he was under siege in this game. I will say Campbell looked like what you wanted him to look like

other than the penalties. Right, other than some of the penalties, but I thought he looked more like the player he did for a lot of his rookie season where it was like, sure, some of the elite guys are going to nuke him a little bit, but he was a good pass protector for a lot of it. I was still concerned with how bad the run game looked and them still getting picked apart.

The run game is a different conversation. Yeah, it is. To me, it's more about holding up and past protection when they only brought four. And I think they did a fine job doing that today. But I've talked about this. And the only thing I would say is somebody, I think one of the three of us who's been the most bearish on the Patriots offense and the Patriots offensive line, I'm not going to have any strong reactions until I see them play a front that doesn't involve these dudes, where you Cheninuosu is the backup edge that you're having to deal with.

It's just a different sort of beast than pretty much any line they're going to play again. I mean, it is, and the Seahawks are on a different level, but it's Pittsburgh and Jacksonville. Like, it doesn't necessarily get easier. Yeah. And that is the problem. From that exact perspective, right? Like, run defending edges.

Those are some big guys. Yeah. Jacksonville specifically. Yes. It's too early for me to panic unless A.J. Brown is going to be out for a lot of time, which I really hope is not the case. Just a brutal game to lose if you're the Patriots. Just an absolutely brutal game to lose.

Beyond the darn old stuff. Just how many times. Seattle tried to let that game out of their grasp in the first half and the fact that you couldn't take advantage of it. And credit to the Seahawks. I mean, again, this is a team that just never goes away. Never goes away. It doesn't matter what type of game it is. It doesn't matter how the first three quarters went.

They just never go away. I'm glad you said first three quarters. And if this sounds like cope, I'm sorry. I'll say it one more time. Drake May played like shit. Full stop. But heading into the fourth quarter, he was doing just enough to get an ugly win against a great defense.

I thought he was actually playing fine. And like, I mean, he finished by then, he only had one interception. Right. He hadn't, he didn't throw his first pick until the fourth quarter. Were they all in the fourth? They were the final three drives. They were all in the fourth quarter. Wow.

He was doing enough in the passing game. He had 50 rushing yards. I think he had the Patriots. Remandre had one late in the game, but he had one of like two explosive runs. I thought he was handling a lot of those situations very well. Like all of those third downs, what he was doing against the blitz, what he was doing with his legs, the, it's index. it's indefensible what happened in the fourth quarter.

But I don't think he played poorly for most of the game. The Patriots go up 10-0 with seven minutes to play in the third. And it was like Drake May is going to do just enough to eke out the ugliest win ever. And everybody's going to hate it because Sam Darnold wasn't there. And, you know, Drake, the schedule may rides again. And then the Seahawks, man, like I said, they just kicked into a different gear. Like immediately when that happened, not only did the offense get its first score. driver the night but the defense just started looking like the super bowl team it was it was really

like i said it was really cool to see them you could just kind of feel them like tighten their chin straps as as we inch toward the fourth quarter we also did not mention the fact that the see ox had a roughing the punter penalty in the second half of this game sure just throw that on the pile i mean there were just so many moments that the patriots could have taken advantage of and did not mike mcdonald is going to be furious when he like when he's done breathing a sigh of relief that darnell injury might. In fact, they won the game. Yeah.

Yes. There's enough good, I think, for him to get through the night. But going back and watching this one, I think there are elements of that are going to be frustrating. But you'll take this one every single time considering how things started for Seattle, especially with the quarterback stuff. All right. That is all we've got.

Game one is in the books. If you're listening to this on the podcast feed, you'll be able to listen to this and shows like it all season. All of our live recaps will be in the podcast feed over the course of the year. That includes the Rams Niners recap that will be in your feeds tomorrow. We'll be recapping that one live on YouTube right here tomorrow night. Please come back and check that one out for now. That's all we got.

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