Pros & ConsL 10–13Sep 10, 20263 min read

Week 1: Patriots 10 – Seahawks 13

By PatWeek 1 · 2026

Seahawks cornerback Josh Jobe intercepts Drake Maye in the end zone to seal Seattle's Week 1 win — Turnovers and missed opportunities cost the Patriots an opening night win

This one stings. Did I expect the Patriots to win this game before kickoff? No. Cross country trip against a top team is never a game you expect to win. Did I expect to win after halftime? Absolutely! Darnold goes down early, the defense was playing well, all we have to do was not screw this one up! But that's exactly what we did…

Pros

The Patriots defense is still good - tough to know for sure with Darnold going down but from what I saw, our defense will be very good again. Coverage was very good (except for the JSN screw up on 4th down) which enabled them to play man to man and blitz on 3rd downs. Jacas our second round pick had two sacks and Dre'Mont Jones our free agent signing had another. These guys did a good job but they owe the secondary coffee because they looked like coverage sacks to me
Offensive Line - besides a couple run plays, I didn't see anyone getting beat badly on their assignments and pass protection was much better. Campbell looked healthy
Mack Hollins - most reliable target throughout the game and blocked like a beast for the run

Cons

In the first half, everything that could go wrong for the Seahawks went wrong. Injuries, penalties, missed opportunities. All we had to do was not screw it up. These are the games that good teams win quietly by not beating themselves and we didn't play like a good team. Drake Maye is the number one person to blame. This was one of his worst games and he played like someone who was told he would win the MVP all offseason. The offense was perfectly boring, low risk, low reward. All we had to do in the second half was get a couple first downs here and there, maybe a field goal, don't turn it over, and we won 13-3. In two years no one will remember the game but they will remember your record for the season and this will be +1 in the win column, but now we will remember this game. Maye throwing three INTs, all on dumb throws is exactly what the Seahawks needed to win this game, we gave it to them. Maye needs to learn to win with his brain rather than his arm or legs. The blitz affected him a lot and he hasn't learned to beat it with his brain rather than running. I couldn't be more annoyed
Romeo Doubs - big offseason acquisition that did not catch a pass and had a huge drop. The drop was one of the worst I have seen
Will Campbell - while he looked good in pass protection he had two big penalties.
Running Game - besides Maye, we never seemed like we could run the ball successfully and averaged under three yards a carry for runners other than him
AJ Brown looked really good, but then he rolled his ankle. I hope it isn't serious
Back to the INTs, because it's bothering me. I talked about this in my UCLA recap last week: [UCLA Bruins Recap: Bruins 45 Golden Bears 24](/blog/ucla-bruins-recap-bruins-45-golden-bears-24). Winning doesn't typically happen because of heroic plays, it's because of limiting mistakes, staying smart, and putting yourself in position to take advantage of your opponents mistakes. It's driving me nuts that four days later that exact formula is used to beat the pats. I am also reminded of a video that I can't find right now of Brady talking to Josh Allen about playing QB. Brady explains to Allen that sometimes you just take what the defense gives you and you don't have to win the game on one throw. Last night, Maye tried to win on one throw multiple times instead of staying patient. I hope he learns from this

Written by Pat — independent Patriots and UCLA commentary. New posts after each game.

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