Enemy Reaction 2026: New England Patriots (with Bonus Rams Meltdown!)

When the Seattle Seahawks lost to the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1 of last season, they held a late 13-10 lead and gave up a game-winning touchdown in the final two minutes of regulation. Similar scenario in 2026 against the New England Patriots, and ‘The Dark Side’ wrote a different, happier ending to turn what could’ve been a disastrous opening night into a thrilling victory. No Sam Darnold? No problem. Drew Lock came through with some timely, tough plays despite having no first-team practice reps all week, while the Seahawks defense showcased their dominance even without Nick Emmanwori and Ty Okada available.

It’s time for Enemy Reaction! If you’re new to this series, which I’ve done for the last 15 years (!!) on Field Gulls, we relive the game highlights through the real-time lenses of both our game thread and the opposition game thread. This week we’re not just including Pats Pulpit, we’re also giving cameos to Niners Nation, Turf Show Times, and the new SB Nation NFL Community page where every fanbase can congregate and talk ball.

Note: It’s hard to fit game thread images into this article without them automatically shrinking. Whether on mobile or a tablet or desktop, you may have to tap the screenshots twice to get the full image dimensions.If you’re on the SB Nation app, you can tap on an image and zoom in.

Sam Darnold sacked by Dre’Mont Jones, gets up limping (0-0)

Josh Jobe commits pass interference on A.J. Brown (0-0)

Eli Raridon scores first touchdown of 2026 season (7-0 NE)

Chazz Surratt roughing the passer penalty results in Patriots field goal (10-0 NE)

Cooper Kupp’s one-handed catch sets up Jason Myers field goal (10-3 NE)

Nehemiah Pritchett picks off Drake Maye! (10-3 SEA)

Jaxon Smith-Njigba takes a 4th-and-1 pass to the house for a tying touchdown! (10-10)

Julian Love gets Drake Maye again, setting up go-ahead field goal (13-10 SEA)

Drake Maye throws the game to Josh Jobe, Seahawks win! (13-10 SEA FINAL)

Bonus reaction from the SB Nation NFL community game thread

Bonus reaction from 49ers and Rams fans

Post-game recap: Stock down on Drake Maye (Phil Perry, NBC Sports Boston)

Growth for Drake Maye in his third season, his second in Josh McDaniels’ offense, was going to be measured not by how much more he could do. He proved last season he could carry a less-than-star-studded offense and look like arguably the best quarterback in football. 

Growth, rather, would be measured by how consistently he could pare down his mistakes. After shaky performances against high-end defenses throughout last year’s postseason, the expectation was that that four-game reality check would spur change. But questions lingered prior to the start of the season.

How frequently could he tamp down his playmaking, gun-slinging mindset when the situation called for it? How often could he make the patient, prudent choice when chaos reigned? How quickly, in essence, could his game mature?

While Maye kept the Patriots in Seattle with his scrambling and the occasional timely throw — a 19-yarder to Mack Hollins in the final drive kept their chances alive in a second-and-21 situation — he, by his own admission, got impatient and failed his first test against another top-tier defense.

Post-game recap: Patriots lose rematch in frustrating fashion (Bob George, Patsfans.com)

Defensively, when you can hold Seattle to 13 points at home, that’s a good job. Other than the JSN touchdown, the defense did well. They were gashed a couple of times by rookie running back Jadarian Price, but they sealed that up as the game went on.

Both teams lost top offensive weapons along the way. Sam Darnold was hurt on the fifth play of the game and did not return, putting Lock into the game. A.J. Brown hurt his ankle on the fourth play of the third quarter and also did not return.

Lock clearly outplayed Maye. Lock finished 16 of 22 for 187 yards and one touchdown. His rating was 113.3.

If there was one other issue you might have had with the Patriots, it was in their overuse of Stevenson. This may have been because Lock was in as quarterback for Seattle instead of Darnold. Stevenson finished with 51 yards rushing but averaged only 2.8 yards per carry. He did lead the Patriots with five pass catches, while Hollins led the team with 51 receiving yards.

Given that this was a road game against the defending champs in one of the toughest road venues, the Patriots played well enough to win and simply could not close the deal. The Patriots have time to correct things, and come out better against Pittsburgh a week from Sunday.

Highlights of Seattle’s comeback as called by Patriots announcers Bob Socci and Scott Zolak

Post-game video: Drake Maye comes unglued (NBC Sports Boston)

Bonus Reaction: Los Angeles Rams disaster

Alright, that’s a hell of a way to start Enemy Reaction this season! We’ll see if the good times can keep rolling with Drew Lock and company down in Glendale against the Arizona Cardinals. Yes, the Cardinals are expected to be awful, but we’ll be able to sit back and relax all day on Sunday to see how the Mike LaFleur era begins against the Los Angeles Chargers.

Thanks for reading and go ‘Hawks!