Drake Maye spent much of Wednesday night looking like the Patriots had found a steady hand to open the 2025 season. Then the fourth quarter arrived, and everything unraveled.
New England fell 13-10 to the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, and Maye’s final frame was a nightmare: three interceptions, including the one that sealed the loss. He had already put the Patriots in position to compete, but the finish turned into a brutal collapse.
According to Josh Dubow of the Associated Press, Maye became the first quarterback to throw three interceptions in the fourth quarter of a season opener with his team tied, leading, or down by one score since at least 1991.
The sequence started after Seattle got on the board. On New England’s next possession, Maye’s pass was tipped and intercepted by third-year cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett.
The Seahawks then answered with a Jaxon Smith-Njigba touchdown to tie the game at 10, and Maye quickly handed the ball back again. Romeo Doubs dropped what would have been a first down on 2nd-and-14, but Maye followed that by firing directly to Seattle safety Julian Love.
The final mistake was the most damaging. After Jason Myers drilled a 26-yard go-ahead field goal to put Seattle ahead 13-10, the Patriots kept moving with a string of fourth-down conversions.
But with time running out and the Seahawks out of timeouts, Maye forced a throw into the end zone and Josh Jobe made the toe-tapping interception to end it. New England still had a chance to get to a tying field goal, but Maye neither threw the ball away nor went down in bounds.
There was plenty working in the Patriots’ favor, too. Seattle was flagged 10 times for 98 yards, and quarterback Sam Darnold left on the opening drive with a hip injury and never returned. That should have given New England a cleaner path to a statement win.
Maye did at least give the Patriots the game’s first touchdown. He connected with rookie tight end Eli Raridon on a two-yard score in the second quarter, which also marked the first TD of the NFL season. NBC also noted that Maye was 10-of-10 for 66 yards and that touchdown from a clean pocket in the first half, after facing just a 31% pressure rate.
Still, the ending overshadowed everything. Maye had six touchdowns and four interceptions in the postseason, and he followed that with one touchdown and three picks on Wednesday night.
The talent was there for long stretches. The cleanup list after this one is enormous.
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Seahawks Opener Chaos Turned A Tense Win Into Something Else
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For a few tense minutes, the football game was secondary to the disruption above it, a reminder of how quickly a night at the stadium can veer off script. The fan was eventually handcuffed, and while the crowd settled back in, the incident lingered as one of the stranger moments of an opener that already had plenty of bite. [Read more 🡒]