Sam Darnold played just one drive and completed one pass.
The Patriots held onto the lead going into the fourth quarter as they faced a backup quarterback in Drew Lock.
The recipe was there for New England to win its season opener in Seattle.
But things went awry late for the Patriots late on Wednesday night in a 13-10 loss to the Seahawks.
And Patriots superfan Dave Portnoy was none too pleased with how things shook out.
“Only the first game of the season, but that was… that was tough to watch,” Portnoy said in a video posted to X. “Horrible game from Drake [Maye]. That last throw… disgusting. We lose A.J. Brown with what I guess is going to be a pretty severe injury. The other new guy [Romeo] Doubs just has a disgusting drop. Play calling sucked most of the night, I thought, on offense. The game was right there for the taking, obviously. It’s only Week 1, but that was a s–tty way to start the season.”
Maye, coming off leading the Patriots an AFC championship and Super Bowl appearance, had an ugly fourth quarter in which he threw three interceptions.
Down by three on third-and-5 and within striking distance in the waning seconds of the fourth, Maye, on the 15th play of a strong drive, rolled out to his right and chucked up a lob into the end zone.
The pass intended for Mack Hollins was instead jumped by Josh Jobe, who kept both feet in bounds as he sealed the contest with an interception.
As Portnoy mentioned, Brown, New England’s big offseason pickup in the trade with the Eagles, exited in the third quarter with an ankle injury.
Doubs, signed in free agency, dropped a wide-open pass in the fourth quarter.
On the next play, Maye threw an interception that set Seattle up for what turned out to be the game-deciding field goal.
In a chance to get revenge for last year’s Super Bowl loss, New England came up three points short and is now 0-1 to start 2026.
That meant, to Portnoy, Week 1 was a failure.
“Got to be a lot better than that,” he said. “That was F-minus s–t.”
