Seahawks 13-10 Patriots: Seattle open NFL title defence but lose Sam Darnold to hip injury

By Jack Shaw · Lumen Field, Seattle · Published: 06:15 BST

• The Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots 13-10 in the 2026 NFL Kickoff Game, a rematch of Super Bowl LX.
• Quarterback Sam Darnold left on Seattle’s opening drive with a hip injury; head coach Mike Macdonald said a fracture had been ruled out, with further tests to come.
• New England lost A.J. Brown to a right ankle injury early in the third quarter of his Patriots debut.

Seahawks Patriots ended 13-10 to Seattle, and the defending champions began their title defence exactly the way they finished the last one — with the defence dragging them over the line. Seattle picked off Drake Maye three times, the last of them late in the fourth quarter to clinch it, according to ProFootballTalk. But they may have paid a heavy price: Darnold went down on the very first drive of the season and did not come back.

Seahawks Patriots: how the opener turned

This was only the second Wednesday-night season opener in the NFL’s 107 seasons, CBS Sports reports — the league moved it so the champions could still go first, with the Rams and 49ers meeting in Melbourne on what is Thursday night in the United States. New England led 7-0 at half-time through a two-yard Maye touchdown pass. Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the reigning Offensive Player of the Year, tied it at 10-10 with a 45-yard score in the fourth before Seattle edged clear.

Darnold was hurt taking a sack on Seattle’s first possession, with Drew Lock on for the second series and Darnold ruled out just before the interval. Brown, meanwhile, hurt his ankle reaching for a low Maye throw and finished with three catches for 26 yards. For the full chronological timeline of the NFL’s opening week, see the running coverage on JOE Sport.

The expert angle: Seattle’s title defence never depended on the quarterback

Seattle won a Super Bowl with their defence and they have just won a season opener with it too — and that is the only reason last night was survivable. Look at what has gone out of the building: Kenneth Walker III, the Super Bowl MVP, left for Kansas City in free agency; offensive co-ordinator Klint Kubiak was hired away by the Raiders; Zach Charbonnet is still recovering from a torn ACL. An offence that thin cannot also absorb losing its starting quarterback. It did not have to, because three interceptions of a quarterback as good as Maye is a genuinely elite night’s work.

The Darnold news, so far, is about as good as it gets. “It’s good news right now, at this point — we were able to rule out a fracture,” Macdonald said afterwards. “He’ll have some more tests done. Our thoughts and prayers are with Sam. We love him.” That matters, because per CBS Sports, Darnold threw for 4,048 yards and 25 touchdowns last season and was better still in January, with 346 yards and three scores in the NFC Championship game.

New England’s problem is different and, arguably, worse. They spent an off-season and a 2028 first-round pick building a supporting cast around Maye, and the centrepiece of it limped off in the third quarter. Mike Vrabel offered nothing after the game: “I don’t have any update yet. Wasn’t able to return, obviously.”

So which injury actually decides these two seasons — Darnold’s hip or Brown’s ankle? For more on how much New England has staked on this roster, read our piece on the Christian Gonzalez contract that made him the NFL’s highest-paid cornerback.