For the third straight time, a game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks came down to a final play near the goal line.
For the second straight time, the Seahawks prevailed.
With his team clinging to a five-point lead and the Patriots just a yard away from scoring a touchdown to win the game, defensive end L.J. Collier stuffed Cam Newton at the 1-yard line as time expired and the Seahawks held off the Patriots 35-30 on Sunday Night Football.
“It’s an extraordinary moment for football players and for a team. You either come through or you don’t,” said Seattle coach Pete Carroll. “There’s so much intensity in that moment. The guys on the field will never forget it.”
Had Newton made it into the end zone for this third rushing score of the game, it would have negated an exceptional game from Seattle QB Russell Wilson, who tossed five touchdown passes against a New England defense that was statistically the best in the league last season.
But, thanks to Collier, Wilson’s work came in Seattle victory that pushed the Seahawks’ record to 2-0 on the season and dropped the Patriots to 1-1 on the year.
“They’ve got a great quarterback. Glad we only have to play him once every four years,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said of Wilson, who had four TD passes in Week 1 against Atlanta.
Despite the loss, it was an encouraging effort for the Patriots and Newton, who completed eight passes for 179 yards to receiver Jullian Edelman and barely missed him on a throw into the end zone before the final play that would have won the game.
“It’s many ways you can win in this game. We don’t want to become one-dimensional,” Newton said after the loss. “We had our opportunities. Just moving forward, we have a lot of things about being optimistic about but yet, we still have to get better. The reason why you play this game is for stat and one stat only. We didn’t get that statistic today and that’s the win. For us, this is a disgusting taste in my mouth. I’ve just got to grow and get better in this offense and hopefully have a better result next week.”
The Patriots host the Raiders in Week 3 while the Seahawks host the Cowboys.
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