Final score: Seahawks 31, Patriots 24
Seahawks vs. Patriots live scores, updates, and highlights from ‘Sunday Night Football’
One of 2016’s biggest regular season showdowns lived up to its billing on Sunday night.
Third quarter: Seahawks 22, Patriots 21
Halftime: Seahawks 19, Patriots 14
First quarter: Patriots 7, Seahawks 6
Highlights
It only took 259 passes, but the Patriots finally threw an interception this season.
Richard Sherman was called for a facemask. He grabbed Julian Edelman’s shoulder pad, though.
LeGarrette Blount went Beast Mode on the Seahawks.
The Seahawks settled for a field goal after what looked like a sure touchdown.
Pete Carroll decided to go for 2 when the Seahawks were up 7. No one, even Bill Belichick, could understand why.
The Patriots wanted a flag for pass interference on their last play, but the refs got it right.
Before the game
Weak primetime matchups have been blamed for the NFL’s plummeting television ratings in 2016. Fortunately for the league and its advertisers, Week 10’s Sunday Night Football game on NBC is a doozy.
The New England Patriots will meet the Seattle Seahawks for the first time since putting on the greatest Super Bowl of all time in 2015. Bill Belichick earned his fourth NFL championship when Malcolm Butler stepped in front of a Ricardo Lockette slant in the end zone and squashed the Seahawks’ last minute rally. The interception made Butler an overnight celebrity and preserved a 10-point Patriots comeback that stamped Tom Brady’s legend status and threw him into the upper echelon of all-time NFL superstars.
On Sunday, Russell Wilson will have the chance to get a small measure of revenge. Wilson hasn’t been as good as he was in 2015 — he’s a little less accurate in the pocket and has been comparatively immobile compared to seasons past — but he’s the leader of a 5-2-1 Seattle team in great shape to win the NFC West and make a deep playoff run. He’s also peaking at the right time; Wilson’s last performance was a 20-of-26, 282-yard, two-touchdown win over New England’s AFC East rival Buffalo.
On the other side of the ball, Brady and Richard Sherman will face off in a battle of two of the league’s top players. Brady and Sherman have a history dating back to 2012 when the then-rookie trash-talked the Patriots quarterback after a Seahawk win in Seattle. He then told teammates Brady’s “heart is gone” after throwing his second interception of Super Bowl XLIX. Brady proved him wrong by leading the Patriots to the win that evening.
The two have gotten along a little better in the following years. Sherman went out of his way to shake Brady’s hand after tasting Super Bowl defeat. He also took Brady’s side in the DeflateGate scandal that eventually cost Brady four games of the 2016 season and even told reporters Brady, and not Wilson, was the league’s top quarterback.
It will take more than Sherman to stop a prolific Patriots passing attack. Between Brady, Jimmy Garoppolo, and Jacoby Brisset, New England’s quarterbacks have yet to throw an interception this season. The Pats won’t have running back Dion Lewis back just yet, but he is closer than ever to making his 2016 season debut after suffering a knee injury last fall.
Pregame reading
See More:
