Lumen Field did not ease into the 2026 season. It detonated.

Before a single snap of the NFL’s Super Bowl rematch opener, Seattle unveiled its Super Bowl LX banner and let the building drink in the night. Then the football started — and the script the defending champions wanted lasted about five plays.

By the time the final whistle blew Wednesday night, Sept. 9 into Sept. 10, the Seahawks had beaten the New England Patriots 13-10, erased a 10-0 deficit, lost starting quarterback Sam Darnold to a right hip injury on the opening drive, and watched backup Drew Lock and a takeaway-hungry defense finish the job. Banner nights are supposed to be ceremonial. This one was a street fight with fireworks.

The opener was framed as unfinished business with a trophy already in the case: Seattle hosting the club it beat for the title, raising the LX banner, and trying to prove the hangover was optional. New England arrived with a remade receiving room and Drake Maye, last season’s MVP runner-up, under center. For three quarters the visitors looked like the calmer team. For the fourth, Seattle looked like a champion that refuses to let a party die early.

The early gut punch

Seattle opened on offense. Dre’Mont Jones sacked Darnold on third down of that first drive. Darnold came up limping, disappeared into the medical tent, then the locker room, and was done for the night with a hip injury. The stadium noise flipped from celebration to a low, uneasy murmur — the sound of a title defense that suddenly needed its Plan B.

Drew Lock entered. For long stretches the Seahawks’ offense looked stuck in mud: field-position football, unfinished drives, the kind of night where a banner feels heavier than the scoreboard. New England punched first. After Josh Jobe was flagged for pass interference on a deep shot involving A.J. Brown, Maye found rookie tight end Eli Raridon for a two-yard touchdown. Later, a roughing-the-punter penalty helped set up Andy Borregales’ 50-yard field goal. Patriots 10, Seahawks 0. The rematch had a villain arc writing itself.

The flip

Championship teams do not panic in their own building on banner night — or at least they pretend not to. Seattle scratched a field goal in the third quarter to make it 10-3. Then the fourth quarter arrived like a plot twist.

Nehemiah Pritchett intercepted Maye. Lock and the Seahawks offense answered with conviction: on fourth-and-1, Lock hit Jaxon Smith-Njigba for a 45-yard touchdown that tied the game at 10-10. Coordinator Brian Fleury’s trust on that down — throwing rather than defaulting to a tush-push scrum — became an instant talking point around the league. It was not cute. It was decisive.

Julian Love intercepted Maye on the next New England possession. Jason Myers knocked through a 26-yard field goal for a 13-10 lead. The building found its voice again — not the pregame pageantry voice, the fourth-quarter survival voice.

The seal

Maye still had one more chance. With the clock bleeding and overtime on the table, he pushed into scoring territory. With 21 seconds left, Josh Jobe — earlier the PI villain on the Brown deep ball — toe-tapped an interception in the end zone. Game over. Rematch won. Banner night saved.

Three fourth-quarter interceptions of Maye. Two late scoring drives from Lock. A 10-0 hole filled by defense, nerve, and one explosive throw to JSN. That is how a Super Bowl rematch opener becomes viral before Thursday’s coffee is poured.

What it means

For Seattle, the win is both relief and warning. The Dark Side defense delivered takeaways when the offense needed oxygen. Lock proved he can close a heavyweight game in this building. But Darnold’s hip — later clarified as structurally intact after imaging, with coach Mike Macdonald calling the MRI news “really, really good news” while still projecting a Week 2 miss at Arizona — hangs over the short-term title defense.

For New England, the night was a cascade: an early lead, A.J. Brown’s third-quarter right ankle exit, and Maye’s self-described unacceptable late decisions. The Patriots host Pittsburgh on Sept. 20 with questions at quarterback decision-making and at wide receiver health.

Week 1 rarely feels this cinematic. A raised banner. A fallen starter. A backup’s late pulse. Three picks in one quarter. An end-zone toe-tap that turned villain into hero. The Seahawks are 1-0 as champions — and the NFL timeline already has its first indelible night of 2026.