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Brady HendersonESPN
SEATTLE – Russell Wilson tied a career-high with five touchdown passes Sunday night, continuing his hot start to the season in the Seattle Seahawks‘ 35-30 win over the New England Patriots.
And like the past two Seahawks-Patriots matchups, this one came down to a final play at the goal line, with Seattle stuffing a Cam Newton run from the 1-yard line with three seconds left.
According to ESPN Stats & Information research, Wilson became only the fourth player in NFL history to throw at least four touchdown passes in each of his team’s first two games. The others are Patrick Mahomes (2018), Ryan Fitzpatrick (2018) and Drew Bledsoe (1997). Only Mahomes (10) had more than Wilson’s nine touchdown passes through two games.
Wilson and the Seahawks overcame a disastrous start Sunday night along with losses to their secondary and a near collapse at the end.
Wilson’s second pass attempt went through the hands of tight end Greg Olsen and right to safety Devin McCourty, who returned it 43 yards for a touchdown that gave New England a 7-0 lead.
The Seahawks lost starting free safety Quandre Diggs when he was ejected late in the first quarter for a helmet-to-helmet hit on wide receiver N’Keal Harry. Marquise Blair replaced Diggs, then suffered a knee injury, forcing third-stringer Lano Hill to finish the game.
Hill came up big when he shot into the backfield and helped blow up New England’s final play. Newton had already scored two rushing touchdowns from the 1-yard line, the second of which pulled the Patriots to within five points with 2:19 remaining.
Wilson finished 21-of-28 for 288 yards. Through two games, he has completed 52 of 63 passes for 610 yards, 9 touchdowns and 1 interception. In addition to the interception that went off Olsen’s hands, two of Wilson’s other incompletions were drops by DK Metcalf.
A former baseball player who was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in 2010, Wilson hit for the touchdown cycle Sunday night: deep balls to Metcalf and David Moore, a short laser back across his body to Tyler Lockett, an intermediate throw to Freddie Swain and a soft floater to Chris Carson.