Horrendous call by NFL officials seals win for Seahawks over Patriots in Week 2

The Patriots had a tall task heading into their Week 2 matchup against the Seahawks on Sunday, as both teams were coming off wins and hoping to start their seasons going 2-0 for the first time in as many (or more) years.

New England looked to build upon their first week of unexpected success against the Bengals, a win that wasn't predicted by any analyst across the NFL. But that task proved to be a lot tougher than imagined as soon as the game started at Gillette Stadium.

After both teams went 3-and-out on their first drives, the Patriots scored with an exciting first touchdown to Ja'Lynn Polk. The Seahawks matched it with a 56-yard receiving score by D.K. Metcalf, courtesy of a disaster play by Kyle Dugger and Christian Gonzalez.

By halftime, Seattle was up just four points, and eventually, a great run in touchdown by Rhamondre Stevenson put them ahead for the first time in the game. Then, with less than a minute remaining in the game, the Seahawks managed to tie the game, and after a failed drive to seal the win, it was off to overtime.

The Patriots got the ball first, which ended with Jacoby Brissett wincing on the ground after the offensive line blew up to force the punt. Then came the Seahawks first chance to take home the win, which was made much easier courtesy of the referees.

Obviously, it's never great to pin a loss on the officials, but their interference in overtime certainly stole the game away from the home team.

The referees' horrific penalty cost the Patriots a chance to stop the Seahawks drive early

Seattle was moving down the field fairly quickly, and then Geno Smith decided to throw a deep pass to Mr. Reliable Tyler Lockett, with Jonathan Jones in coverage.

Despite it being fairly clear that no penalty was committed, the referees decided that Jones committed defensive pass interference when it could have been called the other way, moving the Seahawks from their own 31-yard line to the Patriots 49.

This set it up for them to easily move down the field and get into field goal range to get the win.

It was a devastating blow to the Patriots' hopes of stacking some early wins to their 2024 season, a year that most have only projected they'll win three to five games. It was far from a well-played game by the entire team, with a few missed opportunities and bad decisions that came back to haunt them, but the referee's unforgivable penalty made the whole situation much worse.

UPDATE:

While speaking to reporters after the loss, Jonathan Jones revealed what Tyler Lockett told him after the cornerback was flagged for DPI.

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