Russell Wilson has torched the New England Patriots defense in the regular season throughout his career, and Sunday night's Week 2 game was no different.
The Seattle Seahawks quarterback completed 21 of 28 pass attempts for 288 yards with five touchdowns and one interception in his team's 35-30 victory at CenturyLink Field. He also ran for 39 yards on five carries.
Wilson's five passing touchdowns are tied for the most against the Patriots in a single game since Bill Belichick took over as the team's head coach in 2000. The only other QB to accomplish that feat versus New England over that span was New Orleans Saints star Drew Brees in 2009.
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Three instant takeaways from Patriots' loss to Seahawks
"Russell Wilson is a great player. He does everything well. He's extremely hard to defend, and he hurt us tonight in pretty much every way possible," Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said in his postgame press conference. "He's very difficult to handle. They have a lot of good weapons with him that he can use, the running game, and (Duane) Brown on the offensive line.
"They got the ball outside. He made great throws on the three long touchdowns, two of which were very well defended, and the other one wasn't bad, there was a guy right in his face and he just made a great throw. You just have to give him credit. He definitely stressed us a lot with his scrambles, his long balls, with his accuracy on the zones. He just did everything well. He's very hard to defend."
The way the NFL does its schedule, each team plays an entire division from the other conference every season. This year's rotation has the AFC East playing the NFC West. Since there are four divisions, the Patriots play every NFC team once every four seasons.
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That's a good thing for the Patriots in regards to Wilson, who's now 3-0 in his regular season career versus the Patriots. His only loss to the Patriots came in Super Bowl XLIX.
The Seahawks quarterback's regular season stats against the Patriots are just extraordinary.
- Week 6, 2012 (24-23 home win): 293 passing yards, 3 TD, 0 INT
- Week 10, 2016 (31-24 road win): 348 passing yards, 3 TD, 0 INT
- Week 2, 2020 (35-30 home win): 288 passing yards, 5 TD, 1 INT
- Totals: 924 passing yards, 11 TD, 1 INT
What's the good news for the Patriots? Well, unless they meet the Seahawks in the Super Bowl in the near future, their defense won't have to defend Wilson again until 2024.
"They've got a good football team. They got a great quarterback," Belichick said. "I'm glad we only have to play him once every four years. He's a tremendous player."