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SEATTLE — Disaster. Truly. This was the kind of stuff that happened to the 20th-century Red Sox. Mike Torrez-Bucky Dent stuff. Buckner-esque, if you will. Wednesday night in Seattle, just when it looked like Drake Maye and the Patriots were going to vaporize the Seattle Kryptonite, the quarterback imploded in spectacular fashion. It could hardly have been any worse. Leading the team that thrashed New England in February’s Super Bowl, 10-0, midway through the third quarter, the Patriots gave up 13 consecutive points as Maye threw an interception on all three of his fourth-quarter drives. The last one was the true killer. In easy field goal range, all the way at the Seattle 16 and readying to tie the game, Maye floated a ball toward Mack Hollins in the right corner of the end zone, then watched in horror as Seattle corner Josh Jobe cut in front of Hollins, snared the pass, and came down inbounds for a game-clinching pick. Ugh. “We had the game under control, but we lost patience,” said Maye. “A couple of bad decisions on my part. It’s unacceptable and I know that. That wasn’t how I play football and how I want to play quarterback for the Patriots. I just stopped being patient.” Maye did not have a multiple-interception game last year until Super Bowl LX, when the Seahawks got him twice. New England’s franchise quarterback had a season-worst game in the biggest game, when he was sacked six times and turned it over three. After that loss, he said, “I’d like to go back to the beginning and re-do it.” He had his chance Wednesday and finished with a flurry of blunders, which no doubt made for the longest five-hour flight in aviation history for the defending AFC champs. “We have to move on,” Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said. “We know how hard the season is.” Playing about 830 miles north of their humbling Super Bowl loss to the Seahawks, the Patriots had complete control of their 67th season opener. A 2-yard touchdown pass to rookie tight end Eli Raridon and an Andy Borregales field goal looked like a commanding lead given Seattle’s starting quarterback Sam Darnold was knocked out of the game in the first three minutes. Summoning a time-tested tenet of the Bill Belichick era — one that reared its head last year when Broncos starting quarterback Bo Nix went down in the game before the AFC Championship — the Pats got a big break when Darnold injured his hip after only five plays. On a third and 6 near midfield, Darnold was sacked by edge lineman Dre’Mont Jones, and limped to the sideline blue tent while Seattle punted. He soon left to the locker room, was listed as questionable to return, then ruled out before halftime. It was Belichick’s Sun Tzu (famous for “The Art of War”) theory coming into play . . . if you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by. Darnold was replaced by eight-year veteran backup Drew (Not Exactly A) Lock. There’s no way the Pats were going to blow a 10-0, second-half lead to Drew Lock. Right? Things started to shift late in the third. Lock floated a pass into the arms of Cooper Kupp at the 13, then had a touchdown taken off the board due to an illegal shift. Seattle settled for a chip shot field goal to make it 10-3 with 3:13 left in the third. Then we had the game’s first turnover. Forcing a long pass to new toy Romeo Doubs, Maye watched as the ball was tipped by Rodney Thomas and landed in the arms of Nehemiah Pritchett. Game On for the champs. On a fourth and 1 from the New England 45, Lock found Jaxon Smith-Njigba over the middle. The nimble receiver darted and weaved all the way to Tacoma in the most exciting play of the night to make it 10-10 with 11:28 left. With the scored tied and all momentum moving to Seattle, Doubs dropped a sure first-down pass in the open field. On the next play, third and 14 from his own 22, Maye forced it over the middle in the direction of DeMario Douglas and it was easily picked by Julian Love, putting Seattle in great position to win the game. Lock moved the champs all the way to New England’s 3 before settling for a 26-yard field goal and their first lead with 5:50 left. It was time for Maye to step up. He did the job. For a while. With great play calling and clock management starting at his 27, he moved his team all the way to the Seattle 16. A field goal was a sure thing. But the Pats got greedy. They didn’t want overtime. They wanted the win. Instead, they got the loss. (And if you thought things couldn’t get any worse, A.J. Brown sustained an ankle injury in the second half and didn’t return.) Historically, the Seahawks have been a problem for New England. Seattle is 13-9 against the Patriots, including five conseutive victories. The last time the Pats beat the ’Hawks was in Super Bowl XLIX, when Pete Carroll made the dumbest call in sports history, electing to throw a slant pass in traffic (remember Malcolm Butler?) from the 1-yard line. Apart from that game, New England’s last win over Seattle was in 2008. Season openers have not been Vrabel’s friend; he’s 2-6 in openers, including five straight losses. His Pats were beaten by the lowly Raiders in Foxboro last September. Now this. It doesn’t get much easier for the Pats in the next three weeks. New England plays host to Pittsburgh in the home opener Sept. 20, then travels to Jacksonville and Buffalo. Including Seattle, that means the Pats play four teams that combined to win 72 percent of their games last year. Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.