Patriots and Seahawks, two once-proud franchises fallen on hard times, meet with a chance to go 2-0

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — The New England Patriots were so bad last year they fired six-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Belichick. The Seattle Seahawks weren’t much better, reason enough to get rid of Pete Carroll — the only coach ever to lead them to the NFL title.

And on Sunday night, one of those teams will be 2-0.

“You see the direction that we’re trying to go, you see what happens when you do follow the process, and you do buy into the plan,” Patriots quarterback Jacoby Brissett said this week. “Some days … you’re not going to get the results you want. But I think it’s even more apparent after you do get those results.”

The Seahawks and Patriots have both fallen far since their matchup in Super Bowl 49, when Malcolm Butler intercepted Russell Wilson at the goal line and Tom Brady knelt out the final seconds to seal yet another championship for New England.

Wilson is on his third team, as a backup in Pittsburgh after two unsuccessful seasons in Denver. Butler has retired, and he will be back on Sunday along with 20 teammates to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 2014 title.

Belichick and Carroll are out of the league after failing to rekindle their success with new quarterbacks. Everyone on the team was invited but Belichick and Brady are not expected to attend.

“While some prominent members of that 2014 team now have broadcasting obligations and are unable to attend, nearly half of the team will be in attendance,” the Patriots said.

The teams replaced the two oldest head coaches in the league with the two youngest: Former Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo took over on the New England sideline, and Seattle went with ex-Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald.

“I think Coach Mayo and I would agree that this game is not about us. It’s not,” Macdonald said. “It’s about our guys going out and playing and making the plays that it’s going to take to win the game. Our age really has nothing to do with what’s about to happen on Sunday.”

Both won their debuts.

New England, which was 4-13 last season, was the biggest underdog in the NFL last week before beating Cincinnati 16-10. A year after going 9-8, Seattle was expected to beat the Broncos in the opener and did, winning 26-20 to get Macdonald off to a winning start.

“From a coaching perspective, our job is to teach these guys how to win,” Mayo said. “When you won a lot, having that sense of urgency to not fall into being comfortable (is important). We won one game.

“If we don’t go out there and execute and play right, we could be sitting right here and then you’re going to say, ‘Jerod, you seem like you’re in a down mood,’” Mayo said with a laugh. “That’s my job as the head coach of the team: to make sure that these guys are ready to change the page.”

The call came out from the New England sideline in Cincinnati: “Take them to the hill.”

It was a reference to the steep hill where the Patriots ran sprints at the end of training camp practices. The message: Their conditioning was a team strength, especially when trying to run out the clock at the end of the game.

“Just hearing that from the players, it meant a lot,” Mayo said. “That just means taking them into the deep water and all the extra things that we do, it pays off. It pays off in the long term.”

With the Patriots holding the lead in the final minutes, Rhamondre Stevenson ran the ball four straight times, picking up a pair of first downs that allowed them to run out the clock.

“We’re running one play the whole time and they’re not stopping it, so why change it?” Brissett said. “I think that was one of the cooler moments in my career. Everybody in the huddle was saying, ‘Let’s take them to the hill,’ because we knew we were in that much better shape than they were. And I think it paid off.”

Seattle's secondary was believed to be the strength of its defense and that showed in the opener. Safety Julian Love had 12 tackles and an interception. Riq Woolen sprinted across the field to get his first interception of the year after having only two picks last season. New safety K'Von Wallace played just a handful of snaps but forced a key fumble. And second-year cornerback Devon Witherspoon was all over the field being used in a variety of ways.

It was just one game, but it displayed some of the different ways that the skills of Seattle's secondary can be used both in coverage and when bringing pressure.

“We played fast, simply put," Love said. "We played fast. We played aggressive. Guys were able to try to shoot their shot, but they knew they had backup. They knew guys were on the way and so when you play that way, free, it all works together.”

AP Sports Writer Tim Booth contributed to this story from Seattle.

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Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald reacts during the first half of an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Seattle Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet (26) scores a touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton shakes hands with Seattle Seahawks linebacker Jerome Baker (17) after an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Seattle. The Seattle Seahawks won 26-20. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III (9) leaps into the end zone for a touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

New England Patriots quarterback Jacoby Brissett (7) hands the ball off to running back Rhamondre Stevenson (38) during the first half of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

New England Patriots quarterback Jacoby Brissett (7) throws a pass during the second half of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Energy announced Tuesday that it is teaming up with yet another energy company as part of a mission to transform portions of government-owned property once used for the nation's nuclear weapons program into prime real estate for renewable energy endeavors.

The federal agency will be negotiating a lease agreement with Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources Development for nearly 3 square miles (7.8 square kilometers) of land surrounding the nation's only underground repository for nuclear waste.

The project at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southern New Mexico is the latest to be announced by the Energy Department, which has identified more than 50 square miles (130 square kilometers) of government land that can be used for constructing solar arrays and battery storage systems that can supply utilities with emissions-free electricity.

Other lease agreements already are being negotiated for projects stretching from the Hanford Site in Washington state, where the U.S. produced plutonium, to national laboratories and other sites in Idaho, Nevada and South Carolina.

Andrew Mayock with the White House Council on Environmental Quality on Tuesday echoed a statement made earlier this year when the first negotiations were announced. He said federal agencies are using their scale and purchasing power to support the growth of the clean energy industry.

"We will spur new clean electricity production, which is good for our climate, our economy, and our national security,” he said.

At the nuclear repository in New Mexico, federal officials say there is potential to install at least 150 megawatts of solar and another 100 megawatts of storage.

While the amount of energy generated by NextEra at the WIPP site would be more than enough to meet the needs of the repository, none would feed directly into government operations there. Officials said the energy from the solar array would be sold to Xcel Energy by NextEra and put into the utility's distribution system.

Xcel serves customers in parts of New Mexico and Texas, as well as other states.

Officials said there is no estimate of when ground could be broken, saying engineering and planning work would be needed once a lease is signed and regulatory approvals would be required.

The largest of the so called cleanup-to-clean-energy projects is slated for the Hanford Site, where Hecate Energy LLC has plans to deliver a gigawatt-scale system that would span thousands of acres on the southeastern edge of the property. It could be several years before that project comes online.

FILE - The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is seen, March 6, 2014, near Carlsbad, N.M. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan, File)