Seahawks Halftime Observations: Lions Lead as Seattle Struggles With Miscues

While the Seattle Seahawks have matched up with the Detroit Lions from a yardage perspective, they haven't been able to produce points since scoring a touchdown on the game's opening drive, allowing the home team to enter halftime with the lead.

Unable to capitalize on a pair of scoring opportunities in the second quarter and baited by a bit of trickery by Jared Goff and company, the Seattle Seahawks went into halftime of their road opener trailing 14-7 to the Detroit Lions.

Eclipsing his numbers from Week 1 already, Geno Smith completed 16 out of 20 pass attempts for 159 yards and averaged eight yards per attempt, while Ken Walker III scored a touchdown despite being held to 13 yards on 10 rushes. Defensively, Devon Witherspoon made a key fourth down pass breakup in his NFL debut in an otherwise rough half for Seattle.

Here are three quick observations from Ford Field at halftime:

1. Seattle once again gets off to a promising start offensively, but sputters in final two drives to close out half.

In last week's defeat to the Rams, Smith got off to a quick start, leading three consecutive scoring drives to open the game and give the Seahawks a 13-7 halftime advantage. If not for a missed field goal by Jason Myers, they would have scored 16 points before the break. Opening hot for a second straight week, the veteran quarterback completed all five of his pass attempts on the game's opening drive, setting up a one-yard touchdown run by Walker to give the visitors an early 7-0 advantage.

But just like a week ago, the Seahawks weren't able to build off of that drive. On their next possession, moments after the Lions tied the game with a Josh Reynolds touchdown reception, they picked up one first down before having a third down screen obliterated, leading to a Michael Dickson punt. After Devon Witherspoon broke up a fourth down pass from Goff, Smith promptly moved the team into Lions territory with a 32-yard connection to tight end Noah Fant, only for Myers to badly miss a 45-yard field goal wide left to leave them empty handed again. Their last two drives didn't fare any better, as Dickson punted at midfield and Myers missed yet another field goal to leave three points off the scoreboard.

2. With no pass rush to worry about, Jared Goff has ripped apart a punch-less Seahawks defense.

Throughout the week, Seattle placed a top priority on getting its pass rush untracked after struggling to get any heat on Matthew Stafford last week with two quarterback hits and no sacks the entire game. Unfortunately, with the exception of a late holding penalty on third down generated on a pressure by defensive tackle Dre'Mont Jones, Goff had little resistance to fret about as he completed 11 out of 15 passes for 144 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Early on, Goff bought time and took advantage of extended plays with no rush dumping the ball off to receivers and running backs. The Lions gained at least six yards on six of their seven plays on a 75-yard touchdown drive for their first possession, including a 22-yard strike to Reynolds between Quandre Diggs and Jordyn Brooks for six points. Two drives later, he cashed in when Witherspoon bit hard on a flea flicker to find Khalif Raymond for a wide open 32-yard touchdown. For the half, the Seahawks didn't generate a single quarterback hit and only one pressure, making life easy for the veteran quarterback to rip them apart.

3. Injuries loom large for the Seahawks on both sides of the ball with a half to play.

Trailing by seven on the scoreboard, Seattle isn't just in danger of losing a second straight game to open the season. In the process, players continue to drop like flies with injuries. In the first half, the blue injury tent was working overtime, as receivers Jaxon Smith-Njigba and DK Metcalf as well as center Evan Brown and cornerback Riq Woolen all spent time in there getting evaluated for various injuries.

Luckily, Smith-Njigba, Metcalf, and Brown all ended up returning to play at some point in the half. But on the downside, Woolen hasn't returned with Tre Brown replacing him at right cornerback opposite of Witherspoon and it looks like he's out for the remainder of the game. Brown has also had to check out multiple times and rookie Olu Oluwatimi may need to take the torch from him in the second half.