First Half Observations: Seahawks 14, Falcons 12

Russell Wilson and the Seahawks offense came out firing on all cylinders, but struggles on defense and issues in pass protection have kept the game close through the first two quarters of play.

Paced by two receiving touchdowns from running back Chris Carson, the Seahawks raced out to a quick 11-point lead and went into the half holding a 14-12 lead over the Falcons in their Week 1 opener.

Here's some quick observations from the first two quarters of play at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Seattle's season opener.

Jamal Adams is every bit as good as advertised.

For those of us who had the pleasure of watching Adams tear it up throughout training camp, it shouldn't come as a surprise the fourth-year safety can do it all. But for those who haven't had a chance to see him in Seahawks blue yet, the All-Pro defender lit it up in the first half, recording seven tackles, two tackles for loss, and his first sack of the season against Matt Ryan. He was everywhere on the field and those stats don't even accurately portray his dominance.

Seattle let Russell Wilson cook... when he didn't have defenders in the kitchen.

Wilson opened with 12 straight completions, including the aforementioned two touchdown tosses to Carson, primarily excelling with the short-to-intermediate passing game. But unfortunately, Seattle's star quarterback was under duress for much of the first half, getting sacked three times and absorbing seven quarterback hits. The pressure has been due to combination of communication issues up front as well as Wilson holding onto the ball too long on a few occasions. These areas will need to be cleaned up in the second half to secure a road win.

Away from a few timely plays, the Seahawks pass rush has been non-existent.

Playing their first game with a new cast of characters rushing off the edge, the results looked much the same compared to last year's struggles, as Matt Ryan had ample time to throw while completing 13 out of 24 passes for 182 yards in the first half. With that said, a couple key plays from the front line proved critical early, starting with L.J. Collier's quarterback hit on Ryan that led to an intentional grounding penalty on Atlanta's opening drive. On the next drive, Benson Mayowa got his hands up rushing on fourth down and swatted Ryan's pass away, thwarting the scoring opportunity.

Surprisingly, Seattle hasn't gotten much going with the vertical passing game.

Wilson has been effective dinking and dunking down the field with short passing plays, but with the exception of a post route to Tyler Lockett that led to a pass interference call on Seattle's opening scoring drive, he hasn't taken any shots downfield against Atlanta's young secondary. Much of that has been dictated by the lack of time to throw and solid coverage, but adjustments will need to be made to take advantage of the matchups for Lockett and DK Metcalf, who was targeted just three times in the first half.