Bengals vs. Seahawks: 3 Halftime Adjustments Seattle Must Make

The Seahawks are going into the half trailing the Cincinnati Bengals, 17-3.  They've been largely outplayed, so here are three adjustments they must make to try to be successful in the second half.

The pass defense needs to be playing tighter

Andy Dalton hasn't been particularly impressive, but his stats have been hurt by his own shortcomings in this game.  Still, he's got a pair of touchdowns, and every time he throws the ball, the receivers are generally pretty wide open.

The Seattle pass defense is almost playing a prevent defense.  They either can't keep up with the receivers or this is how they're playing, but if that doesn't change, this game will only get further out of hand.

Eliminate bone-headed penalties

I don't know if Seattle has some sort of vendetta against Cincinnati, but the penalties have been flowing for the Seahawks.  They've just been careless, and when personal foul penalties are piling up, something's got to change.

Twice on the Bengals' first drive, the Seahawks shot themselves in the foot.  There was a personal foul penalty against Brandon Browner after he flipped Bengals receiver Jerome Simpson—which happened after the Bengals called a timeout.  They would follow that up with a neutral zone infraction, giving the Bengals more yards.

Pass interference penalties have also been detrimental.

You won't win many games making mistakes like that.

Receivers need to actually catch some passes

Tarvaris Jackson and Charlie Whitehurst aren't exactly quality quarterbacks, but they've been hindered by dropped passes.

Namely, Sidney Rice has dropped two passes by himself.  It's no secret that the Seahawks' offensive situation is a problem, but dropped passes are only going to further hurt a struggling team.  There's a lot of capabilities on the receiving side of the offense, and they need to step up.