It may have been sloppy, but the Lions secured their first win of the season in Week 1 against the Rams. What is their biggest concern heading into Week 2?
In the NFL, you don’t expect to be playing your best ball in Week 1, but you also don’t want to come out so flat that you kill the vibes and start with a loss. For the Detroit Lions, they did what great teams do. They didn’t play their best game—not even close—but they found a way to scrape by and secure a win anyway.
If they want to make another postseason run this year, there is a lot that the Lions need to clean up, but it’s very early, and coach Dan Campbell is aware that they’ve got a lot of work to do.
“I don’t care whether we won or lost this game, I was gonna tell you the same thing,” Campbell said in his postgame locker room speech. “We gotta get better every week. Just a little bit better next week, and we’ll be good.”
Today’s Question of the Day is…
What is the Lions’ biggest concern following their Week 1 win over the Rams?
My answer: There are a lot of things that weren’t perfect for the Lions in Week 1, but not all of them warrant much concern from me. Jared Goff played one of his worst games in a long time, but I have zero doubt that he will bounce back. He’s done it plenty of times before.
The secondary was a mixed bag. They had some bumps and bruises along the way, but credit to Sean McVay for having his offense ready and putting together the perfect game plan against a secondary that had very little time to get reps in together prior to the season starting. As the season progresses, I feel confident that the secondary will become one of the strengths of this team.
On offense, Jameson Williams had a massive performance, but the rest of the receiver room was extremely quiet. I don’t expect Amon-Ra St. Brown to get shut down like this again this year—possibly ever—but I am quite concerned about the Lions’ depth at receiver at this point. The Lions did not have a single catch from a WR behind their top two guys on Sunday night. Hopefully, they can figure it out soon.
I was also left unimpressed with the coaching performance against the Rams. The defense wasn’t allowing anything over the top, but they were constantly giving up easy first downs by giving up short yardage in front of them. The offense struggled, too, and far too often were throwing short of the sticks on third down. I expect this coaching staff to figure things out, but I have to admit I’m slightly concerned that the Lions’ defense gave up so many yards to a Rams offense dealing with a depleted O-line, and who were also without star receiver Puka Nacua for a majority of the game. Hopefully, it’s not a sign of things to come, and hopefully, Aaron Glenn will have his guys more prepared in the near future.
