Detroit Lions: There are no silver linings in a loss, but…

There were positives to be found in the Lions loss

While there were things that Dan Campbell was encouraged by, he made it clear that there are no silver linings in a loss. That in itself is a good sign.

Losses shouldn’t be tolerated in any way, shape, or form. Campbell expressed disappointment instead of having a tirade, but he got the point across. We also need to realize that the positives he took out of the game were points that were brought up in his post-game press conference by the media.

Campbell wasn’t offering any ‘we lost, but we did this well’, type of coach-spin. He admitted they lost and that it isn’t tolerable. Were there positives? Yes, but the fact that he wasn’t thinking about them or using them to soften the loss was a big positive.

But the positives didn’t end there.

There were two other really big positives I took out of the game. The first was the play of the offensive line. It was a positive that Campbell acknowledged, however, when we dig in and really examine what was accomplished, this is impressive.

Taylor Decker is coming off his best season in the NFL and was poised to have another very good year. Instead, the Lions were forced to not only go into the opener without Decker but start a rookie against one of the best pass-rushers in the league.

After a lack-luster exhibition season for the Lions’ offensive line, this was a concern especially against San Francisco’s talented front seven. Yet how well the line played as a whole was impressive. Sure Dee Ford took it to right tackle Matt Nelson, but overall the effort of the offensive line was impressive.

They ran the ball well, protected Jared Goff well, and rookie Penei Sewell was outstanding against Nick Bosa. Sure Bosa got the best of Sewell once or twice, but in Sewell’s first start against a talent like Bosa, he basically controlled San Francisco’s uber-talented end.

The other thing that stood out was that the Lions didn’t quit. Sure we’ve seen Matthew Stafford carry these Motor City cats to a lot of comeback victories and many other near comeback’s, but without him in the huddle, they still found a way to make a run at it.

There was no quit in these Lions and that is a credit to Dan Campbell and his staff. One of the intangibles we all need to be monitoring this season in the ‘compete level’ of this team and it was all in last Sunday. This is a locker room that is buying what Campbell is selling and that is a big difference from the previous regime.