Tuesday open thread: Biggest disappointment from Lions-Cardinals?

In general, there’s a 24-hour rule in the NFL. You can only celebrate a win or mourn a loss for 24 hours after the game, then it’s time to move on. That’s a pretty good policy as a football player. Getting caught up in emotions for too long can distract you from the games ahead.

As a football fan, you’re not kept to the same standards. You can celebrate a win up until the second before the next game’s kickoff, if you’d like. It won’t have any affect on the game, and you won’t be a worse person for it. Hell, if you want to celebrate a win months after it happened, I’m not here to hold you back.

However, as much fun as the Detroit Lions’ season opening win over the Arizona Cardinals was, I want to look back on it with a critical eye now. The Lions may be 1-0, but they’re far from perfect and there was quite a bit not to like on Sunday. So today’s Question of the Day is:

What was the most disappointing Lions performance against the Cardinals on Sunday?

My answer: Ameer Abdullah. I know Abdullah was limited by a poor offensive line performance in front of him, but I was really hoping for more out of him. Good running backs can take a mediocre offensive line and make them look great. Great running backs can look great in spite of their offensive line.

Abdullah is not great at this point in his career. That doesn’t mean he can’t be great or will never be great, but he’s just not there right now. According to Pro Football Focus, Abdullah forced just a single missed tackle in 18 touches, including three catches that went for just 11 yards.

Again, Abdullah got little-to-no help from his offensive line, but he didn’t create any plays on his own, either. Fans were desperately searching for a sign that this running game was going to be improved in 2017. Abdullah’s health was the biggest indicator that they could turn it around this year, but it appears the issues run a little deeper than that.

Hopefully this was just a case of an outlier bad game for Abdullah and/or a good Cardinals front seven.

Your turn.