Tuesday open thread: What was the biggest Lions disappointment from Week 1?

On Monday, I hit y’all with some optimism. Based on the play of the Detroit Lions’ offensive line, rushing attack, and some of the players in the secondary, I believed there were more positive things to take from the game than negative—at least when it came to expectations against the Philadelphia Eagles.

I still believe all of that. The Lions hung with what appears to be a pretty good team, and that’s despite a lot of mental errors that put themselves in a pretty big hole. The tenacity and fight aren’t new for this Lions team, but the ability to score five touchdowns in a game is something we saw exactly zero times all of last year.

But ultimately the Lions lost to the Eagles and there are plenty of mistakes made along the way. Some of those struggles were expected. Some of those struggles were a surprise

So today’s Question of the Day is:

What was the biggest disappointment from the Detroit Lions in Week 1 vs. the Eagles?

My answer: I have to go with the receiving corps’ performance. While Jared Goff wasn’t too accurate early in this game, the receivers didn’t do him any favors, with anywhere from four to six drops on the day. In addition to that, the receivers were clearly not on the same page with Goff on several occasions throughout Sunday, which resulted in one pick-six and another failed third-down conversion in the middle of Detroit’s huge offensive drought.

On those occasions, it’s hard to know whether it was the receiver’s or Goff’s fault, but it speaks to a bigger point on why this is such a big disappointment. Goff and this receiving corps really seemed to be hitting their stride in training camp. Goff was extremely comfortable, and he seemed to have truly developed chemistry with this set of offensive weapons.

Yet when they took the field for the first time in 2022, they looked like players that hadn’t played together before. While that may have been true for DJ Chark, it’s no excuse for Josh Reynolds or T.J. Hockenson or Amon-Ra St. Brown.

To be completely fair, the crew all seemed to settle in for the second half. Reynolds and Chark made big downfield plays eventually, while Chark and Brown found the end zone. Still, it took too long for this group to find their groove, and it’s a big reason they fell into a hole most teams can’t pull themselves out of.

Your turn.