GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Detroit Lions opened the season with a dud against the Green Bay Packers, losing 27-13, adding a late touchdown to make it look closer than it really was.
Detroit’s offense added a touchdown in the final minute, padding the stats after struggling to find anything resembling success inside the red zone.
The Lions fall to 0-1 on the year, with a date against former offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and the Chicago Bears on the horizon.
Here are some notable quotes from the Lions and Packers players and coaches on Sunday:
Lions coach Dan Campbell, on the season-opening loss: “And you hate starting the season out with a loss, and as bad as that is it’s not what it appears to be. So it’s like I told them, let’s clean up the tape. We made some critical errors at the worst times possible, and you don’t do those, you take those out of the equation and it looks different. You feel like it would be a totally different scenario but, we did make those critical errors at the worst time, so we’re going to learn from it. We’ll clean it up. It gives us a little barometer where we’re at game one, and that’s OK. You know it’s always about improving no matter what, so we’re going to take it and we’re going to improve.”
Packers EDGE Micah Parsons,on his new rivalry with Lions RT Penei Sewell: “I’m not gonna be able to get rid of him. He’s a hell of a player. I told him, I said, ‘You’re my new rivalry now. I don’t got (Eagles offensive tackle) Lane (Johnson) no more. It’s gonna be you. I’m (gonna) see you twice a year, so you might as well buckle up.’”
Lions QB Jared Goff, on how they move forward after this loss: “Yeah, we will move forward fine. We will. We have good players. We have good coaches. We will be fine. There just needs to be an urgency of improvement. There has to be and today wasn’t even close to good enough offensively. We have a lot of work to do.”
Campbell, on Brian Branch’s unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the first quarter: “Yeah, he’s better than that. He knows better. He knows better. That was the message. You know, he knows better than that man. It’s one of the things we talked about, keeping your head. So, he knows better.”
Packers coach Matt LaFleur, on spreading the ball around to so many receivers in the win: “This is how it happens. We’ve got so much confidence and it’s going to be a challenge, there’s so many guys, when you look at Rome (Doubs) and Jay(den) Reed and (Dontayvion) Wicks and Tucker (Kraft) and (Matthew) Golden and (Luke) Musgrave and Josh Jacobs and then you’ve got (John) FitzPatrick, (Chris) Brooks and Savion (Williams), we’ve got a lot of guys that we have a lot of confidence in. It’s going to be a challenge to get all those guys the number of targets that I’m sure they want. But obviously, that’s a good problem to have. We just have a lot of confidence in these guys. And when given the opps, I thought they made the most of their opportunities.”
Packers QB Jordan Love, on snapping losing streak to Lions: “It’s amazing. Obviously I think a big goal for us was to be able to come in here and start the season off fast, start the season on the right note, so to come in here Week 1 at home and get a dominant win like that is amazing and exactly what we have been working for, so it feels great.”
Lions EDGE Aidan Hutchinson, on he feels after playing his first game since last October: “Good. Yeah, (I) feel great actually. Really good. So funny when you go out last year like that. You come out (for a) game like this, it sucks losing, but you’re blessed for your health a little bit more, you know?”
Hutchinson, on how the Packers held him and Detroit’s pass rush in check: “I thought they did a good job of chipping in the right moments on some of those longer play actions. Definitely got to watch the film a little bit, but it just felt a little tough. First half they had a few of those man (coverage) beaters where the ball is coming out pretty quick, you know, so it wasn’t ideal for sure. And we definitely got to find a way to generate some more even when there’s chips and stuff like that.”
Lions LT Taylor Decker, on the communication needing to improve on the offensive line: “It’s going to take a couple games for us to get like kind of more seamless communication. But they were (Tate Ratledge and Christian Mahogany) were communicating out there. It was fine. But there is going to be mistakes. There was mistakes last year, when we had a group that had played together for a long time ... You just gotta go play. There’s non-verbal communication and stuff out there, as well, then you gotta figure out, certain guys are maybe better at different run schemes and things like that.”
Lions CB Terrion Arnold, on his groin injury that kept him off the field for the second half: “I’m glad it happened now instead of later. It’s one of those things; it’s the first game of the season. Go get in, clean up the tape, and then make the adjustment.”
Love, on Green Bay’s third-down success: “I think we had a great plan coming in for our third downs and obviously third downs comes down to executing, going out there and making plays. I think early on, they were playing a lot of man and guys going out there and winning their one-on-one matchups. I think the O-line did a great job. They gave me a lot of time back there, kept me clean. I think it always starts up front, and I think they did a great job and were able to help us get some opportunities down the field to throw the ball, so it just comes down to executing.”
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