Getty Taylor Decker during a Lions game.
The Detroit Lions collapsed late in Week 1, but the focus on Monday was not on any lingering frustration from another loss but rather on how to respond.
Offensive tackle Taylor Decker, now a team captain, isn’t going to consume himself with the past, and Sunday afternoon’s defeat represents the past now. Speaking to the media on Monday, Decker said that while it might be easy to dwell in the past, Week 1 isn’t going to be the determining factor of how the 2020 season turns out.
“At the end of the day, we wanted a win,” Taylor Decker said. “But the whole season doesn’t come down to how Week 1 went.”
Matt Patricia echoed those sentiments as well. As he said, learning and growing from the experience remains the most important thing at the moment.
“It’s important that we learn from today, get going, flip the page and have another good week of practice,” Patricia told the media. “It’s kind of where we’re at right now.”
Detroit fans were frustrated following yet another late game collapse, this one which made some NFL history. No matter the circumstance, the Lions seem to be destined to ignore what happened and focus only on the future, which is Week 2 against the Green Bay Packers.
Adrian Peterson: Lions Loss ‘Temporary Setback’
Following the heartbreaking loss, Peterson was nothing but positive on social media. As he tweeted, Detroit’s 27-23 defeat is only a temporary setback that the team can learn from in order to get better and stay on track in 2020.
More than his leadership, Peterson was great on the field for the Lions, racking up 93 yards rushing in his debut. Few runners hit the hole like Peterson even as a veteran, and he showed off that ability in a big way in the game. Perhaps the only unfortunate development was how inconsistently the Lions used Peterson most of the afternoon. At times in the late stages, they went away from the run with Peterson far too much relative to how it worked.
Credit Peterson for not getting frustrated but simply trying to stay positive and keep things in a good direction.
Adrian Peterson Consoles D’Andre Swift After Drop
After Swift dropped the game winning pass in the end zone, Peterson had nothing but positive words to build up the young running back. As he said, he didn’t want to see the unfortunate drop define Swift, who has a chance to help the team out this season so long as he can keep grinding.
Adrian Peterson on Swift: “I just pulled him to the side and told him, ‘Hey, it’s all about how you respond to this. Don’t let this get you down.’ I can imagine how he must feel. But at the end of the day … he’s going to be able to help us. He’s going to help us win games.”
All told, this is just another great show of leadership for Peterson, who is saying and doing all the right things after his team suffered a tough loss. Having been there before in the NFL, Peterson likely knows all too well the frustrations of Swift and wants to make sure he stays on the right track.
A show like this could mean a lot to the team moving forward, and it’s nice to see Peterson taking a leadership role on multiple fronts so soon after he signed with the team.
From Peterson to Decker and the head coach on down, it sounds as if the Lions are well prepared to move on with their season.
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