Getty Adrian Peterson walks off after Detroit's loss.
The Detroit Lions haven’t started the 2020 season in great shape whatsoever, but Adrian Peterson is only a fan of looking forward and not back.
Peterson, even in spite of the tough start, still thinks the Lions can do some damage this season. As he said, there are plenty of games left for the Lions to make a run and start to turn things around. Peterson hinted the team can still finish with a great record when meeting with the media, and laid out the plan moving forward.
As he said, it only involves working hard in the room:
“Taking it was 2 divisional games, that sucks. It put us in the hole, but the good thing is we see those guys again and we can even up the series 1-1. Not looking ahead, but that’s something to keep in mind and it’s a long season. There’s 14 more games out there, but who’s to say we can’t go 14-2? Who to say we won’t go 12-4? There’s a lot of football left, the only thing we can focus on now is correcting the things we did bad and becoming a better team overall.”
Certainly, those records are still out there for the Lions, even though fans and others would be skeptical of them getting that job done in the end. Detroit will face a middle part of the schedule that seems doable after their tough 4 game start to the season. If somehow the Lions could claw back to .500 heading into the bye week, it would go a long way toward proving Peterson’s point and getting things on track.
It’s nice to see Peterson being grounded and giving the team quality veteran leadership that could make a difference in the end. If the Lions do pull out of their funk, Peterson will be someone they could thank.
Adrian Peterson Positive After Week 1
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.
Analyst ‘Not Counting Lions Out’ From Playoff Race
One of those other folks to not be pushing the panic button so early is Conor Orr of Sports Illustrated. Orr recently put a series of 0-2 teams under the microscope to see who could still recover in time for a possible playoff run, and when it came to the Lions, he was willing to say that there was the possibility of a turnaround being in the cards.
Orr wrote:
“I’m not ready to count out Detroit, especially with Kenny Golladay’s return imminent. This should open up the Lions’ offense enough to make them competitive once their schedule softens up. After their Week 5 bye, the Lions get Jacksonville, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Washington and Carolina in a row. This is a good place to stack some wins together.”
The counter point to that argument, of course, is the Lions could easily be sitting at 0-4 before they make any type of run. Plus, games against the teams Orr mentions could hardly be described as gimmes in the grand scheme of things considering how the Lions have played so far this season. Detroit could easily lose to the likes of the Jaguars, Falcons, Colts, Vikings, Washington and Panthers.
Obviously, the Lions still have time to make up ground, but they had better make their move soon, or the conversation will continue to turn toward uncomfortable topics, such as Matt Patricia’s potentially shaky job security.
Peterson isn’t even thinking of that now, only how to make a run.
READ NEXT: Lions Host Veteran Pass Rusher on Visit