Every week during the regular season Tim Twentyman will answer 10 good questions from his Twitter account @ttwentyman in a feature we call "10 Questions with Twentyman."
20man: For me, it was the play of the offensive line. There's a standard that's been built in Hank Fraley's room over the years and they certainly didn't play up to it in Green Bay.
There were too many missed assignments and communication issues. I thought Green Bay was the more physical team upfront, and I can't remember a time I've said that about a Detroit offensive line.
I talked to a lot of the offensive linemen this week and the good thing from my perspective is they owned up to the performance. There was no running from it and they vowed to be better. I'd expect those guys upfront to play a much cleaner game coming back home against Chicago this week.
Additionally, I'd like to see a much cleaner performance overall from cornerback Terrion Arnold. Defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard talked this week about some previous mistakes from his rookie season popping up again Week 1. Maybe the groin injury he suffered early in the contest played a role, but he needs to be more consistent Sunday.
20man: After a performance like the one we saw last week, it's always wise to lean on your stars for a bounce-back performance. For Detroit's offense, I'm looking at wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. He and Sam LaPorta were a couple of the bright spots against the Packers last week. I think the Lions look to feed St. Brown this week much more than the six targets (four receptions) he had against the Packers.
St. Brown has had five-plus catches in seven of his final eight games at Ford Field last season and has 60-plus receiving yards in five of his past six games against the Chicago Bears.
20man: I mentioned the offensive line above, so let's pivot to the defensive front. After watching the unit all through training camp, I thought they'd be more disruptive Week 1. They recorded zero sacks, had just two quarterback hits, and had no player with more than one hurry.
EDGE Aidan Hutchinson was asked this week how many true one-on-one rushes he thought he had without a double team, chip, or nudge. He thought about it for a minute and said just a few. He said when he does get those rare one-on-one looks, he has to win them. He took ownership of that.
When teams are going to focus their attention on Hutchinson, it's imperative for other players upfront to win their one-on-ones. That didn't happen last week. This is a copycat league and until other players step up and create more havoc, Hutchinson is going to continue to get the star treatment and be the focus of more attention.
The Lions face a Bears' offense that allowed 23 quarterback pressures against Minnesota Monday night. It's not as good of a unit as Green Bay, who I thought had a good plan against Detroit's defense last week. It will be a loud environment at Ford Field and the Bears will operate under silent counts, so I'd expect the defensive front to create more havoc in that environment.
20man: It looked different for two reasons.
First, Detroit struggled to run the football with any kind of consistency. They averaged just 2.1 yards per carry and then got behind early by double digits so they had to abandon the plan and play catch up with the passing game. Just like former offensive coordinator Ben Johnson's offense the last few years, everything starts with the run in offensive coordinator John Morton's scheme. It opens up the play action and some of the deep shots, and when an offense becomes one-dimensional it's much easier to scheme them up.
Second, Green Bay did a nice job playing a lot of Cover 2 and 3 Buzz and keeping everything in front of them. They were determined to take the deep part of the field away. Quarterback Jared Goff was forced to dump down a lot and take what the Packers' defense was giving him. Green Bay did a nice job rallying to the football and tackling. Morton dialed up some deep shots when he got the right look, but Goff didn't have the time to get to it and was forced to dump it down.
I'd expect the offense to be much better overall against Chicago Sunday.
20man: That Jamarco Jones injury leading up to Week 1 is turning out to be significant, especially with Dan Skipper dealing with an injury that's forced him to miss a lot of practice recently. Skipper was working off to the side with trainers this week, which was good to see.
Offensive coordinator John Morton expects Taylor Decker to play Sunday, but if not I'm not sure if Giovanni Manu or Mason Miller are ready yet. The team signed Devin Cochran to the practice squad this week. He played in nine games with one start for Cincinnati last year. He's probably the best option if no Decker or Skipper.
Then the question becomes, do you move Penei Sewell to left tackle to protect Goff's blindside? If you do, that disrupts a lot of the stuff they like to do in the run and screen game with Sewell playing on the right. I think your point about playing next to the rookie Tate Ratledge is valid as well as they continue to build that chemistry.
Let's just hope Decker can get to a point this week where the shoulder injury he's dealing with allows him to play.
20man: Can the Lions get back to winning the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball? If so, I like their chances. If not, it can be another long afternoon.
It doesn't matter how explosive the skill weapons are or how good you can cover in the backend if you can't dictate play upfront. Detroit has to get back to winning the line of scrimmage this week.
20man: It's a fair question but I think we need a larger sample size than one week. I'd also say after watching the tape, there were several instances where it wasn't blocked up very well and that isn't the fault of the returner.
Special teams coordinator Dave Fipp likes bigger bodied returners. I've wanted to see wide receiver Kalif Raymond return kickoffs because I think he'd be dynamic at it, but that's not what the team prefers based on his size and workload on offense.
I think we must see this play out a little more, but if they don't get more production, I would expect Dan Campbell and Fipp to pivot.
I'd like to see Sione Vaki as a returner this week if he's back from injury. He's got a chance to be dynamic in that role.
20man: It's the offensive line for me. The missed assignments and communication issues must get cleaned up. They must create more space in the run game too. Lions running backs were hit behind the line of scrimmage on 16 of their 22 rush attempts.
Those guys upfront know they must play better too, and I'd expect they do. Decker, Sewell and Graham Glasgow have played in a lot of games and know what good football looks like. I suspect it will look a lot more like we've been used to seeing in Detroit Sunday against the Bears.
20man: Not at all. It's a non-issue in my opinion. There are a lot of offensive coordinators that sit in the box because it allows them to see the entire field and generate a plan and a sequencing of plays based on the looks they're seeing.
Morton has plenty of eyes on the ground, particularly pass game coordinator David Shaw. Morton doesn't like the chaos of the sideline and believes he can call plays better from the box. It's the system he's developed for himself over 20-plus years coaching in the NFL. Until I sense there's some communication issues or something to that effect, I don't think it's an issue at all.
20man: It's imperative this week that Detroit starts fast. They can't find themselves in a hole early again this week. They must start fast, keep the crowd in the game, and make Ford Field the home field advantage it is.
Campbell knows how important this game is.
"We're going to win this game, we have to," he said this week. "We've got to find a way to clean things up and do what we've got to do."
