ALLEN PARK, Mich. – Detroit Lions offensive coordinator John Morton did not have a pleasant experience leaving Lambeau Field after the season-opening loss. Despite the 27-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers, Morton assured that “nobody is panicking” within the team. The Lions prepare for their first home game of the season against the Chicago Bears in Week 2, looking to avoid an 0-2 start for the first time since 2021, the season in which Dan Campbell debuted as head coach. The Bears’ head coach, Ben Johnson, who was Detroit’s offensive coordinator for the last three seasons, will be a key rival in the expected return to Ford Field on September 13.
Under Johnson’s direction, Detroit led the NFL with 33.2 points per game in 2024, the second time in team history that the Lions led the league in scoring. In the game against the Packers in Week 1, Detroit was close to not scoring touchdowns until the last seconds of the fourth quarter, with a standout 13-yard reception by rookie receiver Isaac TeSlaa. The last time the Lions didn’t score a touchdown in the first three quarters was in Week 7 of 2023 against Baltimore, but Morton believes the mistakes are correctable.The key is execution and the details of everything, and then take a little less, so that the players play a little faster, so that everyone knows exactly what to do. But I feel encouraged, there were encouraging things in the game, obviously, and then we move on.
John Morton, offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions
Some of the areas of focus were improving communication between the offensive line, improving in the red zone, and establishing the running game better. Detroit averaged 2.1 yards per carry against the Packers and only 3.8 yards per play, the second-lowest average in a game under Campbell. The Lions’ veteran offensive tackle, Taylor Decker, missed some practices this week due to a shoulder injury, but Morton expects Decker to play against Chicago.We’re running plays that these guys have already done. Now, there are some new players, but the bottom line is you have to go out and execute, and we didn’t do it on every play. We just didn’t do it.
John Morton, offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions
Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown isn’t surprised by the critical reaction from fans and media to the offensive underperformance, but he’s confident they can improve.Missed assignments looked really bad, but it wasn’t like one guy was getting beat the whole game. It was a lot of things that we can control and we can clean up.
Taylor Decker, Detroit Lions offensive tackle
We have a great group of guys in our locker room, guys who have been here when we lost for a while in those first couple of years and we were able to turn things around. So, a lot of us know what it feels like to be on the other side of things, so we’re resilient, guys who will never give up and we have a ton of good players on our roster. We’re going to find a way to make things change.
Amon-Ra St. Brown, Detroit Lions wide receiver
