OC: Lions not 'in panic mode' after Week 1 dud

ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Leaving Lambeau Field after an 0-1 start Sunday, wasn't a pleasurable experience for new Detroit Lions offensive coordinator John Morton.

But even after losing the opener at Green Bay 27-13, Morton said "nobody's in panic mode" inside the Lions' building.

Entering the Week 2 home contest against the Chicago Bears, Detroit will try to avoid going 0-2 for the first time since 2021, in Dan Campbell's first season as the Lions' head coach.

However, Bears head coach Ben Johnson -- who spent the previous three seasons as Detroit's offensive coordinator -- will be standing in the way during his much-anticipated return to Ford Field on Sept. 13.

"The bottom line is, this is about execution and the details of everything and then taking a little bit less, so guys are playing a little bit faster, so everybody knows exactly what to do," Morton said. "But I'm encouraged, there were some encouraging things in the game, obviously, and then we move on.

"That's what we've done, great attitude by the guys, 'How do we fix this?' Because we're in the fix-it business as coaches."

Under Johnson, Detroit led the NFL with 33.2 points per game in 2024 -- the second time in team history the Lions have led the league in scoring.

Against the Packers in Week 1, Detroit nearly went a full game without scoring a touchdown until 0:55 remaining in fourth quarter with a 13-yard highlight catch by rookie wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa. The last time the Lions failed to score a touchdown in the first three quarters was Week 7, 2023 versus Baltimore, but Morton sees the mistakes as being correctable.

"Look, we're running plays that these guys have done. Now, there's some new guys in there, but the bottom line is you've got to go execute and we didn't do that every single play. We just didn't," Morton said.

Some of the areas of emphasis were fixing communication between the offensive line, improving in the red zone and establishing the run game better.

Detroit averaged 2.1 yards per rush against the Packers while averaging just 3.8 yards per play, which was the second fewest in any game under Campbell.

Lions veteran offensive tackle Taylor Decker missed a couple of practices this week with a shoulder injury, but Morton says they're "totally expecting Decker to play" versus Chicago.

"The missed assignments looked really bad, but there wasn't like one guy's getting his ass kicked the whole game," Decker said of the offensive line. "It was just a lot of things that we can control and can clean up."

Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown also isn't surprised by the outside reaction of fans and media members being critical of their lackluster offensive output following the Week 1 loss, but he's confident they can get on track.

"We've got a great group of guys in our locker room, guys that have been here when we were losing for a while in those first two years and were able to turn things around," St. Brown said. "So, a lot of us know what it feels to be on the other side of things so we're resilient, guys that will never give up and we have a bunch of good players on our roster. We're going to figure out a way to make things shake."