The Pressbox

Can the first game of an NFL season be a must-win situation?

Probably not, but the rules are sometimes different for the Detroit Lions.

Confident voices have been emerged from the Lion locker room during the preseason. Jon Kitna boldly predicted 10 wins or more. Many of the players supported their quarterback.

But that kind of talk quickly flies out the window if the Lions can’t open today with a win over the only team in the NFL that was worse than them last season.

What a blow it would be to the Lions if Josh McCown, who was traded to Oakland after not being able to beat out Kitna for the Detroit’s starting quarterback job last year, leads the Raiders to victory.

So, for the Lions, maybe Game 1 is must-win.

The Detroit Lions opened their exhibition season with a 27-26 win over the Cincinnati Bengals Thursday night and like most openers there was plenty of good and bad.

The offense moved the ball well, racking up 548 yards of total offense, but the defense looked helpless when Carson Palmer and Cincinnati’s first-team offense was on the field.

Starting quarterback Jon Kitna threw just five passes before giving way to backups T.J. OSullivan and Dan Orlosky. Each of them threw for more than 200 yards and had some nice moments, but both made critical mistakes.

Tatum Bell looks like he could be a good addition at running back with Kevin Jones battling back from an injury.

My overall first impression: Expect a lot of high scoring games for the Lions. The offense looks potent, but the defense is lacking especially in the secondary.

The Detroit Lions have been taking some heat for their draft. Local commentators don’t like their choices because many of them don’t fill immediate needs.

Much of the criticism stems from the choice of MSU quarterback Drew Stanton instead of a linebacker like David Harris of Michigan early in the second round.

I agree to an extent, but I think Stanton has a chance to be a good NFL quarterback.

What do you think?

Wide receiver was not the No. 1 priority of the Detroit Lions in the NFL draft. They have a host of other holes that are much bigger.

Having said that, I believe they made an excellent choice when they took Calvin Johnson with the No. 2 pick.

Most analysts had him rated as the No. 1 player in the draft. You can’t pass up a talent like that to pick for need. I bet a lot of the teams drafting behind the Lions were betting that Detroit would blink and leave Johnson available.

I still am not completely convinced that Johnson will stay with the Lions. Tampa Bay took Gaines Adams at No. 4. He is a player the Lions liked and the Buccanneers coveted Johnson. A deal still might be made.

I keep getting this sick feeling that the Lions are going to take Brady Quinn with the second pick in the NFL Draft Saturday.

He would be the worst pick of the five considered to be the best players in the draft.

Quinn broke nearly every Notre Dame passing record, but that is more indicative of the offensive scheme of Charlie Weis than Quinn’s talents. Quinn never measured up in the big games.

Hopefully, the Lions are just using Quinn as a smokescreen and plan to select someone else or trade down in the first round.

Even though the Lions don’t have a great track record of taking receivers early in the first round. I wouldn’t mind seeing them take Calvin Johnson (if the Raiders don’t take him). But all accounts, he is the closest this draft comes to a sure thing.

Who would you like to see the Lions grab?

The NFL makes no sense.

Marty Schottenheimer was fired as coach of the San Diego Chargers after leading his team to an NFL-best 14-2 record this season, but Matt Millen remains as president of the Detroit Lions despite an NFL-worst 24-72 record during his tenure.