When Terrion Arnold ran out of the tunnel, heard the roar of the Ford Field crowd and felt the adrenaline coursing through his veins, it was a reminder, he said, "that I’m gonna play this game for a very long time, continue to improve and become a big-time star in this league."
And when he shook hands with Cooper Kupp after the Lions' season-opening win over the Rams, the rookie cornerback said the star wide receiver told him, "Yeah man, you one of them ones."
"It was a great matchup going against him," Arnold said.
The 21-year-old had quite the task in his NFL debut, spending much of the night guarding one of the slickest receivers in the league. Kupp was targeted an absurd 21 times by Matthew Stafford on a night the Rams lost fellow star receiver Puka Nacua to an injury, and Arnold was in coverage for lots of them. He didn't make any big plays, and Kupp drew him into a pass interference call in the end zone. He also didn't back down.
"He’s a competitive football player, I think that’s the thing," Kupp said after the Lions' 26-20 overtime win, via MLive . "As a young guy, being able to come up and compete and challenge guys, he’s just going to continue to get better I know as the year goes on. You see those guys talking, the safeties, they’re communicating with him and trusting him. I think that’s something that’s going to be cool for him just to grow this year. It’ll be fun to watch him from afar. But it was certainly fun competing against him."
Stafford and the Rams tested Arnold early and often, as Arnold figured they would. He was tight on Demarcus Robinson on a shot down the sideline on the second play of the game, which helped force the Rams into a three and out. It also looked like he had good position -- and a key pass breakup on third down -- on the play for which he was called for pass interference on Kupp, but Arnold made enough contact with Kupp without getting his head around to warrant a flag.
He was flagged again for pass interference in the end zone in the fourth quarter when he briefly held Robinson on a corner route, nullifying another would-be pass breakup. The first one led to a touchdown for the Rams, the second to a field goal. Arnold said he "could've been better with my hands, just looking back for the ball," and should've been more willing to "take a risk to make those plays."
Overall, the first-round pick "felt like I played alright" in the Lions' 26-20 win.
"That corner ball I was really mad at myself because I feel like I could’ve turned in and made that play, and that would have been a big momentum shifter," he said. "But short play mentality. Those PI’s, I hold myself to a high standard and those hurt our a team a little bit, but I take full accountability for it. I’m gonna get to the drawing board and get better."
While Dan Campbell thought both calls were "ticky-tacky," he understood them after watching the replays. Arnold opened himself up to the flags by having his hands on the receiver before the ball arrived, especially the one to Robinson. But Campbell can live with the mistakes knowing that neither one was a "blatant" example of Arnold either being out of position or blowing an assignment. He was there. He just didn't execute at the finish.
"I don’t want to take away his stinger. I want him to play aggressive, and I thought he did some really good things today. Certainly was not too big for him. He stepped up," Campbell said.
It helped Arnold to have a veteran playing across from him. Carlton Davis III encouraged Arnold after the flags "to keep his head in the game" and said that it just "happens like that sometimes, especially him being a rookie."
"Refs will kind of pick on you a little bit for any little thing, so just trying to tell him, stay positive, don’t worry about it, next-play mentality," Davis said.
A physical corner himself, Davis can relate. He remembers getting flagged often as a rookie before he gained credibility with officials across the league.
"It happened to me. They just gotta understand your play style," Davis said. "Everybody plays a little different. Once they see you and see how physical you are and that you’re not really tugging on the receiver, you’re just playing ball, they’ll loosen up a little."
All things considered, it was a positive debut for Arnold, and a solid showing for the Lions' new-look secondary. Stafford threw for more than 300 yards, but finished with a passer rating of 85.2 -- almost identical to that of Jared Goff.
Davis, like Arnold, didn't make any splash plays, and he was kicking himself afterward for dropping a potential pick on the Rams' final drive of regulation. But he did help deny a fourth-down pass to Kupp in the second quarter and tackled well throughout the game.
"I thought we played good as a secondary, for sure," said Davis. "We want to be the best in the league, so we gotta be better, be more opportunistic, especially with the ball. We just too many dropped picks. But overall, we kept the score down, 20 points. First game out, we’re still building our chemistry in the backend, but it’s coming together.
"In order to get to where we want to get to, we gotta keep stacking those weeks and get more familiar with each other and just make more plays."
That should happen with time. For now, the Lions are 1-0, and the tandem of Arnold and Davis has plenty of room to grow.
Local News
Comments / 0