A long-awaited moment for Aidan Hutchinson turned into a day he'd rather forget. Playing in his first game in almost a year after breaking his leg last October, Hutchinson was stifled by the Packers on a day they silenced the Lions.
For Hutchinson, the only win in Detroit's 27-13 season-opening loss is that his leg felt strong. He didn't want to lose sight of that. It mattered enough that he said, "It's funny, when you go out last year like that and you come out in a game like this, it sucks losing but you’re blessed for your health, a little bit more."
Hutchinson was the Lions' best player in training camp. That was clear on the practice fields in Allen Park. He was much less noticeable on Sunday. His counterpart, Micah Parsons, did far more on far fewer snaps for the Packers. Green Bay made life as difficult as possible for Hutchinson with extra blockers on the edge, while none of Hutchinson's teammates took advantage of their one-on-ones elsewhere. Hutchinson finished with one quarterback hit. The Lions totaled two.
"I thought they did a good job of chipping in the right moments in some of those longer play-actions," Hutchinson said. "It just felt a little tough. Hirst half they had a few of those man-beaters where the ball is out pretty quick, so it wasn’t ideal. We definitely gotta find a way to generate some more even when there’s chips and stuff like that."
Even if he didn't quite look like it, Hutchinson said he felt like himself, "really explosive, fast." He just struggled to create lanes toward Jordan Love, who rarely had to leave his spot in the pocket, especially in the first half when the Packers took a 17-3 lead. Hutchinson nearly got home to Love in the fourth quarter when the game was still within reach, but Love escaped through a big hole up the middle. The Packers punched it in a few plays later to all but seal the win.
Double teams are nothing new to Hutchinson. As Dan Campbell noted, "That’s the world he’s in, man. He doesn’t get one-on-ones." Hutchinson felt like he was getting even more attention than usual on Sunday; the Packers basically refused to let him beat them. They nudged protections his way and hit him whenever they could.
"It felt like there wasn’t a ton of one-on-one opportunities today," Hutchinson said. "I definitely gotta watch the film a little more, but it didn’t feel like I had a ton of opps. I think there was one in the second half where (Love) stepped up, I spun, I thought that was an opp, I think me and Tyleik almost ran into each other a little bit, but he stepped up, there was a big A gap there.
"But I don't know. It just felt like they were chipping a lot and I think Jordan Love was doing a pretty good job of getting the ball out and being smart with the ball, and they were executing their plays. Some of them were definitely on us."
The Lions' pass rush as a whole failed to show up. Neither Marcus Davenport nor Al-Quadin Muhammad exploited their matchups across from Hutchinson, while DJ Reader and Tyleik Williams generated very little push on the interior. Detroit's blitzing linebackers were neutralized. It was a largely stress-free day for Love. Asked about his confidence in the Lions' pass rush, Hutchinson said, "We're going to get it cooking. We’re going to find a way, that’s for sure."
Campbell credited the Packers for snuffing out the pressure the Lions tried to send up the middle.
"I thought they did a good job of bottling it up, and if you can, you can hit some of that stuff head on, especially your halfback will go up and take on the backer," he said. "It can get bottlenecked in there and that happened a few times, so we got out of it and tried to do some straight rush here and there. They nudged the edges, they made sure they hit Hutch."
Sunday was humbling for the Lions. It was the first time they looked roundly overmatched on the field and on the sidelines since getting routed by the Ravens in October of 2023. But Detroit hasn't lost back to back games since early in Hutchinson's rookie season, with mostly the same core of players they have today. Asked how they'll bounce back for next week's game against the Bears, Hutchinson said, "We’re going to do it how we always do it."
"We got a good history of responding and we got another divisional next week, so I think it’s going to be good for us. There’s a lot of expectation this year. Come in, lose like that, I’m sure people will be really down on us, and that’s where we thrive, when everyone doesn’t believe in us anymore," he said. "I’m sure everyone’s going to be talking, but I think what we do really well is when this adversity hits, we put the blinders on and we go."