ALLEN PARK -- The new Detroit Lions offense was expected to feature the running game more prominently, but Matthew Stafford and the passing game stole the show on opening day.

Stafford threw for 385 yards in the season-opening tie against Arizona. That was third most in the league, and a personal high since 2017. And he did it despite facing pressure more often than every starting quarterback not named Deshaun Watson.

Stafford was pressured on 47.1% of his dropbacks, and a league-high 24 times overall.

Right tackle Rick Wagner wasn’t good, allowing one sack and a league-high seven pressures. But left tackle Taylor Decker was somehow worse, allowing two sacks (both of which led to fumbles, one of which was lost) and seven pressures overall. He also committed four penalties, one of which was declined.

Out of 178 offensive linemen who played in Week 1, Decker’s pass blocking ranked 172nd according to ProFootballFocus.

“(The Cardinals) have two really good edge players," coach Matt Patricia said. “(Terrell) Suggs has been doing it for a long time and Chandler Jones is one ... of the top one or two guys in the league in its entirety. Thought for the offensive line, that was a big task in front of them."

Sure, but now the Lions face the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 2, and the Chargers might have an even better pass-rushing combo in edges Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram. Both players had sacks in a Week 1 win against Indianapolis, and combined for five QB hits.

While Patricia noted there were problems in protection, he did not seem overly concerned in general and about Decker in particular.

“Protection-wise, some of it for us, trying to keep the width of the pocket with those two guys,” Patricia said. "They had some pretty good pass rush games, especially built up some of the protections that we had dialed up to get those guys where they were able to come inside and get into the middle of the pocket pretty quick off of some of those stunts, were pretty good on their end. They executed those really well.

"We just have to – it’s a full unit effort up front with the five offensive lineman. It may not always be the guy that’s lined up on you, may be different look, different scheme, different pressure. There was a lot of blitz packages, especially late in the game, that they went to that created some different sort of one-on-one matchups that we had to deal with. All of that is part of the game, but part of the process of, I think I talk about it all the time, getting the offensive line to see everything through the same set of eyes so that everyone is on the same page. Everyone knows where their help is at, knows how to set, knows where to go on the defensive lineman and protect the pocket from inside out. Some of that we need to clean up.”

Stafford struggled with some of that pressure coming in from the edges, completing just 8 of 19 passes with a passer rating of 63.9 when under duress. But he was lights out when he was kept clean, completing 19 of 26 passes for 263 yards and a toasty passer rating of 143.6.

All three of Stafford’s touchdown passes came when he was kept clean in the pocket, finding Danny Amendola (47 yards), Kenny Golladay (9 yards) and T.J. Hockenson (23 yards) for scores.

The new offense was built to feature the run more prominently. But in its debut, Stafford was Detroit’s leading rusher in the first half and Kerryon Johnson was held to just 49 yards overall. Instead, it was Stafford’s right arm once again that carried the day, helping Detroit put up 27 points on the road despite dealing with more pressure than every other quarterback in Week 1.

Nobody in Detroit feels good about the tie, but there was a lot to like about the offense and Stafford’s command of it. Darrell Bevell’s playcalling was sound and inventive, especially in the second and third quarters. But the offensive line was a serious problem, with pressure leaking in from the edges and only occasional success on the ground. Those issues will have to be addressed for this offense to achieve its potential.

Here are some more numbers to consider from the first game of the new system:

-- The sample size is so small, but there’s a lot to like about how Bevell has disguised the play action so far. Stafford completed 9 of 10 passes out of those looks, for 193 yards, one touchdown and a near-perfect passer rating of 152.1. His completion percentage rose by 38.6% out of play action, tops in the league. His yards per attempt rose by 13.8, which was second. Now imagine how good it could be when there’s actually a threat of the run.

-- Perhaps the biggest difference between the old system and new is the use of the tight ends. The Lions started the game with both T.J. Hockenson and Jesse James on the field, and rolled with multiple tight ends for 27 of their 80 plays. That’s 33.75%. Last year, they had multiple tight ends on the field just 18% of the time, which was 31st in the league. In other words, the Lions went big nearly twice as much in the opener as they did last year. And with the way Hockenson playing so well, you can understand why. Bevell especially liked to run multiple-tight end sets on first down, doing it 19 times on 35 first-down plays.

-- To make room for more tight ends on the field, the Lions used less of the third (and fourth) receiver. The Lions had a third (or fourth) receiver on the field for just 52.5% of their plays on Sunday. Last year, it was 65.8%.

-- Of course, the Lions also ran a zone-read where Matthew Stafford kept the ball and ran to the left for a first down. That’s especially new.

-- While the protections were a problem on the edge, it’s worth pointing out Joe Dahl turned in a clean sheet at left guard. He didn’t allow a single pressure, and ProFootballFocus ranked him as the best pass protector in Week 1. Yes, in the league. For all positions. Not a bad debut in the starting lineup for the fourth-year man out of Washington State. Then again, his run blocking wasn’t nearly as good, ranking 86th overall and 38th among just the guards.

-- As a team, the Lions’ pass blocking ranked 31st and run blocking ranked 20th according to PFF.

-- The playcalling was pretty balanced no matter how you cut it. The Lions ran the ball 18 times on first down (averaging 3.33 yards) and passed it 16 times (averaging 8.53 yards). On second down, they ran it 10 times and passed it 15 times. On third down, they passed (16 times) far more than they ran (twice), but they also were in a lot of third-and-longs. Eleven of their 18 third downs required at least 6 yards to move the chains. In short-yardage situations -- requiring 3 or fewer yards to move the chains on second and third down -- they ran it four times (moving the sticks twice) and passed it four times (moving the sticks all four times).

-- Having said that, while there was balance throughout the game, there was also a shift from passing the ball in the first half (when they built a lead) to running the ball in the second half (when they were trying to hold a lead) according to Walter Football. They passed 54% of the time in the first half, achieving a 64% early-down success rate and averaging just 4.0 yards to go on third down. In the second half, they ran the ball 61% of the time, with just a 43% early-down success rate. They averaged 9.9 yards to go on third down. The pass was clearly more effective, and Detroit’s offense found itself in a bunch of long-distance situations in the second half because they were trying to run the football so much.