ALLEN PARK -- Frank Ragnow was beaten on his first one-on-one rep in Raiders camp. Badly.

He hasn't been bad in Detroit. Quite the contrary, actually. He's enjoyed a really good rookie camp with the Lions, comparable to the one Taylor Decker enjoyed as a first-round pick in 2016.

But that first rep in Napa, against a guy he's never seen, operating in a system he's never seen, fooled him. Badly. It wasn't a great day for this year's first-round pick.

The next day, he got better.

And in the preseason opener, he didn't allow a pressure on any of his 26 pass-blocking reps.

"With Frank, I thought the best part was the improvement through the week," Lions coach Matt Patricia said. "I think that still holds true all through the tape. The beginning part of the week, again, getting out there against some of the competition, not really being in that environment before.

"I would say, the offensive line in general, that's one of the hardest units to have to try to prepare. And especially as a new guy, some of those other guys have played together for a while here, and to be able to see everything that the Raiders did--which is a lot, they do a lot of different scheme stuff with the double mug and the different pressures and the blitz packages that they run -- there's a lot there for an offensive lineman to digest."

This is all part of the normal progression for an offensive lineman. Ragnow was one of best in the country in his last season at Arkansas -- in fact, he never did allow a sack -- but this level is different on so many levels. The speed is a little faster, the hits a little more physical. What worked last year might not work against a grown man. There is an adjustment period.

Just listen to the way Ragnow talks about a preseason game, which is old hat for most of the guys he's seeing.

"First time I put on an NFL uniform," he said, smiling, a few minutes after the game. "I played in the NFL against the Oakland Raiders. I mean, that's pretty special."

Put a guy like that across from one of the more talented defensive lines in the league for a week, and of course you're going to see some mistakes. It's not really about making mistakes -- they are to be expected.

It's about responding to the mistakes well -- and by all accounts, that's exactly what Ragnow has done since joining Detroit this summer.

"I think the joint practices definitely benefited us," Ragnow said. "Getting a chance to get those two days in before definitely helped. But you turn on the lights, and everything gets a little faster."

And when the play did speed up Friday night at the Coliseum, Ragnow didn't blink. He executed every one of his pass blocks, and even helped spring Ameer Abdullah's touchdown run with a textbook block at the goal line.

"I thought the biggest improvement I saw on tape was the communication from that standpoint, especially with the different tackles that were playing next to him," Patricia said. "Just getting on the same page so there wasn't just a straight free runner. From that assignment standpoint, that was a big, big positive."