The natural inclination after watching the Detroit Lions give up nine sacks in their preseason opener last week against the New England Patriots was to curse the offensive line.

And while the line wasn’t very good in several areas — backup tackles Tyrell Crosby and Andrew Donnal had trouble with speed on the edge, and the Lions had some serious communication issues on the right side — there was one silver lining: The two players competing for the starting left guard job actually had decent days.

Kenny Wiggins started and played one series in each of the first three quarters. He had a rough two-play stretch on the opening drive, when he gave up a sack and was called for a holding penalty on the next snap, but otherwise was solid as a run blocker and in pass protection.

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Wiggins only played 14 snaps, and two negative plays in what amounts to maybe a quarter of work isn’t going to cut it as a starter in the NFL.

But after rewatching every snap Wiggins and Joe Dahl played, it’s clear Wiggins wasn’t to blame for the sack.

There appeared to be a miscommunication on the play, when quarterback Tom Savage took a one-step drop out of a shotgun formation and looked right to throw a quick outlet pass. Both of the Lions receivers on that side of the field ran vertical routes, leaving Savage with nowhere to go.

As Savage stepped up in the pocket, defensive tackle Danny Shelton drove Wiggins back with a hand to the chin (Wiggins wanted a penalty on the play, and probably should have got one) and wrestled Savage to the ground.

Dahl worked with the second-team offense and had an even better day. Dahl played 18 relatively clean snaps — no sacks allowed, no penalties — before giving way to undrafted rookie Micah St. Andrew in the fourth quarter.

Neither player made any bone-crushing blocks or did anything that would confuse them for John Hannah. But on Saturday, Lions coach Matt Patricia mentioned the interior offensive line as one of the few bright spots in an otherwise troubling game.

“There were probably some good interior blocks that maybe didn’t get showcased enough because maybe some of the other blocks around it weren’t good enough or the situation that it was,” Patricia said. “There were definitely some positives in there.”

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Left guard remains the one true starting spot up for grabs now four weeks away from the Lions’ regular-season opener against the Arizona Cardinals.

Wiggins and Dahl are in close to a dead heat for the job, with Wiggins starting 10 games last season and Dahl being the owner of a new contract extension.

Dahl is younger and in theory has more upside, while Wiggins is a savvy vet with longer ties to offensive line coach Jeff Davidson.

“I think just as a team, as a whole, everybody’s in competition,” Dahl said. “We all know that. It’s training camp in the NFL. But I think everybody’s been doing an awesome job. We’ve all been helping each other, too, which is huge. We’re all about the team first. That’s what we’ve been focusing on, but, yeah, I think it’s been great competition so far.”

The Lions will take their left-guard competition to Houston this week, where the possibility of facing J.J. Watt in two joint practices and a preseason game awaits both Wiggins and Dahl.

Dahl took first-team reps at left guard in Saturday’s practice and should get next crack at the starting job. He worked in tandem with starting right guard Graham Glasgow, after being paired exclusively with Oday Aboushi at right guard for the first two weeks of camp.

Wiggins, meanwhile, played right tackle with the second-team offensive line with Crosby unavailable after suffering a brain injury against the Patriots.

The left guard position is still the biggest question mark on the Lions’ offensive line, and perhaps their entire team. And with the preseason at its midpoint, it’s anyone’s guess how things will shake out.

“We come in here every day and just focus on one step at a time,” Dahl said. “That’s what I’m going to continue to do and however it works out, that’s how it’ll be.”

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Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Read more on the Detroit Lions and sign up for our Lions newsletter.