Lions coach Rod Marinelli has experience with this debate.

After poor performances in the past, he has tried to convince the public and his players that one bad game does not define a team.

He knows full well that Detroiters can be quick to draw conclusions after a half-century of disappointment, and he knows that mentality can seep into the locker room.

After Sunday's season-opening 34-21 loss at Atlanta, he was at it again.

"We had a bad day - a bad day at the office, no doubt about it," Marinelli said. "But this is a group I saw Saturday night. It's the same group, and I like them. I like them a lot. It's a group I feel good about, and they will respond."

Marinelli said he couldn't say anyone played well on defense. The Lions left their gaps, missed tackles, took bad angles - you name it.

"The defense is built, one, on discipline, and two, when your opportunity arises to make that play, you have to make it," Marinelli said. "And we didn't do that."

But Marinelli refused to say the Lions didn't have the talent to get it done.

"All those things are correctable," Marinelli said. "I talked to the team today. It's all correctable.

"I feel great about this team. I really do. I've said that from Day One. It's a strong locker room. We're going to hang together. You're 0-1. Do I like it? No. But we have a heck of a game coming up this week. You don't dwell on it. I don't have that luxury. So I move on. After this, then I move on."

The Lions' home opener is Sunday against Green Bay.

"Let's learn from this," Marinelli said. "Let's not put a new backpack on our back and start carrying extra weight and extra luggage around by perception. So let's eliminate that so we can now focus on what we have to do, not what we didn't do. We know what we didn't do. So now I've got to turn it for them and say, 'This is what we're going to do.' And it's no more than that, but it's hard to do."