Detroit Lions' Terrion Arnold receives praise from Cooper Kupp in his NFL debut

Detroit Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold learned a lot in his rookie debut. He made both positive and false plays, but his confidence never wavered and he left the season opener with the respect of the superstar he was assigned to guard for most of the evening: former Offensive Player of the Year, Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp.

“As a cornerback, you have the toughest job. Just go out there and (see for yourself),” Arnold said in the locker room after the Lions' overtime win over the Rams. “Cooper Kupp is a great player. So I defended him – even after the game I went up to him and he said, 'Yes, you are one of them.' It was a great game, a great match against him and I enjoyed it.”

That's a huge compliment from Kupp, who had an outstanding day as Matthew Stafford's primary target. Although Arnold wasn't responsible for all of Kupp's performance, the two faced each other quite a bit and the veteran receiver was impressed.

“I mean, he's a competitive football player, I think that's what's special,” Kupp told MLive's Kory Woods after the game about Ben Raven. “As a young guy, it's important to step up and compete and challenge others. I know he's just getting better and better as the year goes on. You see the guys talking, the safeties, they're communicating with him and trusting him. I think it's going to be cool for him to just grow this year. It's going to be fun to watch him from afar. But it was definitely fun to compete against him.”

Arnold was somewhat more critical of his performance, pointing to two pass interference penalties that occurred while covering receivers on corner routes.

“I felt like I played pretty well,” Arnold said. “Usually on those corners — like the (final) corner — I was mad at myself because I felt like I could have turned around and made a play. And that would have been a big turnaround in momentum. But (on that), I have a short-term mentality, those PIs (pass interference penalties) — I hold myself to a high standard, so I felt like those kind of hurt our team. But I take full responsibility for that. I'm going to start over and get better.”

While rewatching the game video gives him a better idea of ​​where things went wrong, he feels that improvements will first be seen in hand position and proper head movement to locate the football.

“I think I could have been better with my hands and looking at the ball,” Arnold continued. “And those are plays where I have to look up, take the risk of looking at the ball and make those plays.”

Arnold believed his mistakes were correctable, and Lions coach Dan Campbell seemed to agree, according to his comments at the postgame press conference.

“Just watching the replay of both of them, I wasn't too concerned,” Campbell said. “I know why they threw them, especially the second one, like, 'OK, I got it, I get it.' It's corny, but that's the way they do it. They're going to throw it because they believe it, because they see it and it's all good. We get over it. But no, I didn't feel like it was as obvious as, 'Oh, he's in a bad position, or I need to talk to him about it.' I don't want to take the sting out of him. I want him to play aggressively, and I thought he did some really good things today. It definitely wasn't too big for him.”

The Lions were pleased with their rookie's performance and believe his mistakes are correctable. Arnold's NFL debut was certainly a big challenge, and at the end of the day, the rookie is as confident as ever.

“I know I'm one of those guys,” Arnold reflected on Kupp's compliment. “I mean, I know I'm a great player. I go out there and play with confidence and that's a testament to my hard work.”