Perhaps it was some sort of omen that the first play of the game was a penalty?

Chicago Bears kicker Cairo Santos sent the ball into the air to open the game, and the kickoff promptly sailed out of bounds.

Cue penalty No. 1. That was the first of eight flags the Bears collected Sunday. It’s better than the 12 penalties the Bears had Monday, but barely.

The Bears had more issues beyond flags, though. All of it added up to 52-21 butt kicking at Ford Field. Ben Johnson’s old friends did to him what they did to plenty of teams the past two seasons.

“You lose a game like that, man, it’s a kick in the teeth,” Johnson said. “Nothing about that feels good.”

The Bears have felt this before. The Lions smoked them last December behind Johnson’s offensive genius. Now, however, Johnson is on the other side of that.

Of all the lessons Johnson learned Sunday, it’s that patience is the biggest virtue. 

He also learned that this Bears’ reclamation project will take time, whether he likes it or not.

What we know:

Johnson believes he can win now. That’s not an arrogant confidence. It’s a belief he has in his players that he can win.

“There’s no reason why we can’t win this year,” Johnson said before Week 1.

This is the NFL. Players are among the best players in the world. If someone’s on an NFL roster, they’ve earned it.

Still, a team needs to click in the schemes they’re being coached in. For Johnson, that included an 11-point collapse on Monday Night Football and, now, a pure, unadulterated butt kicking on the road.

If the Bears got kicked in the teeth like Johnson said, the team will look like Blackhawks Hall of Famer Duncan Keith after taking a puck to his mouth in the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Bears allowed big play after big play. They allowed 511 yards of total offense. Lions quarterback Jared Goff completed 15 consecutive passes. Jameson Williams had gains of 44 and 64 yards. The 44-yard gain was a touchdown where Williams just tormented the Bears’ secondary. Life goes on after Johnson, and it’s in the form of Lions’ offensive coordinator Johnny Morton.

“I don’t think it’s really a drop-off without Ben,” Williams told reporters after the game. “Shoutout to Ben, he’s a great coach, great play-caller. But we make plays, man.”

It doesn’t help that the entire Lions team took this game personally.

They didn’t let up. Johnson expected this to be the case, too. That manifested on fourth and goal, where the Lions threw Amon-Ra St. Brown his third touchdown catch. They never settled under Johnson. They won’t settle under Morton.

“What’s he supposed to do? Yeah, he could’ve kicked a field goal. They don’t kick field goals. They go for it there,” Johnson said. “That’s what he does.”

Sure, the Lions might have wanted to stick it to their old coach, too.

“We knew coming into this game that this is personal,” Lions safety Brian Branch said. “Really all the games are personal, but this one, we felt like we’ve been betrayed – from the staff to the players. And we love Ben, we still love Ben. He’s a great coach, he’s a great mastermind, but yeah, it was time to get out there.”

That’s a near-perfect storm for the Bears to clear. And the Bears are indeed mired in a storm right now.

Their offense failed them on Monday night. On Sunday, both phases failed them.

The offensive line, comprised of veteran players, committed five penalties. Four were accepted. Somehow, this Bears veteran offense lacks poise for a group that’s been to Pro Bowls, Super Bowls and in the league for a while. 

The same goes for a defense, which kept taking hit after hit. Especially when Jaylon Johnson and TJ Edwards left after re-aggravating the injuries that kept them out in Week 1.

“We’re in the middle of the storm right now,” Safety Kevin Byard said.

What’s next:

Byard didn’t mince words. He echoed what was said after Monday night’s loss to Minnesota.

“We got a lot of work to do,” Byard said. 

Now, the Bears are in a 0-2 hole. Not just overall but in the NFC North. They’re looking for anything and everything possible to find the positives in it all.

“In the moment, it sucks man,” wide receiver Rome Odunze said. “I just want to get back on track.”

So far, the Bears haven’t been on track this season. Whatever that looks like is still to be determined.

Johnson is impatient by nature. When he sees penalties like false starts and parts of the game the Bears should have down pat by the end of training camp, it bothers him because it gets in the way of winning football.

It was more than just penalties on Sunday.

There were turnovers, missed defensive assignments, blocking issues and struggles abound. The Bears might be a work in progress. However long Johnson thought it would take to correct the course, it’ll take longer. The Bears aren’t anywhere near close to contending for the NFC North crown, let alone the playoffs.

But, he won’t look at a 31-point loss where his defense allowed 52 points and stay down. He already doesn’t see it as discouraging. It’s just a reminder there’s work to do.

“It’s not demoralizing at all,” Johnson said. “We got to play better. Simple as that.”