Sewell: It's 'Sickening' to See Quarterback Get Sacked

Detroit Lions offensive tackle Penei Sewell talked to the media Friday about his rookie season.

Life comes at you fast in the NFL. 

Just ask offensive lineman Penei Sewell, who has entered the "growing pains" portion of his rookie season. 

The Lions' 2021 first-round draft pick -- the No. 7 overall selection -- entered the NFL having allowed only one sack in 1,376 career snaps as an Oregon Duck. Additionally, in 2019, Sewell became the first Ducks player and the first sophomore ever to win the Outland Trophy as college football's top offensive lineman. 

He simply could do no wrong while in college. And then, his NFL career started off on a similar note. 

Most notably, through the first two weeks, Sewell allowed just two quarterback hits and no sacks, while manning left tackle in place of Taylor Decker and becoming the youngest player to start at the position in league history. 

The 21-year-old knew very little about struggle until the last two weeks. 

In those games, which came against NFC North divisional opponents in the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings, the first-year pro allowed four total sacks, and to make matters worse, half of them led to Jared Goff fumbles. 

Junfu Han, Imagn Content Services, LLC

It's been a humbling experience for the American Samoan native. 

“When you’re young and I guess faced with so much success, and everyone telling you this and that, and then you get hit by a wall, it’s humbling,” Sewell told reporters Friday. 

He's had a hard time watching Goff get taken to the ground a multitude of times -- and on his watch -- the past couple of weeks. 

"It’s a sickening feeling to see (Goff) on the ground like that,” Sewell said. 

Sewell will try to get back on track heading into the Lions' Week 6 matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals. 

In order to do so, the 6-foot-5, 331-pounder believes he has to get "back to the basics" and allow the game to come to him. 

"The No. 1 thing for me is patience,” Sewell noted. “I got to stay patient. Right now, I think I’m trying to be as aggressive as possible, and I guess that gets me in trouble at times. I just got to let the game come to me. Again, it’s a different game in this league. In college, I tried to take over and do everything possible, be as aggressive as possible. But, I just got to sit there, sit back, relax, stay patient on everything and let the game come to me.”