The Detroit Lions have picked up where they left off last year and confidence with each victory.

A season-opening 27-20 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, they were already out of their best start since 2007, although coach Jim Schwartz said it is important to keep a turnaround that began in December in perspective.

The Lions have won five consecutive regular-season matches. Throw a perfect preseason game this summer, and have won the last nine times they’ve taken the field.

“I think that we will leave it right where it is. We won our first game of the season,” Schwartz said. “Preseason doesn’t count for anything. … Last year was obviously last year. We have a long way to go, there’s a lot of improvement we can make as a football team. We’re not going to worry about that or anything else. What we need to worry about is playing the best we can play.”

Matthew Stafford threw for 305 yards and three touchdowns and was not sacked, showing what he could mean to Detroit’s chances of ending a decade of futility and making the playoffs if he’s healthy.

The improved Lions pressure defense Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman, held racing game Tampa Bay in check, and did not allow an offensive touchdown until there were less than two minutes left.

Even more encouraging, with Detroit winning despite listening to Stafford returned to the touchdown, special teams allowing a long kickoff return that set up a field goal and several costly penalties, including unsportsmanslike to run games that stopped the clock and gave Freeman ‘s opportunity to conduct a potential game-tying drive at the end.

“I don’t want to discount the value of a win, particularly a win on the road, but we’ve got to play a lot better than we played today,” Schwartz said. “We had way too many mistakes that kept Tampa in this game. I guess a sign of a good team is you can have those mistakes and still come out with a win. But we did some things that are inexcusable and they will not continue.”

Stafford, 24 completed of 33 passes, including TD throws 1 and 36 yards to Calvin Johnson and 11 yards to Tony Scheffler. The interception he threw glanced off the hands of the receiver and will Heller and was returned 28 yards by Aqib Talib for the lone touchdown Tampa Bay managed until Freeman threw a 5-yard scoring pass to Mike Williams 1:35 remaining.

Lions, who have not completed a winning record since 2000, has now lost four starts in 2010. Stafford was injured in the opening 13 and went on Miss team in the remaining 15 games.

Stafford, who missed 19 games over the last two seasons because of injuries, led four scoring drives of 70 yards against a defense that was on his heels most of the day. Lions outgained the Bucs 147 yards to 4 in the first quarter and finished with a 431-313 advantage in total offense.

Johnson had six receptions for 88 yards. His 36-yard TD reception came on a perfectly thrown ball on fourth-and 2, and 6-foot-5-receiver reached above Talib to make an acrobatic grab an acrobatic of a cast for a LOB-Detroit 27 yards to put -13 in the third quarter.

“We have so much confidence in him,” Johnson said of Stafford. “He puts it up there for me, I’ve got to go get it. He’s our coach on the field.”

Freeman, selected 16 spots behind No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 draft, was 28 of 43 for 245 yards. He was intercepted once and sacked twice.

“It’s really frustrating because we felt like, for sure going into it, it was a winnable game. … We just have to find a way to score points earlier,” said Freeman, whose growth a year ago during his first season as a starter keyed a surprising 10-6 finish that nearly produced a playoff berth.

“You hate to start the season out 0-1, but it’s the first game of the year,” Freeman added. “It’s not going to make or break anybody.”