Five games that will define the Detroit Lions season
By Ash Thompson
Week three: The New England Patriots
The Lions face the Jets and then the 49ers to open the season. With all due respect to Jimmy Garoppolo, neither of those teams is particularly great. In week three the Lions run into the NFL’s equivalent of the Roman Legions. If you were to design a machine that produced NFL victories, it would look like Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots. They have access to the same rookie pool, the same equipment since deflategate, and the same free agent group as everyone else. Somehow despite the complete lack of tangible advantages, the Patriots just keep winning games. I would have given the Lions under Jim Caldwell a zero percent chance of winning this game. Matt Patricia has a chance in week three to continue rewriting the narrative of his team.
If there is a way to unravel everything Matt Patricia does to the core of his philosophy, this is the night we will see it from Josh McDaniels and Tom Brady. The NFL’s most lethal combination of coach and player have watched almost every moment of Matt Patricia’s development. Every good coach is always asking himself what he would have to do to beat his own team. Even more so, every coach that is on the list of interviewing head coaching candidates will ask those questions. McDaniels was a single phone call from taking a head coaching job in the same conference as the Patriots. It is safe to assume that he has spent no small amount of time considering how to beat Patricia’s scheme. Of course, Patricia actually took a head coaching job. He has certainly put thought to the matter of the Pats offense as well.
That does not even include the knowledge that Patricia’s mentor, Coach Belichick, will bring to the table. Has the student surpassed the undisputed master? We will find out in week three.