Should We Blame Quinn, Patricia or Players for Unsuccessful Lions Season?

Matt Patricia – 35% Slice

The defensive genius has gotten about 95% percent of heat for the Lions’ troubles this season, which comes with the territory of being a head coach. Still, the reality of the situation is rarely ever that extreme for one individual.

I can’t speak for the Monday through Saturday coach Patricia, as unfortunately, the Lions won’t grant me full organizational access yet. But I do not see anything Matt Patricia is doing schematically on Sunday’s with this defense that hasn’t worked before and worked for him…and even with the Lions for parts of last season. I do however think there are three major flaws with this 2019 defense;

1) Pass Rush

I’m not 100% down on the defensive line as a unit, as injuries have ravished them, but the pass rush has been flat out embarrassing all season. Flowers will create a little pressure, but that’s about it right now with Mike Daniels having an injury-riddled season.

Remember, Mike Daniels was supposed to be the pass rush in the middle since Harrison is no rusher. Romeo Okwara, last seasons leader in sacks with 7.5, has only one half a sack into week 12, yes that’s .5 sacks and JACK LB/DE Devon Kennard went from 3 missed tackles (6.1%) in 2018 to lead the Lions with 9 through 10 games with a 19.6% missed tackle rate.

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What’s seems to drive fans to pitchforks though, beyond the points scored, is the three-man rush. Just to clarify, I keep hearing ‘why do they only rush three,’ when most of the time they do rush more than three, but they also do rush only three more than anyone else in the NFL.

Now, typically, when a team leads the NFL in three-man rushes, it’s because they can generate pressure with only three in various ways. My theory is the Lions still do it because that’s how Matt Patricia sees a perfect defense and wants to practice, teach, and implement the fundamentals for his defense with his new team.

The problem is he doesn’t have the players, more specifically pass rushers, to execute this defense. Which makes him either incredibly stubborn or more about the rebuild than winning in 2019.

2) Linebackers

Jarrad Davis isn’t an MLB in this defense but has nowhere else to play, so there he stays. Christian Jones is slower than Todd Jones and can’t cover despite being the WLB, but has the size Patricia wants, so just extend him I guess.

Jahlani Tavai is a very nice prospect but has had troubles tackling in his rookie season. We’ve already gone through Devon Kennard’s tackling struggles, and Jalen Reeves-Maybin has shown skill, but the problem is they probably think he’s too small to fill the gaps in this defense.

Just a group of misfits at LB. With Davis’ lack of cover skills and Reeves-Maybin’s lack of size, Tavai, Kennard, and Jones are the only fits at LB for this defense. With Tavai being a rookie, Kennard losing the ability to wrap up, and Jones just never being good only big, and did I mention slow, it was never going to be a success story here.

3) Tackling

In 2018 the Lions had the 5th least missed tackles in the NFL with only 83, according to ProFootballReference.com. This season they have plummeted to the fourth most missed tackles with 76 through only 10 games.

Out of all three, this is one is on coaching the most, though you would think you wouldn’t have to spend much time on tackling at the professional level. This is also the most significant reason they let go of Quandre Diggs as well.

I wrote a piece in the offseason detailing how I thought Patricia was running a soft training camp – read here. From the players getting tired early in the season to the missed tackles, that’s all training camp work. I think Matt Patricia, trying to overcorrect from his first ‘grueling’ training camp, may have gone a little to easy this season. Let’s hope he still learns from his mistakes and has a third to find good middle ground.

Last season Jarrad Davis with 18 (15.3%) and Quandre Diggs 13 (14.3%), led the team in missed tackles. Quinn was 3rd with 7 (8.6%). This season Diggs was already at 5 missed tackles in five games for a whopping 20% missed tackle rate while Davis has actually tightened up a little dropping his rate from 15.3% to 13%.

Damon Harrison went from 1 MT (2%) all last season to 6 MT (16.2%) this season. Tavai is at 16.3%….it’s just been weak, to be honest. Especially from a head coach who preaches fundamentals so much. And of course, Kennard.

Until Patricia find a pass rush and linebackers, it’s going to look ugly, which means it’s going to look ugly for the rest of the season without turnaround from the defensive front.

Just to quickly touch on Patricia’s influence on the other side of the ball. When it comes to the offense, Darrell Bevell deserves a lot of credit and has been great. Still, Matt Patricia deserves some credit for going out and hiring an excellent fit for Matthew Stafford and this offense, who wasn’t even in football at the time.

Matt Patricia is known in the NFL as a defensive mind, but he was an offensive lineman in college, has offensive coaching history, and is very much involved in Detroit’s offense.