Detroit Lions: Something needs to give and it starts at the top

It comes to a point where something needs to give. Sure, plenty of fans wanted that ‘give’ last season, some earlier this year, but how long before the Detroit Lions front office acknowledges Matt Patricia’s downfall?

Seconds after being hired as the successor to Jim Caldwell, Detroit Lions fans were promised a defensive-minded head coach. A rocket scientist, an offspring of the great Bill Belichick, and someone who will transform the Lions defense into a juggernaut. The perfect complement to quarterback Matthew Stafford.

If Stafford were provided with a sufficient defense, he’d be able to generate nearly enough offense to keep the Lions competitive in every football game (Aside from Sunday’s awful performance). Stafford tends to get into trouble once the Lions find themselves down multiple scores in the second half of football games.

That’s when the 32-year old quarterback starts making 22-year old mistakes trying to force every pass into tight coverage or merely failing to look off defenders.

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Stafford isn’t perfect; he isn’t elite; he’s an above-average quarterback with exceptional arm talent but tends to make mistakes when he’s pressing.

The problem in 2020… or the entire Patricia duration, Stafford is always pressing late in ball games. The Detroit offense that can be equally as frustrating as their defense at times has often spotted the team with a double-digit lead only to see it squandered away by an awful defense.

This past winter Matt Patricia hired Cory Undlin to be the team’s defensive play-caller, but what we’ve seen is the same scheme, playcalling, and soft defense. Undlin is proving to be a pawn for Patricia, someone he hired and can fire and justify saying, ‘look, I’ve made a change.’ Will ownership buy it? Probably, and that is as much of the problem as anything else with this Lions organization.

The Lions continue to play this Patricia man-to-man ‘bend, don’t break’ defense that doesn’t just break it shatters. The defense continues to be problematic and struggles to slow a plastic bag blowing in the wind.

The Detroit Lions have now lost nine straight divisional games. Nine.

Entering Week Nine’s beatdown at the hands of the Minnesota Vikings, the Lions had yielded, on average, 378 total yards per game. Suitable for 23rd ‘best’ in the league. That includes the tenth worst rushing defense that allowed 130 yards per game, which will be drastically worse after allowing a whopping 275 rushing yards to Dalvin Cook and Alexander Mattison.

The Lions defense also produce the league’s 19th best secondary, allowing 248 yards per game. These numbers are not a fluke, and that’s becoming more of a problem. We don’t even need to look at year one because Patricia didn’t have the proper players to fit his scheme. Last season the Lions produced the leagues’ worst pass defense allowing 284 yards per game, along with the second-worst (by1.6 yards) total defense.

If you are happy with the improvements on defense, I can’t help you. Sure Jamie Collins and Duron Harmon are upgrades on defense but losing a player like Darius Slay and replacing him with Desmond Trufant while moving on from Devon Kennard replacing him with a revolving door just shuffling the deck and hoping for better results.

I thought things were supposed to change once Patricia got the players that fit his scheme?

Next. Bob Quinn senselessly stands pat at the trade deadline. dark

Sheila Ford Hamp needs to identify this dumpster fire of a regime and move on from it now. It’s time to fire Bob Quinn along with Matt Patricia and perhaps even Rod Wood. The organization needs more than just a facelift, it needs open-heart surgery.

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