What if Matt Patricia’s magic does work on the defense?

The Detroit Lions have gone far out of their way to improve the offense, but what if Matt Patricia turns the defense into a top 10 scoring defense?

As the Detroit Lions continue to work their way through training camp, they are disproving the old adage that ‘defense is always ahead of the offense’.

Year after year the NFL’s preseason schedule is usually frowned upon by many fans because generally speaking, the defenses tend to be ahead of the offense in execution early. Therefore many of those exhibition contests are low scoring duds more because of inefficient or poor offense than because the defenses are just better.

Despite the fact that the Lions defense did get some deserved kudos for their play yesterday, they are still an inconsistent work in progress.

Part of that has to do with key players not being available to participate fully, but more of it has to do with the defense Matt Patricia’s defenders are having to learn and digest.

For decades the NFL standard has been that coaches have a preference between running a 4-3 or 3-4 defense. Depending on what that preference is, they install their defense, whose basic precepts are fairly well defined for each type of front, and then run it as closely as they can to perfection.

If they are blessed with good players that fit the defense then it can become dominant. Just look at the ‘Steel Curtain’ and ‘Doomsday Defense’ of the 1970’s Steelers and Cowboys respectively. What about the Bill Parcells Giants or the ’85 Bears or the Ray Lewis Ravens?

They were all the perfect combination of players and system being married together. Yet here in Detroit Matt Patricia is bringing the multiple defensive system with him he oversaw and ran in New England as their defensive coordinator for the last six seasons.

While the results have been effective, this defense is based on versatility and is no walk in the park to master.