Matt Patricia or Matthew Stafford: Who deserves more blame for this season?

The defensive issues called into play questions about Matt Patricia’s choices to coach his defense, his own coaching ability and if he was just simply in way in over his head. This is, of course, Patricia’s first opportunity as a head coach on any level. What that means is that there will be mistakes.

Patricia’s success or failure will be decided not only by Bob Quinn’s ability to acquire players that fit his system but by Patricia’s ability to learn from his own mistakes.

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Matt Patricia has had his share of them, but he has stuck to his guns and continues to believe in his system. That doesn’t mean he isn’t already making some adjustments from what he has learned, but he will need to continue that evolution.

Matt Patricia, like the rest of the organization, deserves part of the blame for this disappointing season, but we must also acknowledge that the defense has improved. The trade for Damon ‘Snacks’ Harrison was huge and it has had a ripple effect on this defense.

Until Todd Gurley ran through them last Sunday for 132 yards, the Lions had been giving up just 49.3 yards rushing a contest for the three previous games.

So while the overall results in the wins and loss column may not be what we want, he is making progress. The continuation of that progress the rest of this season and hopefully into next year can only mean good things for the Lions.

Yet as the head coach, he also takes responsibility for the other two-thirds of this team. The special teams which have been a weakness this season and the decision to retain offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter in an effort to keep offensive continuity after finishing last year as the seventh best scoring team in the league.

I think we all realize that has been an utter and complete failure. The offense has sputtered virtually all year except for a couple decent games.

But outside of Cooter’s play-calling, which has been second-guessed on an almost weekly basis, Matthew Stafford has regressed.