How much of the Detroit Lions disappointing season is Matt Patricia’s fault?

Coaches coach and players play

Both general manager Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia have had the critics pounding on their door. Skeptics are now blaming Quinn for how this team has been put together and the boo-birds are still wondering if Patricia can lead the Lions to a championship.

For right or wrong, both Quinn and Patricia share some of the blame. Yet not all of it is valid. There are some who say that the Lions are not any more talented than when Quinn arrived. That is completely untrue. This team is vastly more talented and deeper than what he inherited.

His only real sin was that he spent two seasons stocking the roster with players for Jim Caldwell’s system which is completely different than Matt Patricia’s. He is now one and a half years into the Matt Patricia regime which has required major changes from the Caldwell system.

Bob Quinn’s biggest failure is that he spent two seasons with Jim Caldwell even though it seems that Caldwell was clearly not Quinn’s choice to coach this franchise. If he had been stocking for the same system for the whole time he has been here, then we would have a much clearer view of what he has or hasn’t accomplished.

Meanwhile, Matt Patricia rode into town with a very good reputation for his ability to make competitive defenses in New England. Unfortunately, it hasn’t translated consistently to the Lions.

Sure the defense was pretty good the second half of last season, but it simply hasn’t carried over. Whether we want to say that the players just aren’t doing their job or that Patricia doesn’t seem to be able to teach his players how to play his system well, it all comes back to the same point; Patricia was chosen to lead this team overall, but he was expected to turnaround the defense in short order and right now there are more questions than answers.

So who deserves the most blame? There seems to be plenty to go around, but when your general manager is paid to build a roster capable of winning and the coach to lead them to victory,  it ultimately comes back to them.

I still think this is the best regime the Lions have had that I can remember, but the clock is ticking and it’s expecting results just like the fans do. Matt Patricia needs to coach better, as he says after each loss, and his players definitely need to play better.

There is still plenty to play for this season. These Lions could still band together and with some help complete an improbable comeback to sneak into the playoffs. Or at the very least, they could start playing some respectable defense, find a serviceable run game and finish the season strong even if they fall short of the postseason.

But one way or another these Lions have to start finding some consistency. As in playing consistently well in victory or defeat. Once they start doing that, then Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia will have an opportunity to finally build something positive here in Detroit. Until then, there is plenty of blame to go around for this year’s short-comings.