Detroit Lions: Maybe Cory Undlin will succeed, if Matt Patricia will let him
By Robert Jones
The Detroit Lions’ Matt Patricia has hired a new defensive coordinator. Now the question we should all be asking is; will he be allowed to succeed?
The Detroit Lions disappointing season is over and now the rebuilding begins. Before we know it free agency and the draft will be here and general manager Bob Quinn will have his hands full as he tries to ace this offseason.
The Lions biggest priority is easily the defense. Sure there are pieces that need to be added to the offense as well, but the Lions lost more games because of the ineptitude of their defense than they did by Matthew Stafford being injured.
For anyone who disagrees, remember that Stafford was playing like an MVP candidate before his back injury ended his season. The Lions were also 3-4-1 at that point. A general rule of thumb in the NFL is that if a team’s quarterback is playing really well, they win.
Yet the Lions defense was so putrid, it lost games that even an average defense would have won. The Lions defense was more like a red carpet they rolled out for opponents with the word ‘welcome’ on it.
Make no mistake about it, no matter what the Lions offense does next year, even if they are able to average 30 points a game, if the defense does not improve, they will once again finish out of the playoff race.
Defense wins championships and it also causes lost seasons when it is inept. The problem was so rampant that Matt Patricia took over exclusively calling the defense in games. Not that he wasn’t already responsible for how they played since it was his defensive scheme.
The Lions had the lead in 14 of their 16 games and could only close out their opponent three times. Think about that, just three times. That means that the defense squandered the lead 11 times. Seven of those were in the fourth quarter.
If that isn’t incriminating, I don’t know what is. But help is on the way as Matt Patricia has hired his new defensive coordinator. The only question left is; will Patricia allow him an opportunity to succeed?