The Detroit Lions have begun to falter on the defensive side of the ball despite the talent on the roster. While some are blaming the players, Matt Patricia is taking accountability and insists that “it's not really a scheme thing.”
“That’s where I put it on me where I’ve got to coach it better. I think there are certainly things in there, small details of technique work that we needed fixed,” Patricia said. “And now we have to go out and work on it, out on the field. That’s where I start.
“It’s not really a scheme thing. We can play any scheme we want. I’ve coached more defense probably than anybody in the league as far as scheme is concerned. We’ve got to start somewhere, and you start with your foundation, and your foundation has to be good fundamentals. If you don’t have that or you’re not consistent with it, then it becomes really hard to fix everything else.”
When Patricia took the job as the Lions' head coach in 2018, the defense vastly improved from the year prior. Detroit had the 27th ranked defense in 2017 and with Patricia righting the ship, they wound up having the 10th ranked defense in 2018.
However, the defensive-minded coach hasn't been able to have the same success in 2019. Currently, the Lions boast the 31st ranked defense in the NFL; allowing 428.8 yards of offense per game. The Cincinnati Bengals are the only team who is worse than them in that category.
If Detroit hopes to get back into the playoff race, they'll need Patricia to get the defense back on track. With that being said, it may tougher to do so with the team trading safety Quandre Diggs earlier in the week.
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