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Matt Patricia obviously won’t remember his last game as New England Patriots defensive coordinator fondly. It was the defense which let the Patriots down as they allowed a whopping 41 points and 538 total yards of offense in their Super Bowl LII defeat to a Nick Foles-led Philadelphia Eagles team.
After the game, the incoming Detroit Lions head coach took responsibility for his defense’s inability to stop Philadelphia’s offense all night long.
Article Continues Below“Obviously, I didn’t do a good enough job here with the defense,” Patricia said per Darin Gantt of Pro Football Talk. “Look, that is a great offense, they are extremely talented. I have been talking about it all week how good they are.
“They just played really well, and we didn’t get enough stops. I give them all the credit. They played outstanding.”
Patricia said the controversial and mysterious benching of starting cornerback Malcolm Butler was due to the “packages” they wanted to use against Philadelphia. If it was, then they clearly didn’t work as well as they expected.
Still, Butler’s inclusion likely wouldn’t have solved all the Patriots’ problems on the night. This Patriots defense has not been great all year long, so it shouldn’t be that big of a surprise that they were shredded as heavily as they were.
New England’s gameplan on the whole during the Super Bowl simply wasn’t good enough, as the defense didn't make enough plays needed to win. That responsibility falls squarely on Patricia’s shoulders, and he took that responsibility like a man.
