The Detroit Lions dropped their 11th straight game dating back to last season this afternoon, falling to the division rival Green Bay Packers to drop to 0-2 on the 2020 season.
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What’s worse, they set a dubious NFL record in the process – blowing their 4th straight game in which they originally held a double-digit lead.
Head coach Matt Patricia met virtually with media members following the setback, and had a simple message at the get-go:
“It’s early in the year, but we need to do a better job of being ready to go,” he said.
Patricia was then asked point blank about his confidence in his defensive scheme:
“I mean, obviously you play a game like this today and it’s a bad game, not good enough,” he continued. “We’re trying to do better. Our scheme has been multiple – we try do to the best we can with the guys that we have to play at a high level. There’s a lot of teaching and technique and fundamental work that’s involved with that, and in the end, we obviously just have to improve.”
“I have all the confidence in the world in these guys – we just have to do out and do it. We have to stop doing thing that hurt our team and hurt us, and make sure we’re executing at a high level.”
When asked about rookie Jeff Okudah‘s subpar performance in his first NFL game, Patricia didn’t single him out, choosing instead to call out the entire roster:
“We’ll go back and look at it. I don’t think anyone on the field did well enough”, he said. “All of us, coaches and players need to do better.”
With today’s loss being the 4th straight game in which his team gave up a double-digit lead, what does Patricia think about the team’s ability to start fast, but seeming inability to finish?
“We’re doing a good job starting fast. We have to use that momentum and keep it going. Certainly in a year that’s unusual, use that energy and focus – it has to come through for 60 minutes. We can’t go up and down and be really high and then something bad happens and go really low.”
You can bet that Patricia is feeling the heat right now from a frustrated fan base.
