The Detroit Lions defense has struggled all season, and is currently ranked a ghastly 31st overall in the NFL.
To make matters worse, yesterday's loss against the Oakland Raiders was the third straight game they surrendered over 100 yards on the ground, and gave up a total of 450 yards of offense.
And yet head coach Matt Patricia, who came to Detroit with the reputation of a defensive guru thanks to several championship years as DC of the New England Patriots, says he has full confidence in Paul Pasqualoni and the team's defensive coaching staff.
“I think it’s important for me to continue to try to do my best as the head coach to manage the game and make sure that I’m paying attention to all the phases and things that I see as the game goes on that need to be either corrected or addressed, or just kind of confirmed or handled … So I don’t really see any of that changing right now,” he said.
Does he have any concerns about the team's defensive performances this year?
“I’m concerned about the entire team,” Patricia said. “Certainly, I spend a lot of time on the defensive side of the ball and I have the utmost confidence in Coach Pasqualoni and the defensive staff to get the calls and the communication and get the gameplan put together the way that we want it to, and I’m certainly involved in trying to help that.”
Sound off, Lions fans. Should Patricia be more concerned about how poorly his team defense has performed this year?
