After a less-than-inspiring 1-3 record in the 2018 pre-season, the Detroit Lions are set to get the real thing going next Monday night against the New York Jets at Ford Field in front of a national television audience.
While most fans in Detroit know not to take the pre-season too seriously (2008, anyone?), Detroit’s performance in their four tune-up games gave plenty to be concerned over. And now, head coach Matt Patricia’s latest soundbite isn’t exactly inspiring the confidence that fans were looking forward to after coming over from the NFL’s most successful franchise the past several years.
“They understand that this is a long journey,” Patricia said. “This isn’t a sprint that’s going to take place overnight. This is something that’s going to take a long time to do.”
Frankly, the only “Journey” that Detroit sports fans want to hear about is after a Red Wings victory.
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With one playoff win since 1957, an established starting quarterback and the retention of the team’s offensive coordinator, talking about a “long journey” ahead likely won’t settle the uneasiness that fans are feeling after the uninspiring past four exhibition matches.
“This is something that is a change in the way that we’re doing things to try to make it a sustainable situation,” Patricia said. “We’re not trying to do something that’s just going to happen for one day and then not the next. We’re trying to do it consistently over a long period of time. That I have seen progress with and we’ve got a long way to go and we’ll continue to do that.”
With the team expected to take the next step this season and after GM Bob Quinn promised as much following the hiring of Patricia, this season has all of the potential to start the way that fans around the Motor City know all too well, and not in a good way.
