Stop Turning Me Into A Detroit Lions Apologist
I wasn’t always a Detroit Lions apologist. I swear.
Week something-teen is now in the books (does it really matter at this point?), and it ended with yet another Lions loss. The Minnesota Vikings showed up, did football things, and defeated the Lions 20-7. This is exactly what was supposed to happen because the Vikings are an excellent football team with relatively good health who is battling for a division title and potential first-round bye in the playoffs. The Lions are pretty much the opposite of all that stuff. Nothing to see here, keep moving along. Right?
Not so fast. I should’ve known better.
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Negative energy
The reaction was hot yet again, from media outlets and fans alike. Here is just a sample of the headlines being written about this team following their latest loss:
NBC: Vikings dominate hapless Lions (Hapless…I like it!)
CBS: Hapless Lions were exactly what Vikings needed to rebound, stay alive in NFC North race (Uh-oh, there’s hapless again. Better check that timestamp to see who plagiarized who.)
Detroit Free Press (Seidel): Lions are beyond help, no excuses left (There’s that Seidel clown again. Last week it was the fans’ fault that the team is bad. Now it’s on Bob Quinn again. Off the hook, baby!)
As I wrote in my observations several weeks ago, the Lions’ current situation is making me apathetic to the on-field product. I find it rather pointless to discuss this skeleton crew of a team over-critically as if this were anything more than a funeral march to the end of 2019. Yet that apathy is now being transformed into some strange form of defensiveness when I see critics putting such weight into each loss as if it wasn’t what was best for the future of this organization.
Put it this way: Do you want Bob Quinn and/or Matt Patricia gone before next season? Then another loss should make you happy.
Do you hate Martha Ford and want her to sell the team? You know, Martha Ford? The 94-year-old woman who attends football practices and says “My best memory hasn’t come yet. I want to get the Lombardi Trophy.” (shame on you). Then another loss should make you happy.
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Or are you like me and just want what’s best for the draft? If so, then another loss should make you happy. If you’re not familiar, the NFL Draft is where teams acquire new players who actually make the score go up until time runs out and one team wins. Yeah, players do that. Not little old ladies whose dying wish to win might be a little more important than your cancel-culture outrage.
If you read the above pieces, listen to local sports radio, or visit the nasty world of Twitter or Reddit, you would think the Lions lost this game by something like 49-13, 35-14, 33-7, or 43-0. These are not random scores, but rather examples of real results from each of the four teams currently ahead of the Lions in the draft order: Cincinnati, NY Giants, Washington, and Miami (respectively). These are essentially the Lions’ peers at this point.
The Detroit Lions, in their ugliest, most embarrassing, shameful, “sell-the-team” performance…lost by 13. They were a missed 45-yard field goal by Matt Prater from covering the spread. I highlight the above teams because sometimes people can get so lost in their own team that they ignore what is happening in the outside world. That is what embarrassing looks like. Losing by 20, 30, or more on the reg. This was the first game of the season in which the Lions did not lead at some point, and was also just the second game decided by more than one possession (Vikings pt.1).
You can make a case that this is actually one of the more effective “unintentional intentional tanks” pulled off by a team. They are competitive every week, are getting some dirt on the hands of young players who could be bigger contributors in the future, but still being sure to get the all-important L when the clock hits all zeroes. Outside of a few ruffled feathers over the Quandre Diggs trade, there hasn’t been any sign of players quitting or being unhappy with the front office or head coach Matt Patricia. This is an improvement over last season, where the rumblings began in training camp that some players were unhappy with the new vibe around the organization, which resulted in a splintered and segmented locker room.
Ya Diggs?
Speaking of Diggs, he had quite the weekend. He picked off two passes, bringing his total to three in the four games he has played since being dealt to Seattle for a fifth-round pick. It certainly looks like Diggs has rediscovered the Pro-Bowl form he was missing this season in Detroit, and Seattle may have gotten one over on Bob Quinn. But I beg of you, don’t be the guy who over-reacts to a trade before all the chips are on the table.
If I buy you a pint of General Tso’s chicken today, and we agree that you will buy me a pint of sesame chicken next year, what sense does it make to say “What a terrible trade. This General Tso’s chicken is amazing!” when I don’t have my sesame chicken yet?
Is it likely that the Lions will come out losers in this deal? Probably. But there are plenty of late-round gems that turn into Pro-Bowl type players, like…Quandre Diggs himself, who was a sixth-round pick in 2015. An optimist might spin this as squeezing 4+ seasons of value from a player, then flipping him for a higher pick than they originally used on said player. They could also use this pick as a trade sweetener or as a package to move around elsewhere in the draft. There is also the question of what they will use Diggs’ cap space on now that he is (mostly) off the books.
Long story short: Diggs is ballin’. Things don’t look great. More information needed to accurately criticize transaction. Proceed to the next topic.
But…but…I WANT TO FIRE SOMEONE!!!!
I get it. The optics aren’t great around 3-9-1 in year-four of a GM and year-two of a head coach. Am I confident that both Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia are the right men for their respective jobs? No. But am I sure they aren’t? That is also a no, particularly for Patricia. There are plenty of examples of coaches struggling to find their way early in their tenures only to gain steam over time and have successful careers. There are also plenty of examples of coaches never getting it right and flaming out. The point is, we simply don’t know yet.
Why would we assume that a second-year head coach, getting his first opportunity in said role, can’t improve and grow in his role the same way that a player would? Particularly a relatively young guy (45) who has already shown some of that growth in his attitude and ability to get players to buy-in to his vision.
We are playing the recent results wayyyy too much if we think that this season is a regression from last. As I say every week, throw the second half of the season out the window. When Matthew Stafford went down, 2019 ended. It is insane to think that Jeff Driskel, and now David Blough, neither of whom were noteworthy quarterback prospects, would be able to keep this team afloat in Stafford’s absence. The first-half of 2019 Lions absolutely looked like an improved team, mostly on the back of their explosive offense.
That being said, there definitely was regression on the defensive end in 2019, and Patricia needs to be held accountable for that. But I will not let the players off the hook for this slide either. I’m just going to leave this here because I can’t help myself…
You can blame Patricia for that if you want, but Harrison was elite even after joining the Lions last season. This is simply a player who isn’t performing and has no one to blame but himself. Another player who stunk it up in the first half of 2019 was Jarrad Davis, who was the worst linebacker in the NFL during that time. I do feel that Patricia can take partial blame here for not finding more creative ways to use a disruptive player who typically struggles in pass coverage more effectively. But this is a first-round player who hasn’t yet reached his potential in year three, as evidenced by his inconsistent performances week-to-week.
The Lions have also been much better as a team defensively since vague reports of Matt Patricia taking over some of the defensive playcalling duties surfaced several weeks ago. At the time the Lions were allowing the most yards per game in the NFL and were on pace to break the record for most yards allowed in a season in franchise history. They have since climbed out of the bottom three in this area. Still not great, but vastly improved nonetheless. This is a trend worth following, and will almost assuredly lead to the demise of defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni.
Perhaps the biggest reason I want to see one more year of the Patricia/Quinn regime is that I want to see how they respond to pressure. I want to see Matt Patricia coach as if his job depends on it. I want to see Bob Quinn make moves to win now, rather than acquiring future assets, knowing it may be his last chance. As much as the media and critics feel that these two are on the hot seat now, I truly don’t think they are feeling that pressure from ownership. You don’t trade away players like Quandre Diggs with no immediate return, or carry over $20 million of unused cap space into next season, without feeling secure in your current position. Year five for Quinn and three for Patricia will almost certainly be a make or break year, and they will need to show drastic improvement to warrant being retained. Because if they don’t, they probably won’t get another shot to lead an organization.
Can you name the last Detroit Lions head coach or general manager that went on to hold either job in professional football after their tenure in Detroit ended? The answer, of course, was George Wilson when he landed the Dolphins head coaching gig in 1966. That is shocking, given the rinse-and-repeat nature that is the NFL coaching carousel. I sifted through a lot of depressing names to figure that one out. What am I doing with my life?
Not-so-fun fact: The winningest coach in Detroit Lions history, Wayne Fontes, finished with a losing record (66-67). You can’t make this stuff up, folks.
Ah, the good old days.
