Lions refuse to turn backs on embattled coach
Players rally around Patricia in wake of humbling loss
While the ship might be going down, the crew does not seem ready to abandon its captain.
At least publicly, Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia has not lost the support of his players.
Coming off a humbling 20-0 road loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday in Charlotte, N.C., players were quick to jump to Patricia's defence on Monday.
“At the end of the day, I love Matt,” said Lions safety Duron Harmon, who also played for Patricia in New England.
“Matt is the head coach and whatever he asks of me to do, his approach as a coach, I'm going to follow him. I'm going to ride with him until the wheels come off.”
Sunday marked the first time the Lions have been shut out since a 26-0 loss to Green Bay in 2009 and it came against a defence that came in ranked 22nd in the NFL.
“It's frustrating,” Lions offensive tackle Taylor Decker said Monday as he quickly backed Patricia. “One hundred per cent, (Patricia's) our head coach and we're the ones who follow that and follow the plan in place because we've seen that when we execute and we're prepared and we communicate well that we can be a really good football team.
“(Sunday), when it came down to execution, that's the players' responsibility to execute things and to execute the game plans. He's the head of our organization, he's the leader of our organization and we trust in that.”
Quarterback Matthew Stafford played with an injured thumb on his throwing hand and threw for just 178 yards. Rookie running back D'andre Swift was sidelined with a concussion and Detroit's ground game produced just 40 yards on 17 carries.
Detroit had chances to get back into the game, but a 51-yard touchdown pass off a flea flicker from Stafford to Marvin Jones was called back on an illegal formation penalty. That would have made it a one-score game.
Matt Prater missed a 51-yard field goal that would have made it a two-score game and that was it for Detroit.
“We had the guys,” said Harmon, whose team is now 4-6. “We had the talent. We had the coaching staff, but for whatever reason it hasn't gone our way. We haven't helped ourselves in certain situations, but at the end of the day we still have six games left and we have opportunity to play Thursday. It's not really time to reflect on the season.”
The Lions face Houston on Thursday at Ford Field in their annual U.S. Thanksgiving Day game and that short turnaround might be the only reason Patricia is still head coach.
“It's kind of a blessing to have this Thanksgiving game come quickly,” Decker said.
“Hopefully, we can go out and get that bad taste out of our mouth.
“We've already turned a page and started working on Houston.
We, collectively, as a team, didn't play well against the Carolina Panthers, but we can turn the page and we can go try to make the best of this Thursday game and it's coming quickly and that's nice.”
But Patricia's future in Detroit seems to be on borrowed time. Ownership had demanded improvement this year, but the club has now lost three of its last four games with two of those coming to teams under .500.
Mathematically, the Lions still remain in the conversation for a wild-card playoff spot, but realistically the schedule gets harder after Thursday for the Lions and Patricia, who is now 13-28-1 as head coach in Detroit.
“At the end of the day, everybody's job is in jeopardy,” Harmon said. “This is a production-based business. You win; you get a pat on the back and job security. You lose; you don't have job security.
“This is our livelihood. We know we have to produce and produce wins to stay in a place and build a culture. At the end of the day, we're 4-6 and we got to get to winning.
“I love Matt. I love what he brings to the table as a coach. The passion that he coaches with, the leadership (and) how smart he is. I love everything about him. At the end of the day, the only way to take the heat off him and everybody is win.”