Matt Patricia and Jeff Driskel Address Penalty Issues

Lions were penalized six times for 65 yards against Washington

When the Lions coaching staff reflects back on the 2019 season and what went wrong, the number of penalties that negated positive plays on offense and defense or provided extra yards to the opponent hurt the teams chances to win on too many occasions.

Following the Lions disappointing 19-16 loss to the Redskins, both Matt Patricia and Jeff Driskel discussed the impact of penalties.

“I think some of it too is even with spending a lot of time here with the penalty stuff. Really understanding in certain situations. We’ve got to know when the particular play is over and we can’t get that extra pull or that push or that extra grab or whatever it might be," Patricia replied when asked about fixing issues that have persisted.

"Just understand there are going to be times where we can’t do those things and cost us bigger plays from that situation. Just trying to keep emphasizing those points and coaching the techniques, so we don’t get in the situation where we’re called for penalties. Certainly, the ones that happen before the snap, those are the ones that hurt you the most. Those are the ones that have got to be better.” 

Driskel discussed penalties when he was asked about what has gone wrong this season. “We’ve had a bunch of penalties. We had some penalties again today. We talked about cleaning those up and we didn’t get that done," Driskel said. 

On Sunday, the Lions turned the ball over four times. Driskel also commented on the frustrations of coming up short and not making enough plays against Washington.

"We turned the ball over four times. It’s hard to win in this league doing that. It just comes down to not making plays at the end of the game and that has been a common theme over these last few weeks. You just have to find a way to make them," said Driskel. "At the end of the day, we have the confidence that we are going to go make them and we just didn’t do it. It’s frustrating when you’re in a position to go win football games and you come up short.” 

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