Patricia: 'When I Came to Detroit, There Was a Lot of Work To Do'

Following the Detroit Lions' 35-29 loss to the New Orleans Saints, Detroit head coach Matt Patricia was asked why he believed he was still the right coach to lead the team.

Detroit's loss marked its 14th loss in its last 16 games.

The defense simply appeared shell-shocked after Drew Brees and the Saints' offense rattled off 35 straight points to essentially put a stranglehold on the game.

"We just lost the game. Let's just give them credit for this game," Patricia said postgame. "They played extremely well. And I know we got a lot of work to do. I think when I came to Detroit, there was a lot of work to do and that's what we're trying to do. But, talking about this year -- we're talking about right now -- these first four games and obviously today wasn't good enough."

Since Patricia was hired, the team has gone 10-25-1, a far cry from expectations when he was hired.

Since the heat has been turned up on the coaching staff and upper management due to a lack of wins in Patricia's tenure, there has been a subtle attempt to shift the narrative.

Recall, former Lions head man Jim Caldwell was dismissed because "9-7 wasn't good enough," according to general manager Bob Quinn.

Both Quinn and Patricia have eluded to the time needed to build a winning product, and have led many to believe that Patricia was taking over a rebuilding team.

Patricia disagrees with idea that losses are all similar due to poor defense

In Detroit's three losses in 2020, there has been a disturbing trend.

The obvious is that Patricia's defense has been unable to hold double-digit leads.

Against the Bears, Detroit's defense allowed 21 unanswered points.

Against Green Bay, it was 31 unanswered points.

And in Sunday's loss, it was 35 unanswered points.

"I don't really think it's the same thing," Patricia commented. "If you want to break it down, Chicago obviously was the end of the game. We didn't do a good enough job. I think Green Bay obviously was the halftime swing, and we never really recovered in the game. I thought that we obviously jumped out early (against New Orleans), but it was so early in the game. That's just kind of in the first quarter. I think after that probably didn't play very well in the middle of the game. I thought that we came back at the end of the game, and battled to try to give ourselves a chance to win. And obviously, we didn't come through. I think from that standpoint, those are different. Last week's game is different. The biggest thing for us, really, that we got to do is we need consistency."

Get the latest Detroit Lions news by joining our community. Click "Follow" at the top right of our SI All Lions page. Mobile users click the notification bell. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @detroitpodcast