Patricia: There Is Going to Be Some Bad Football through September
Following NFL Sundays, Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia will typically spend Monday reviewing the game film to look for ways to improve the team and his methods as a coach.
New NFL rules dictate that players are not allowed inside the facility on Mondays, outside of a group of 15 individuals or smaller.
In his Monday video conference with Detroit media, Patricia explained what he wants to focus his efforts on to close out games in the fourth quarter.
In 11 of Patricia's 33 games, Detroit has failed to secure a victory after holding a fourth-quarter lead.
Patricia noted that improvements in the first three quarters of the game could actually aid Detroit in not allowing opponents to come back on them.
"I would say we focused on a lot of the plays that happened in the first three quarters," Patricia said. "We understand the plays that happened at the end of the game that we've got to do a better job of. But, the first three quarters, we certainly could have put ourselves in better positions to not leave that door open at the end -- even if it's cracked just a little bit in the NFL."
Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia
© Junfu Han via Imagn Content Services, LLC
Patricia acknowledged the team made certain mistakes Sunday that without the preseason, must now be corrected in the first month of the season.
"We don't have the luxury of the four preseason games to kind of teach some of this stuff right now. You try to do the best you can with the 14 padded days of practice that we had. But, certainly live, in-game action, we're coaching, we're teaching and we're learning on the fly," he said.
Despite the expected struggles, Detroit's third-year head coach is hoping that his roster can make adjustments quickly in order to improve as a team in the first quarter of the season.
"There was really a lot of teaching that had to go on today. Understand that it is Week 1, and there's going to be some bad football here through September," Patricia commented. "We know that. But, the quicker we can improve and get better through the course of this month and the better we'll be as we kind of hit those next stretches."
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