By: Krish Lal
On Saturday, November 28, 2020 head coach Matt Patricia, and general manager Bob Quinn were fired from the Detroit Lions. In this article, I will share what I think about the firing, possible candidates for the new coach, and plans for the lions in the future.
Matt Patricia was announced as head coach for the Lions on February 5, 2018. Before becoming the head coach of the Lions, he was the defensive coordinator of the New England Patriots. I don’t think he was the best option as coach. He had some good years but also some terrible years. The passing yards defense ranks in his 6 years are 29, 26, 16 ,12, 14, and 26. While 2014-2016 were pretty decent years for the passing defense the first 2 and last years were are really bad. Also the Patriots yards per game was ranked 26, 28, 11, 8, 8, and 30. While I don’t think he was a good option he still had three pretty good years in New England
He has been at the lions for almost 3 years but hasn’t shown much improvement. Each year the defense has gotten progressively worse. In Patricia’s first season with the Lions, the defense was in the top 10 for the number of yards given up but in the last 2 years, they have been ranked 31 and 29. Also for the points allowed each year, it got progressively worse going from being ranked 17 to 26 to 31. We brought Patricia in to make our defense even better but he made it worse so I support the decision to fire him.
Darrell Bevel has coached the last 4 games for the Lions. A 34-30 win over the Bears, a 31-24 loss to the Packers, a beating from the Buccaneers with a score of 47-7 at the end of the third quarter, and a 37-35 loss to the Vikings. His record this season is 1-3. His play calling is more of a vertical style and a more aggressive offense. I do like his pass attack. However, I still think we should get new blood because our defense isn’t getting it done. I know that wasn’t going to change but I don’t think he really knows how to change the defense. We have a lot of cornerbacks injured but even when they are healthy they get burned by receivers. As for our defensive line, the number of sacks per game ranking for the Lions is 28. Bevell doesn’t have a defensive mind to pull the lion's defense out of this gigantic hole, which is why we need someone new. It is an ugly thing to watch, so we need a defensive mind. I still think we should get a defensive coordinator as a coach. I know that is what we said with Patricia but as I showed above it wasn’t the defense that had the patriots win.
I think if we could get the defensive coordinator of the Steelers, or 49ers. There is a lot of people who think Robert Salah, the defensive coordinator for the 49ers for the last four years, would be a good coach for the Lions. In the last 4 years, the 49ers have been ranked 25, 13, 2, and 5 for yardage ranking. 49ers points allowed ranking in the last 4 years is 25, 28, 7, and 17. For Salah he has succeeded this year and last year. I think Keith Butler, the Steelers defensive coordinator, would also be a good option. Defensive yardage rankings in his 6 years are 19, 10, 5, 6, 5, and 3. The Steelers points allowed ranking is 9, 10, 11, 16, 5, and 3. I think Butler might be the best option because he has been in the defensive coordinator position for a long time and he has been somewhat successful every year. I would consider a top defensive coach in college but college football is a different game, with a lot of good college coaches that are bad in the pros.
The thing is I also don’t think our new defensive coordinator will do much good. Cory Undlin before becoming the defensive coordinator was the cornerback's coach for the Philadelphia Eagles. He was hired as the defensive backs coach in January 2015. The defensive passing rankings for the Eagles year by year from 2016 are 13, 25, 30, and 22. The rankings again aren’t great. While 13 is pretty good, 30 is also the 3rd worse which is horrible. This year the Lions passing defense rankings are 29 which is really bad. He did improve the defense ranking from last year because it was ranked last. I mean you can’t get worse than that, but to be honest I think the passing defense is just as bad as last year. The running defense rank is also 29 which is really bad as well which is a disimprovement from 21 the previous year. I don’t see Cory Undlin improving much so if he doesn’t I think we should aim for a top position coach for running or passing defense. However, maybe he can do something. I don’t think he will, but we can’t wait for failure but I expect it to happen because the Lions are in such a bad position.
The truth is that I don’t think anyone will turn this team around for a long time, so we are going to need patience.
All defensive rankings from teamrankings.com
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