Article by: Kenneth J. Ester
Thank You Matt Patricia
Thank you Matt Patricia. You have done what no other coach in Lion's history has been able to accomplish. Though a few have put in their best efforts, only you have been able to turn the Lions into a team I have no desire to watch.
We have had some boring offenses in the past with Mariucci and Marinelli playing so conservative that a high school team could have defended them. I have suffered through the NFL's very first winless season in 2008. I have watched Matt Millen take an average to bad team and turn it into a laughing stock. No GM or Head Coach has been able to make it so I didn't want to watch the Lions play on Sunday.
Since the early 1980's, I missed one televised game. I skipped birthday parties because I told people that if they schedule anything during the Lions game, I would not show up. I was once stuck up north in the days before we had Cable or Satellite TV, watching a Lions game on a 12" screen in black and white and no good reception. I followed snowy images moving around in the static for three and a half hours. And then you came along.
Last year (2019), my step-daughter didn't have cable in the first house she ever bought, and invited us over. And I had no problem accepting and going. It didn't even bother me that I was missing only the second Lions game in almost 40 years. Later I learned that Stafford missed his first game in forever. It didn't bother me.
For the rest of the season, every week I would turn on the game, sit at my computer and pay very little attention to the games. For the first time in my life as a fan, I simply didn't care anymore. Not because Stafford was no longer playing. That actually intrigued me to watch the other guys play some. No. The reason I didn't care was because your defensive scheme did not give me even the slightest hope of winning. And you never proved me wrong. Not once.
Mr. Patricia, over the months since that season ended, I had a little hope for the next season. I had a tinge of hope that after such a dismal season, you would realize that your defensive scheme was terrible. I hoped you would hire a new defensive coordinator who had past experience to bring in his own scheme. Even if he ended up only average, it would have given me hope. I believed it would have been literally impossible for you to find someone who brought in a worse scheme. You let me down.
You didn't hire an experienced coordinator. You hired a first time guy who is an old friend. This told me one thing. You used your last friend as a scapegoat after last season, and now you had brought in another friend to continue running your failing scheme. And I would go through another year of having no hope.
As always, I started looking for a reason to have hope anyway. I thought, Maybe he realizes that his scheme is terribly flawed and will change it up himself. After all, how can one not see that, right? So I began looking forward to free agency and the draft. Maybe you would show me that you are changing the scheme.
Then you started getting my hopes up! You let your run stuffing defensive tackles walk. Praise the Lord, I thought! He is going to add pass rushers! As you began signing players, you let me down again. You signed run stoppers. What this tells me is that you didn't learn a darn thing! You didn't learn from your own mistakes! You instead are blaming the players for not doing a good enough job, so you replaced them with others of the same kind!
Recently you signed a good Cornerback and then preceded to trade Slay. I can only shake my head at that. You had arguably the best CB in the NFL and chose to replace him with lesser talent because Slay didn't buy into your ego! The guy did what is considered nearly impossible in my book. He succeeded and continued to be a top CB, even though you were putting him in a place to fail!
Mr. Patricia, it was not the fault of Snacks, Robinson, or any other lineman why your defense couldn't stop the run. It was not Slay or Coleman why your secondary gave up so many yards! The fault was your ridiculous scheme!
Every quarterback in the NFL, including backups, is good enough to look like a star if you give them all day to wait for an open receiver! There is not a CB in the NFL who can cover a good receiver for 3 to 5 seconds every play and not get beat. I know you are supposed to be a rocket scientist, but if you truly believe you don't need to put pressure on a QB to win in the NFL, you are plain stupid! I don't mean typical stupid. I mean your IQ has to fall somewhere between kelp and gravel kind of stupid!
No coach in his right mind would believe that to play three defensive linemen, only one with any ability to rush a passer, and have them all play run up front on the majority of the plays, and to drop everyone else back into coverage is a good plan! There is no way that only three run stoppers are going to stop a good running game. There is no way that even a decent QB will not pick you apart if he has no pressure!
Your scheme is terribly flawed and it will only look average at best if you have all pro players at every position. So long as you continue to run this same ridiculous defensive scheme, I and many other fans will have zero hope and no reason to watch the games!
Coming up in the future is the NFL draft. Right now I am expecting you to draft the Linebacker, Simmons. Many fans will get excited over that pick since he blew up the combines. They are fools if they believe that will make this defense better. They will think you got him to blitz the QB, but I am not falling for that. You have not shown once in any of your actions that you care one bit about rushing the passer. You will take Simmons because he can drop back and cover. If he is as great as many think, he just may make this defense only bad instead of putrid.
Many fans hope you draft the cornerback, Okudah. They think another great CB will help coverage, and it will. Not enough though. Good receivers will lose the best coverage if they have enough time, and your scheme is based on giving them enough time.
No, Mr. Patricia, the only way you can give me hope is if you draft a top end pass rusher and I do not mean Chase Young. As great as he may be, if we do not put any pressure up the middle, a QB will only need to step up into a clean pocket to avoid the likes of Young and Flowers. Though I will admit, even Young would give me some hope for next season, the player that will give me real hope is the Defensive Tackle, Derrick Brown. Pressure up the middle will make a QB very uncomfortable. It will allow Flowers to get home more often. It will force a QB to get rid of the ball quicker and that will help the secondary immensely. The key to any decent defense is pressuring the QB. I know that doesn't fit your scheme, but that is the only thing that will make next year's games worth watching to me. That is the only thing that will give me any hope. For if you do not rush the passer again, even if they won a couple extra games and made the playoffs, I would not believe there is one chance in a thousand they will beat the good playoff caliber teams with your scheme.
Last year I argued that if I had control of the team, I wouldn't fire you. I would only force you to rush the passer. But I feel different now. Today I would fire you on the spot! Because not only do you believe in a ridiculously putrid scheme, you are willing to dismantle the team and move your best talent away just out of pride! That makes you bad for this team on all levels!
You have too much pride and have never done enough to earn it. Even in New England your defense was not that great. Every stat people listed to make you look good was helped out by having the best and most consistent offense on the field, keeping the opponents off the field. Every stat that was dependent solely on the defense doing its job was below average.
With all of this said, I suppose I should thank you. You have made me less consumed by the Lions and that allowed me to put more time into studying God's Word. I suppose I have that much to thank you for. You may have destroyed my drive as a Lions fan, but it has helped me focus more on God and that is more important in the end. So thank you for doing what no other could do.
More Articles by OneGodLogic that are not about God.
Other Passions
We have had some boring offenses in the past with Mariucci and Marinelli playing so conservative that a high school team could have defended them. I have suffered through the NFL's very first winless season in 2008. I have watched Matt Millen take an average to bad team and turn it into a laughing stock. No GM or Head Coach has been able to make it so I didn't want to watch the Lions play on Sunday.
Since the early 1980's, I missed one televised game. I skipped birthday parties because I told people that if they schedule anything during the Lions game, I would not show up. I was once stuck up north in the days before we had Cable or Satellite TV, watching a Lions game on a 12" screen in black and white and no good reception. I followed snowy images moving around in the static for three and a half hours. And then you came along.
Last year (2019), my step-daughter didn't have cable in the first house she ever bought, and invited us over. And I had no problem accepting and going. It didn't even bother me that I was missing only the second Lions game in almost 40 years. Later I learned that Stafford missed his first game in forever. It didn't bother me.
For the rest of the season, every week I would turn on the game, sit at my computer and pay very little attention to the games. For the first time in my life as a fan, I simply didn't care anymore. Not because Stafford was no longer playing. That actually intrigued me to watch the other guys play some. No. The reason I didn't care was because your defensive scheme did not give me even the slightest hope of winning. And you never proved me wrong. Not once.
Mr. Patricia, over the months since that season ended, I had a little hope for the next season. I had a tinge of hope that after such a dismal season, you would realize that your defensive scheme was terrible. I hoped you would hire a new defensive coordinator who had past experience to bring in his own scheme. Even if he ended up only average, it would have given me hope. I believed it would have been literally impossible for you to find someone who brought in a worse scheme. You let me down.
You didn't hire an experienced coordinator. You hired a first time guy who is an old friend. This told me one thing. You used your last friend as a scapegoat after last season, and now you had brought in another friend to continue running your failing scheme. And I would go through another year of having no hope.
As always, I started looking for a reason to have hope anyway. I thought, Maybe he realizes that his scheme is terribly flawed and will change it up himself. After all, how can one not see that, right? So I began looking forward to free agency and the draft. Maybe you would show me that you are changing the scheme.
Then you started getting my hopes up! You let your run stuffing defensive tackles walk. Praise the Lord, I thought! He is going to add pass rushers! As you began signing players, you let me down again. You signed run stoppers. What this tells me is that you didn't learn a darn thing! You didn't learn from your own mistakes! You instead are blaming the players for not doing a good enough job, so you replaced them with others of the same kind!
Recently you signed a good Cornerback and then preceded to trade Slay. I can only shake my head at that. You had arguably the best CB in the NFL and chose to replace him with lesser talent because Slay didn't buy into your ego! The guy did what is considered nearly impossible in my book. He succeeded and continued to be a top CB, even though you were putting him in a place to fail!
Mr. Patricia, it was not the fault of Snacks, Robinson, or any other lineman why your defense couldn't stop the run. It was not Slay or Coleman why your secondary gave up so many yards! The fault was your ridiculous scheme!
Every quarterback in the NFL, including backups, is good enough to look like a star if you give them all day to wait for an open receiver! There is not a CB in the NFL who can cover a good receiver for 3 to 5 seconds every play and not get beat. I know you are supposed to be a rocket scientist, but if you truly believe you don't need to put pressure on a QB to win in the NFL, you are plain stupid! I don't mean typical stupid. I mean your IQ has to fall somewhere between kelp and gravel kind of stupid!
No coach in his right mind would believe that to play three defensive linemen, only one with any ability to rush a passer, and have them all play run up front on the majority of the plays, and to drop everyone else back into coverage is a good plan! There is no way that only three run stoppers are going to stop a good running game. There is no way that even a decent QB will not pick you apart if he has no pressure!
Your scheme is terribly flawed and it will only look average at best if you have all pro players at every position. So long as you continue to run this same ridiculous defensive scheme, I and many other fans will have zero hope and no reason to watch the games!
Coming up in the future is the NFL draft. Right now I am expecting you to draft the Linebacker, Simmons. Many fans will get excited over that pick since he blew up the combines. They are fools if they believe that will make this defense better. They will think you got him to blitz the QB, but I am not falling for that. You have not shown once in any of your actions that you care one bit about rushing the passer. You will take Simmons because he can drop back and cover. If he is as great as many think, he just may make this defense only bad instead of putrid.
Many fans hope you draft the cornerback, Okudah. They think another great CB will help coverage, and it will. Not enough though. Good receivers will lose the best coverage if they have enough time, and your scheme is based on giving them enough time.
No, Mr. Patricia, the only way you can give me hope is if you draft a top end pass rusher and I do not mean Chase Young. As great as he may be, if we do not put any pressure up the middle, a QB will only need to step up into a clean pocket to avoid the likes of Young and Flowers. Though I will admit, even Young would give me some hope for next season, the player that will give me real hope is the Defensive Tackle, Derrick Brown. Pressure up the middle will make a QB very uncomfortable. It will allow Flowers to get home more often. It will force a QB to get rid of the ball quicker and that will help the secondary immensely. The key to any decent defense is pressuring the QB. I know that doesn't fit your scheme, but that is the only thing that will make next year's games worth watching to me. That is the only thing that will give me any hope. For if you do not rush the passer again, even if they won a couple extra games and made the playoffs, I would not believe there is one chance in a thousand they will beat the good playoff caliber teams with your scheme.
Last year I argued that if I had control of the team, I wouldn't fire you. I would only force you to rush the passer. But I feel different now. Today I would fire you on the spot! Because not only do you believe in a ridiculously putrid scheme, you are willing to dismantle the team and move your best talent away just out of pride! That makes you bad for this team on all levels!
You have too much pride and have never done enough to earn it. Even in New England your defense was not that great. Every stat people listed to make you look good was helped out by having the best and most consistent offense on the field, keeping the opponents off the field. Every stat that was dependent solely on the defense doing its job was below average.
With all of this said, I suppose I should thank you. You have made me less consumed by the Lions and that allowed me to put more time into studying God's Word. I suppose I have that much to thank you for. You may have destroyed my drive as a Lions fan, but it has helped me focus more on God and that is more important in the end. So thank you for doing what no other could do.
More Articles by OneGodLogic that are not about God.
Other Passions
