Matt Patricia just had his "taking the wind" moment.
It happens to every Lions coach sooner or later where they make that bone headed decision that defines their career and starts the beginning of the end of their head coaching experience. On the last play of regulation, the Lions get a break when the Raiders call timeout with the Lions at the 2 yard line. The Lions have time to think and plan what they will do. They take out their top two pass catching options in Marvin Jones and Kenny Golladay and replace them with two back-up tight-ends. They try to throw to one of the not so sure handed back-ups who doesn't make the play. Game over, career over. Nice knowing you Matt.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:26 PM ^
That play might work if Golladay and Jones are out there only as decoys. Dumb play call, but then again the OC made the dumbest playcall in SB history.
November 3rd, 2019 at 9:35 PM ^
I'm surprised his arm hasn't fallen off by now. . .
November 3rd, 2019 at 7:53 PM ^
Raiiiiiddddersssss.
Patricia is huge. He should really hit the gym
i totally agree tho, figured the game go to OT. Saw the lions lineup without a wideout and couldn’t believe it.
November 3rd, 2019 at 7:55 PM ^
You mean that I could have been watching the Lions while I was waiting for Brady to play?
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:00 PM ^
I couldn't. Mercifully for me, neither the local FOX nor CBS affiliates in South Bend carried the Lions game and the damn FCC thinks Berrien County is in Indiana, so I was spared that much of the pain.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:04 PM ^
I know Patricia is the HC but that's a Bevel call. What's crazy is they were lining up to go 5 wide before the timeout.
That play call they had was one that you call when you have a legit run game and have been running the ball like crazy all day. The Lions did neither, so of course the Raiders weren't buying it.
Dumb all around. The Lions are the Lions.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:04 PM ^
I personally think Patricia is the best coach the Lions have had in my lifetime. Maybe Gary Moeller was in the same ballpark when he coached like 6 games for them. They are obviously a team on the up and up.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:05 PM ^
This is fake, right?
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:08 PM ^
Patricia can't even match the record that got his predecessor fired.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:15 PM ^
You could show me footage of the Lions from 10 years ago to today, and it would look like the exact same footage.
Nothing has changed in this franchise. Nothing.
I fully understand Stafford is not a problem. He's good. But you gotta move on. This whole, entire formula is jacked. Change the colors, change the name, blow it all up. It's f*****
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:08 PM ^
matt patricia's mgoblog account: detected
November 3rd, 2019 at 9:14 PM ^
We know which account Bob Quinn posts under
November 3rd, 2019 at 11:42 PM ^
Hey Mrs. Patricia, nice to see you on MGoBlog. BTW, can you get Mattie a shaver and Weight Watchers' membership for Christmas???
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:05 PM ^
Honestly, I thought Oakland's timeout was fine.
Lions had plenty of time to get a play called. It allowed the Raiders to set up their D, and allowed the Lions to figure out how to call a stupid ass play.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:07 PM ^
I just don't get the Lions fascination with these "up-and-coming" assistant coaches: Morningwheg, Schwartz, Matty Patty ..... they just can't pick em. And Bob Quinn? This dude is way in over his head. Prime example: Jahlani Tavai a 2nd round pick? Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:16 PM ^
He passed on Devin Bush as well.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:58 PM ^
Bush was not a good fit for his scheme.
November 3rd, 2019 at 9:12 PM ^
It's Devin Bush...you make him fit in your scheme.
His scheme is real good by the way, near dead last in the NFL in total defense.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:50 PM ^
The issue is that the Lions can only hire coaches/GMs/whatever that better franchises don't want.
Editing to add: I started boycotting when M&M picked wide receivers in the top-ten three years in a row. There's still no evidence that the Ford family will ever turn it around.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:55 PM ^
remember that time they traded up to the early second round, then passed on david harris to take drew stanton?
the bar is low.
November 3rd, 2019 at 9:28 PM ^
It’s sad when the Lions greatest era in the modern NFL was under Wayne Fontes!
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:12 PM ^
Nicely said.
Lions pretended to rely on the run all game and lined up on that play to trick the Raiders into thinking all run. Fail.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:16 PM ^
I don't understand Lions fans. They haven't been good for my entire life and they've not even been to the super bowl. Why do people still show up to the games?
They would figure out how to win if you could get into Ford Field for the price of two cokes.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:27 PM ^
What don't you understand?
It's football. NFL is king. They are the only team we have.
This is not quantum physics.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:44 PM ^
And yet you find empty NFL stadiums every season.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:48 PM ^
Hard to explain it I guess, but I've lived here my entire life and I feel nothing more than a passing connection to the Lions.
I've never really watched professional football that much. Probably because my home town team has always sucked.
November 3rd, 2019 at 9:02 PM ^
Miami and LA fans seem to have no problem not showing up. What's up with Detroiters?
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:56 PM ^
Many people just like going to games to enjoy the atmosphere along with supporting the team. A lot of people still kept coming to Michigan Stadium when the team was rather bad.
The true Lions fans don't want the team to leave and relocate to another city and not showing support could be the first step towards that happening.
November 3rd, 2019 at 9:23 PM ^
Yep. The Lions have a history of fleeing for another city. Just ask the people of Portsmouth.
November 3rd, 2019 at 9:07 PM ^
even Purdue and IU have season ticket holding die-hard fans.
that’s the best answer I can give you.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:17 PM ^
I mean, year after year, it’s the same. I’m like a battered spouse. I know this is bad, feel like shit often. But I keep coming back.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:18 PM ^
So you're saying it's NOT a good idea to throw a pass to the Virginia Tech quarterback that Brady Hoke beat in a Sugar Bowl when the game is on the line?
Coaching is hard.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:19 PM ^
I'll say this for the Lions. They always come up with inventive ways to let you down.
I'm sure Bevell called that last play, but Patricia should've overruled him. Play action with backup tight ends for the win? Hello?
Look, everyone knew that Quinn hiring a Belichick assistant was a bad idea, but this defense still surprises me at how bad they are. Worst, slowest, dumbest set of linebackers in the league. Flowers should be arrested for stealing $90M from the Ford family.
And how does Quinn justify not adding any help at RB or DE at the deadline?
This will be a 6-9-1 team at best (which is technically progress). Somewhere Jim Caldwell is smiling.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:39 PM ^
I think McKissick and T Johnson are plenty good. They need help on the D.
November 3rd, 2019 at 11:13 PM ^
Both are serviceable third down types, but they needed to do something to replace Kerryon's usage, if for no other reason than to shorten games for their defense, which can't ever get off the field.
November 3rd, 2019 at 9:58 PM ^
I mean, Bevell passed with Marshawn Lynch in the backfield on the 1 yard line, so....
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:20 PM ^
The funny thing about Lions lore is the legend of “taking the wind.”
If you watched the game, it was the right thing to do.
The reason Morty fucked it up was the Bears were around the Lions 35, and the Bears threw an incomplete pass on 3rd down. They would have faced a 52 or so yard field goal attempt - which they wouldn’t have kicked.
But there was a flag. Holding.
The moron accepted the penalty setting up about a 3rd and 15. Screen pass netted about 20. Ballgame.
The problem wasn’t the decision to take the wind, it was not being willing to follow through with the implications of that decision and force the Bears to kick into that wind.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:37 PM ^
Giving the opposition the ball and hoping that they make a mistake with it has not been the right call in the NFL in at least 60 years. This is doubly true under the OT format that was in place at the time.
November 3rd, 2019 at 10:00 PM ^
The fact remains they could have forced the Bears to punt into the wind and chose not to.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:11 AM ^
My recollection is that the Lions had been on defense to end the 4th quarter and the defense was gassed. Then the coach sends out the defense to start OT.
Similar to the NE/ATL Superbowl. When the Pats won the toss and got the ball to start OT, the game was over. ATL's defense had been on the field the entire second half and just collapsed.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:45 PM ^
They won the coin flip & kicked the ball away in sudden death overtime? GTFO
November 3rd, 2019 at 9:05 PM ^
They were both the wrong call. All you're saying is that he wasn't even bright enough to recognize that the other team bailed him out of his earlier bad decision.
November 4th, 2019 at 12:09 AM ^
+1 (I don't know why you got a neg).
Taking the wind was defensible. The conditions were pretty ridiculous that day. But you have to follow through! Accepting that holding call was one of the dumbest things ever.
That's what Marty should be criticized for.
Another stat: there were 11 times in NFL history under the old overtime rules where a team won the toss and elected to kickoff in OT. The teams are 6-5 all-time in those cases.
One of those games was the 1990 Lions @ Bears game. Mike Ditka won the toss and elected to take the wind! Detroit then drove, but - Eddie Murray missed the field goal. Then the Bears won on the next drive, as Jim Harbaugh (see, this topic can be related to U-M football!) threw a long TD pass.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:21 PM ^
Patricia is definitely no rocket scientist, but over thinking an offensive "look" is way different than doing what no coach has ever done in the modern era.
They need to stop over thinking the blitz and just do it.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:27 PM ^
76 missed the block on that play. Killed the entire play.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:37 PM ^
And exactly why did he pull? He literally ran away from the hole the pressure came through.
November 3rd, 2019 at 9:46 PM ^
Not sure, but I don’t see how Stafford could possibly get a clean look if 76 just lets that guy through. I mean maybe if you have a fast QB on a sprint, but Stafford’s mad slow.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:30 PM ^
I like Patricia. Young coach. Stick with him.
November 3rd, 2019 at 8:37 PM ^
Urban Meyer to the Lions.