“Watch what happens now that the dictator is gone”.
Quite a statement from a Lions assistant coach, who related that tidbit to Michael Silver of the NFL Network. He wasn’t the only Lion to celebrate the departure of head coach Matt Patricia.
Silver laid out the details of a conversation he had with veteran Lions wide receiver Marvin Jones in a segment on the network.
“I’m not gonna lie, it’s been a while,” Silver quotes Jones as saying when he asked when the last time he had as much fun playing football as he did in Sunday’s win over Chicago.
“It’s a different feel, there’s no way around it.”
He noted how Jones talked up the “juice” on the sidelines, how “everyone was engaged the whole game”, two things that simply did not happen under Patricia’s authority in Detroit.
Jones credited interim coach Darrell Bevell for the sea change in attitude.
“Keep doing what you’re doing … do it with passion,” was Bevell’s message at halftime instead of the typical browbeating from Patricia. It worked; the Lions staged an improbable comeback and knocked off the Bears.
The Fall of the Berlin Wall?… that's how the @Lions are feeling right now… @nflnetwork @RhettNFL @wyche89 @MoveTheSticks pic.twitter.com/O1r5skan1q
— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) December 7, 2020
That Jones was willing to put his name on the quotes for Silver and not snipe at Patricia anonymously speaks volumes about how the locker room felt under the fired coach.