Matt Patricia has been a poor NFL head coach for some time. Lions fans largely knew that already, but the annual Thanksgiving Day game exposed Patricia’s inept foibles to a much wider national audience.
On behalf of all of us who watch the Lions on a daily basis, let me apologize to everyone for ruining your appetite on Thanksgiving with some truly dreadful football. The nation now has clear evidence of Matt Patricia and his coaching malpractice.
Some of the coaching decisions made in this embarrassing loss defy any conventional football knowledge.
Take the Deshaun Watson-to-Will Fuller touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. The first one, I guess I have to specify as they connected for TDs on two consecutive Texans plays, but I digress…
Amani Oruwariye is lined up in press coverage on the outside on Fuller. Oruwariye is a good cover man, but he’s not the fastest guy. Fuller is indeed the fastest guy. Yet there is Oruwariye given no safety help over the top — but also not jamming or pressing despite the press alignment. The actual plan in coverage was to have Oruwariye turn and run with Fuller. Duron Harmon did veer that way as the single-high safety, but his other coverage responsibilities on the play prevented him from being a factor if Watson makes a good throw. And he did.
That’s not Oruwariye’s fault. That’s not Harmon’s fault. That’s coaching malpractice. They’re being set up to fail by a senseless scheme that doesn’t adapt to the opponent or tailor to the strengths of the players on the field.
Need another example of the Patricia coaching malpractice? Let’s review the Lions’ final drive of the first half.
After Houston scored, the Lions get the ball back on a touchback with 1:44 on the clock. The first play is a nondescript run call where Kerryon Johnson picked up four yards. That was enough to engage the offense into striving for points instead of just bleeding out the clock.
A defensive holding penalty advanced the ball and created a fresh set of downs. Johnson broke off a nice gain on a catch-and-run to get across midfield. With plenty of time and a full set of three timeouts, Patricia opts to apparently play for the long Matt Prater field goal.
A quick pass to T.J. Hockenson is followed by a rushed incompletion and a sack. Instead of letting Prater attempt a 65-yard field goal, Patricia opted to punt.
No urgency. No plan. No attacking. Coaching malpractice.
There were several other instances. Going for it on 4th-and-1 by using a linebacker-turned-fullback instead of one of the greatest short-yardage runners in NFL history in Adrian Peterson is another great example.
Enough is enough.
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