On the off chance that the Lions front office was searching for motivation to fire Matt Patricia, they may have discovered one on Sunday. In one of the most noticeably awful performances by any team this season, the Lions appeared as though they essentially abandoned Patricia during the team’s 20-0 misfortune to the Carolina Panthers.
In this humiliating misfortune, the offense couldn’t move the ball, the defense couldn’t stop a previous XFL quarterback (P.J. Walker) and the entirety of that prompted the Lions getting closed out unexpectedly since 2009.
The mix-ups began ahead of schedule for Detroit, with one of the ugliest ones going ahead a shotgun snap from Frank Ragnow to Matthew Stafford in the first quarter. On the play, Ragnow short-jumped the snap, and Stafford – who had been managing an irritated thumb the entire week – just couldn’t clutch it, and in the long run the Panthers ended up with the ball.
On the off chance that one play embodied the Lions’ day, it was certainly that one.
It’s very nearly a blessing for Stafford that the snap didn’t get to him, in light of the fact that whenever the ball ended up in his hands, he was getting devastated. The Lions quarterback was sacked five times and confronted steady pressure from a Panthers defense that made the Lions’ offensive line appear as though a concert at a concert where all the tickets were free.
The Lions essentially couldn’t do anything on offense, and on the few times where they did, Patricia killed the drives by punting. On two back to back drives in the second quarter, the Lions PUNTED the ball from Carolina territory. Patricia ought to have demonstrated some confidence in his offense and pulled out all the stops, on the grounds that in the most dire outcome imaginable, he was giving it back to a Panthers offense that was driven by a previous XFL QB. All things considered, he punted both times and the Lions could never take steps to score a touchdown in this game.
The Lions didn’t arrive at the red zone a single time and they just drove within Carolina’s 30-yard line one time. This was a game the Lions needed to win and they failed miserably.
The Lions were sitting at 4-5 going into Sunday and they even appeared to have an external shot at getting once more into the NFC playoff race, however that won’t occur now. The only question that appears to stay in Detroit is whether Patricia will endure the season.
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