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Patricia's
future
looks
tenuous
after
Lions
collapse
again
By
NOAH
TRISTER
ap
sports
DETROIT
- The
Detroit
Lions
scored
two
quick
touchdowns
to take
a 14-0
lead
within
the
first
five
minutes
against
New
Orleans.
By
this
point,
every
Lions
fan
should
have
known
the game
was far
from
over.
For
a third
time in
four
games
this
season,
the
Lions
lost
after
leading
by
double
digits.
This
time, it
was the
injury-riddled
Saints
who came
away
with a
35-29
victory
Sunday.
New
Orleans
scored
35
unanswered
points
after
Detroit’s
early
advantage,
and as
the
Lions
head
into
their
open
date,
it’s
becoming
harder
to avoid
the
question
of
whether
Matt
Patricia
will be
their
coach
much
longer.
“We’ve
got a
lot of
work to
do,”
Patricia
said.
“Certainly,
when I
came to
Detroit,
there
was a
lot of
work to
do and
that’s
what
we’re
trying
to do.”
That
assessment
is
unlikely
to sit
well
with
Lions
fans.
Detroit
went 9-7
in 2017
under
Jim
Caldwell
before
he was
fired
and
replaced
by
Patricia
after
that
season.
Patricia
is now
10-25-1,
and
although
he had
previous
experience
as a
defensive
coordinator
with New
England,
the
Lions
(1-3)
have
looked
particularly
out of
sorts
lately
on that
side of
the
ball.
The
early
lead
Sunday
was gone
by the
middle
of the
second
quarter,
and New
Orleans
led
28-14 at
halftime.
Drew
Brees
was
intercepted
on the
Saints’
first
offensive
play,
but they
scored
touchdowns
on each
of their
next
five
possessions.
Meanwhile,
the
Lions’
offense
couldn’t
keep up.
“It’s
very
frustrating,”
offensive
lineman
Taylor
Decker
said.
“We
start
fast,
and we
show
that we
can get
up on
teams
and
score
points
on teams
and stop
teams,
but at
the end
of the
day,
it’s a
60-minute
game.”
The
last
time the
Lions
made
major
in-season
changes
was in
2015,
when
they
fired
general
manager
Martin
Mayhew
after
reaching
their
open
week on
the
schedule.
They
were 1-7
at the
time. A
week
earlier,
they’d
replaced
their
offensive
coordinator.
So
it’s not
too
early to
wonder
if owner
Sheila
Ford
Hamp
might
act.
Hamp’s
mother,
Martha
Firestone
Ford,
handed
the team
over to
her
earlier
this
year.
Players
have
remained
supportive
of
Patricia,
while
understanding
their
performance
hasn’t
been
good
enough.
“We
all
believe
in the
plan
that’s
put in
place,”
Decker
said.
“We’re
professional
athletes.
We’re
expected
to come
here and
perform,
and
follow
the lead
of the
things
that the
coaches
have us
do. We
believe
in
what’s
being
taught
here,
and then
if we
didn’t,
frankly
we
wouldn’t
be
here.”
___
Follow
Noah
Trister
at
https://twitter.com/noahtrister
___
More
AP NFL:
https://apnews.com/NFL
and
https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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