They came from a place like New Orleans to try and build a team like New Orleans, deep, dependable, adaptable. So what were Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia thinking on Sunday as New Orleans came to Detroit and showed the Lions everything they are not?
Were they thinking about all their puzzling draft picks over the last three years? Were they thinking about all their desperate free agent signings? As another hot start melted into another embarrassing finish, were they thinking about all their blown leads?
If they were thinking like the rest of us, then they were also thinking about this: time is up.
The Lions are out of excuses to keep Quinn and Patricia in charge. They were already out of reasons at the end of last season. They retained the duo anyway, wanting to believe in progress they weren’t seeing. It takes time to lay the foundation for something solid.
In this case, it took time to tear it apart.
There have been a lot of low points for this regime, starting with Game 1. This may have been the nadir, a hopeful-turned-hopeless performance against a Saints team decimated by injuries. New Orleans wasn’t just missing six starters Sunday. It was missing an All-Pro and three Pro-Bowlers, and then it lost another All-Pro midway through the game.
The Saints went down 14-0, as one might expect under the circumstances. And then they scored 35 straight points and won the game going away, because that’s what great teams and great organizations do. They adjust. They find ways. They take what they have and make it work.
Two years ago, Patricia and Quinn took what the Lions had and methodically turned it into mush. Nine wins in consecutive years — something the franchise hadn’t done since the days of Wayne Fontes — became six wins, became three wins, became this, a team with no path forward.
“We got a lot of work to do,” Patricia said Sunday after the Lions dropped to 1-3. “Certainly when I came to Detroit, I think there was a lot of work to do, and that’s what we’re trying to do. … What do we do going forward and how do we win?”
It’s too late now, but they could start by taking notes from New Orleans. The Saints were missing their two best offensive lineman by the end of Sunday’s game, and still piled up over 160 yards on the ground. They were missing their two best corners, and still held Matthew Stafford to 204 yards through the air. Drew Brees was missing his two best downfield targets, and still found the big plays when he needed them.
Sean Payton and the Saints took the formula for sustained success in the NFL, the formula Quinn and Patricia were supposed to have learned in New England, and waved it in the Lions’ face, one play after another. The Lions took the ingredients for a single win and turned them into a rotten loss.
Since Quinn arrived here in 2016, he’s stressed the importance of two things when it comes to player personnel: depth at the bottom of the roster and stars at the top of it. The Lions have neither. The Saints played without Michael Thomas, Marshon Lattimore, Andrus Peat and Ryan Ramczyk on Sunday, and still had more playmakers — and 2019 Pro Bowlers — on the field than Detroit.
In the turgid river of the NFL, there are a few great teams, a logjam of decent teams, and then the mud that never makes it downstream. By now, the Lions were supposed to be up there with the Saints, steady amid changing currents. Instead they’ve dug themselves into the muck.
"I think we all think we can play better and coach better, so we know we have a lot of work to do. We got a long season ahead of us,” Patricia said. “But we gotta get going. We gotta get this stuff fixed.”
It wasn’t broken originally, but Patricia and Quinn tried fixing it anyway. It’s not like they’ll actually start fixing it now. Earlier this week, Saints veteran safety Malcolm Jenkins was asked about the importance of this game given his team’s 1-2 start.
“You can’t afford to drop ones,” he said, “especially ones you’re supposed to win.”
Jenkins said this knowing the Saints were banged-up and going on the road. He said it anyway because he knew who they were playing. Once again, the Lions are easy prey. They are out-classed on the field and out-matched on the sideline. This was never more glaring than Sunday, when a great team came to Detroit and left a bad one behind.