The Lions were without their starting quarterback, starting running back and starting right tackle on Sunday, and then they lost their starting center to boot. They still managed to score 27 points against one of the best defenses in the NFL.
And they still managed to lose, again, because their defense let them down, again. Matt Patricia's defense, that is.
It was a 35-27 final to the Cowboys, the fifth time this season Detroit has scored at least 24 points and failed to win. No other team in the NFL shares that nugget of ignominy, and no one's really close.
Time after time this year, the Lions have played winning football on offense. They entered Sunday's game ranked sixth in the league in yards per game. The five teams ahead of them, all likely playoff bound, shared a record of 32-15. And the Lions are now 3-6-1 and cooked before Thanksgiving, because they've played losing football on defense. Time after time.
"I feel like a broken record at this point, but it's another game (where) I feel like the offense played well enough for us to win," said linebacker Devon Kennard. "We have to figure it out collectively as a defense. We have to play better."
The Lions surrendered 509 yards in their latest debacle, which was cheered heartily by a pro-Cowboys crowd at Ford Field. You can't blame the fans around here for losing interest or hope. They celebrated Patricia's arrival just a year ago. They believed he would build a defense that was elite.
And this is what he's given them.
It's all the more frustrating for the fact that things seemed to be gelling at the end of last season. The defense surged in the second half, and then the Lions added more weapons in the offseason. The talk a couple months ago was of speed, physicality and aggression. They were going to "mess with offenses," linebacker Jarrad Davis said. They were going to give teams "a headache."
Back then, it was fair to wonder just how good this defense could be. Now we're left asking, can it get any worse?
On Sunday the Lions were gashed by the pass. On other days this season they've been gouged by the run. Sometimes, like in Week 7 against the Vikings, they've been torn apart by both. They don't get off the field on third down and they don't stiffen up in their own territory, like Patricia's defenses -- or were they Bill Belichick's? -- were known for in New England.
The Cowboys went 8-14 on third down, and made it look easy all afternoon. Dak Prescott was under so little pressure that on some plays, he said, he was able to go through his reads twice.
Coach?
"They have a lot of skill players, a lot of fast players. They do a great job. They make a lot of plays – none of that was news to us," said Patricia. "We knew that going in. We had to go out there and perform, and we didn't get it done."
Patricia is starting to sound like a broken record, too. He has to coach it better, he says. The techniques, the fundamentals. There's not enough consistency, he says. There are too many penalties. All of that's true, and so is this: his adjustments aren't working.
Asked why the consistency has been lacking, Patricia didn't have much of answer.
"I would say it's something we're trying to figure out. Obviously we're working hard to do different things to try to get it consistent. I think some of the different movements we've had from a roster standpoint, injury standpoint, things like that, obviously are tough," he said. "Certainly, within the game when we have some of those moving parts, too, those factor in. We have to try to get that right."
In other words, I don't know.
Have the injuries been a legitimate hindrance? Sure. The Lions have played without their best cornerback, their best safety and a number of key defensive linemen at various points this season. But are they a legitimate crutch? Not really. Look what the offense was working with on Sunday.
That's the NFL. You make do with what you've got. It's something Patricia preaches often, because he learned it first-hand in New England. But he didn't learn it well enough, judging by his 9-16-1 record in Detroit.
Defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni isn't blameless here. The longtime college coach frankly looks in over his head in the NFL. But no one's really surprised by that, because Pasqualoni seemed like an old-friend hire from the start. He and Patricia go back to their days at Syracuse. And now their days might be numbered in Detroit.
Patricia, no doubt, should be on trial the rest of this season. He and Bob Quinn have a long leash from ownership, but they're starting to stretch it to the point that it snaps. One has to wonder how Martha Ford was feeling, and what she was thinking, on Sunday as chants of "Let's Go Cowboys!" rang around Ford Field. Patricia, for his part, said he wasn't thinking much about it.
"I have no idea what the situation is, who bought tickets and who didn't," he said. "We're just focused on the game. The game wasn't good enough for us."
More specifically, the defense wasn't good enough. It hasn't been good enough all season. It starts with me, Patricia says. And if it doesn't start getting better, it's probably time that it ends.
