Michael Rothstein, ESPN Staff Writer 5y

Matt Patricia: No 'big divide' among Lions after three blowout losses

ALLEN PARK, Mich. – Matt Patricia has coached three straight blowout losses. His team has been pummeled and rarely competitive since the middle of October.

He fired his special teams coach a week ago and then stressed the team would go back to fundamentals last week, only to get blown out again – with some different fundamentals being the problem. Patricia insisted Monday that the outside perception of what is going on with his team is not accurate.

“For us, it’s going to be just doing the things that we’re supposed to do when we’re supposed to do them and doing them the right way and hopefully we can get out there and perform better,” Patricia said. “It’s not a thing where there’s like a big divide or anything that’s unusual going on. We’re just not performing well enough on Sunday right now and look, it starts with me, like I always talk about.

“I’ve got to do a better job of getting them ready to go and, you know, the players have to go and execute out on the field. That’s really what it is, all of us working together.”

On Sunday, after a 34-22 loss to Chicago that sent the Lions to 3-6 and their third straight double-digit defeat, players backed their first-year head coach. They said they still believe in what he’s coaching and in him and the staff.

All around, it’s mostly a feeling that they are just not playing well enough or coaching well enough or doing anything well enough to be a competitive team at the moment. The Lions have started slow and have made scores reasonable to look at only because of late touchdowns and field goals with the game out of reach.

Some of that goes to preparation and adjustments – something Patricia took the blame for Monday (and in weeks past, too).

“Whenever you start off getting down, it’s never good,” running back Kerryon Johnson said Sunday. “It’s just something that we have to focus on in practice and get better at.”

Patricia said Monday that he believes his team is still understanding and hearing his message – something he relates to them every day. He said there has been no confrontation and that what’s said outside the building doesn’t always reflect what’s going on inside the building. Left tackle Taylor Decker said there is not a “fractured locker room” and that the message is still largely the same.

Patricia insisted the Lions are “not hitting the panic button or anything like that right now,” despite being 3-6 with two straight losses to divisional opponents and any sort of playoff hope extinguished in the cold of Minneapolis and Chicago.

“I believe in him,” cornerback Nevin Lawson said. “I definitely believe in him and I definitely believe in this team and this organization and everybody in this locker room.”

Patricia also said unlike last week, when special teams coach Joe Marciano was fired, that he is not planning on any more staff changes and that they are “not doing anything right now” when it comes to that.

He also said he has confidence in his team’s playcallers for all three phases – offense, defense and special teams – when he was asked if he’s going to jump in to help with the defensive playcalling more often.

“We’re working together continually. We’re in constant communication through the course of the game in all three phases and, you know, when you get to the game a lot of the game plan is laid out from that standpoint,” Patricia said. “The biggest part of it in the game is making adjustments and corrections as we’re going through, which we’re getting to. We have to continue to do that.

“And in some cases, make them a little bit quicker, in some cases just try to make sure they’re a little bit better than what they are. But from that standpoint, I have a lot of confidence in all those guys.”

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