Detriot Lions head coach Matt Patricia has a lot to prove this season, as all NFL coaches do. The former New England Patriots defensive coordinator under Bill Belichick really wants to bring a Superbowl to the lions who have been in a lifelong drunken stupor in the NFC north division. A division that many of Lions fans feel is has been producing division champions out of default; not because of more strategically built systems just lack of others seriously attempting to build a perenial divisional Superbowl contending team! The NFC North has gotten off easy because the Lions have been in their own way as noted in a recent Deadspin article where they were voted as the worst franchise to be a fan of! Here's a taste of the writer's reasoning:
The Lions won the NFL championship three times between 1952 and 1957. Since then, 18 head coaches have guided them into this never-ending hellhole. Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reported last week that Matt Patricia, who might as well change his title to future former head coach, had a hill built next to the Lions’ team facility. The idea was create a conditioning challenge for the players not unlike the grueling terrain that abuts the Patriots’ practice field—but an unnatural phenomenon in the flat Midwest. Sisyphus himself couldn’t have come up with a better metaphor for this franchise.
The knock on the Lions coach is that he think he's the smartest guy in the room at times or all the time. Well, what better way to prove yourself than to take a team that has seen multiple presidents take and leave office since its' last playoff victory (1991), and turn it into not only a one time NFC North division winner but get perennial with it! Lions coach Matt has a chance to do this, but is this season the all or nothing point...we at Lionspassion.com don't necessarily think so! This is about system building and what better way to build a winning system than build similaiar to a current winning system; infact perhaps the greatest winning system the NFL has ever seen with the Bill Belichick led New Emgland Patriots? Well that's what is in play, and guess what Lions fans it takes time to successfully and effectively install a system like that! You have to have a system like type owner's mindset, GM, coach, internal departments, players, backup players, etc.! See a detailed explanation in our Matthew Stafford vs Adrew Luck article. It's a bit foolish to say if the team doesn't win immediately while the organizaional structure is staill being installed and therefore we need to scrap everything all together and start over from scratch! No...that would put us Lions fans behind another 3-5 years before getting back to this point we're at with little to no guarantee that the team would be any better than it is now! We have to let this play out completely, i.e. let's table the regime change talk to year 4 of Patricia's coaching tenure! By that time, the roster should be filled with the guys he feels complete the system so no excuses could be offered or accepted! Also, by that time we as Lions fans are expecting to have a division title or more, a playoff victory or more, and team built to takeover the NFC as the team to beat year in and year out! Coach Matt Patricia has to prove all of this but this season isn't the one where you pull the plug if things get a little rocky (except complete player mutiny)! Who knows the team's legendary ineptitude could be as close to recovery as Coach Patricia is personally; here's more on that: What do you think, is this season a "make the playoffs" or "You're fired" year for Coach Patricia?
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