Man Coverage Is Ruining Matt Patricia's Defense

Read more on why the Lions' ineffective man coverage is ruining Matt Patricia's defense

The Detroit Lions and head coach Matt Patricia are known for their usage of man-to-man defense. 

Last season, the Lions and Patricia’s former team, the New England Patriots, were tops in the league for their percentage of using man concepts -- Cover-0, Cover-1 and two-man coverages. 

Obviously, those two defenses were on the opposite end of the spectrum. 

The Patricia-led Lions defense allowed the most passing yards in the NFL in 2019. Meanwhile, the Patriots gave up the second-fewest.

While in man coverage last year, the Lions surrendered 23 touchdown passes, and forced just four interceptions. 

So far, things don’t look much different for the Lions in 2020. 

Even the head coach of their Week 3 opponent, Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury, commented this week that the Lions' defense “looks very similar” schematically to a season ago.

Through the first two weeks of the 2020 NFL season, the man-heavy teams have had their fair share of struggles.

For the second straight season, the Lions are playing more man coverage than any other team. For the second straight season, they are getting KILLED in man coverage. In fact, the five teams playing the most man coverage this season have allowed 15 touchdowns and have no INT.

— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) September 24, 2020

According to Doug Farrar of USA Today, the top five NFL teams in terms of utilizing man coverage schemes -- including the Lions with the most -- have combined for 15 touchdowns allowed and zero interceptions. 

Those other four aforementioned teams include the New Orleans Saints, Miami Dolphins (not including their Week 3 game), Tennessee Titans and Atlanta Falcons.

Now, as we saw with the Patriots last year, man defense can work, and is very difficult to beat if you have the right personnel. 

For the Lions, though, it just doesn’t seem like they have the horses to be effective, especially when you include the injuries to slot corner Justin Coleman and outside corner Desmond Trufant. 

Perhaps one of Patricia’s biggest criticisms has been his inability to adjust on the fly and to mix up his tendencies.

By the looks of it, if something doesn’t change with his defense, there very well could be a change at head coach for the Lions and sooner than later. 

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