Matt Patricia Discusses Lions' Slow Start Against Buccaneers

Slow start against Buccaneers was detrimental, according to Matt Patricia

The Lions started their Week 15 contest with the Buccaneers by intercepting Bucs quarterback Jameis Winston. 

Rookie linebacker Jahlani Tavai secured his first career interception, but the Lions were unable to capitalize offensively. 

After the initial miscue, Winston and the Buccaneers' offense took advantage of the Lions' porous defense. 

After Winston led the Bucs on a 99-yard touchdown drive, Lions head man Matt Patricia gathered his defense over to try and regroup from a terribly slow start. 

After halftime, both the Lions' offense and defense were able to make adjustments. 

The game was more competitive until third-string quarterback David Blough threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown by Central Michigan product Sean Murphy-Bunting. 

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Patricia discussed the slow start following the Lions' seventh consecutive loss. 

"I think for us, obviously, a slow start. Not really what we want to do against an explosive team like this," Patricia said. "Obviously, it’s detrimental. They can score extremely fast, they’re a very aggressive defense (and) they have good players on both sides of the ball. So, you have to do a better job to start the game."

Patricia added, "We had to make some major adjustments there. I think to some of the things that we were doing, once the game settled down, I think our guys went out, and fought really hard to try to get things right. We got some adjustments at halftime that we needed, and kind of went out there and tried to improve on what we were doing." 

Both Blough and left tackle Taylor Decker also fielded questions regarding the slow start.

“I think there were plays that were on the field to be made, and we didn’t execute them -- I didn’t execute -- to the best of our ability," Blough said. "We just have to come out and start faster. We talk about it a lot. It’s a shame. It’s frustrating that that’s what happened, and I’ll take a lot of responsibility for that, too, as the leader of the offense. It can’t happen." 

Decker also noted the "execution errors" in his postgame assessment of the Lions' loss. 

“Give credit to them for making plays and bringing a bunch of different pressures and changing up a lot of different things to make us think and try to react on the fly," Decker commented. "And then, I’m sure there are some execution errors on our behalf that we’ll take a look at tomorrow." 

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