Matt Patricia Is Not Surprised by Detroit Lions Slow Start

Read more on why Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia believes the team has started off slowly in 2020

Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia is not surprised at his team's play to start the 2020 NFL season. 

Despite a record of 0-2, and many outside of the Lions' facilities believing the clock has started to tick on his entire tenure, Patricia stated Wednesday in a video conference that 'It's going to be this way in September' as the team continues to work to improve on all facets of their performance.

"I don't think I'm surprised because I think that we've played two games together. It's going to be this way in September," he said. "I think we talked about that before. We need time as a group to work together. And certainly from a team standpoint, I think we've tried to teach all of the phases when you get into the actual game."

The coaching staff this week, along with a couple of players made available to the media, noted the improvements are also needed on the mental side of the game.

Only thing that separates this league is like I said, from the neck up,” Detroit Lions linebacker Reggie Ragland said Monday. “It ain’t nothing else.”

“(Matt Patricia has) been talking about the ebbs and flows of the game,” Undlin said Tuesday. “We’ve just got to focus on one play at a time. It doesn’t matter what the score is. We can be down 14, be up 14, it doesn’t matter. The focus and the energy needs to go into the next play no matter what the call is, no matter what the personnel is on the field, what they’ve got, and do our best to execute that. Again, it starts with me.”

Consistency 

Patricia does not believe the team needs a 'shock to the system' or drastic changes at this point in the 2020 season. 

"We just try to stay consistent every single week. That would be the same as riding the ebbs and flows of every single day -- which we talk about during the game. No different than stories that are in the media, no different than people that want to talk about week two in week three and week four before we even get to week ten. So for us, it's just try to stay consistent and improve. I think that's the biggest thing for us."

Detroit heads to Arizona this Sunday to face a Cardinals team that has started the season 2-0. 

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