Detroit Lions coaching controversies overblown: On tipping plays and losing players

The Detroit Lions were not a well-coached team on Monday. Let’s get that out of the way right up top. I gave the coaching an F in my weekly report card Sam Martin Jersey , because of curious personnel decisions, and just straight up incompetence that showed itself not just on Monday night, but throughout the entire preseason, too.But this week has already produced a couple of coaching controversies in the media, and most of it is hot air. They are specific narratives that Lions fans can cling to and blame for everything that happened on Monday night vs. the New York Jets, when the real problems are much more nuanced and multifaceted. Let’s break it down.Jim Bob Cooter’s offense is too predictable and Matthew Stafford is tipping playsWe can thank Jets linebacker Darron Lee, who picked off Stafford twice in this game, for this storyline. Here’s what Lee said after the game (courtesy of the Detroit Free Press):That admittedly sounds damning. Coming out in the first game of the season with the same signals that you’ve had on tape for years would, indeed, be a sign of an uninventive coordinator. But knowing what an opposing offense is trying to do is not at all uncommon in the NFL. For the most part, offenses don’t drastically change schemes week-to-week, as that would be too overwhelming of a playbook for any NFL quarterback. As a result, opposing defenses desperately search for tendencies out of familiar formations. Sometimes they guess right—as Lee did several times on Monday—but sometimes they guess wrong. Matthew Stafford’s former teammate, Dan Orlovsky, talked to Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar this week and provided a lot of clarity on this issue (I highly recommend reading the entire thing): Now I’m not letting Cooter off the hook here. In fact, he should absolutely be on the hot seat right now. This offense has underperformed for far too long considering the talent he has at his disposal. He’s also responsible for some curious play-calling choices (the pass on third-and-1 that resulted in a pick six, the goal-line run with Theo Riddick Quandre Diggs Jersey , etc.), and the Lions offense hasn’t gotten off to a hot start in years, it seems, due to a stubbornness to commit to the run game early. But the predictability and hand signal controversies are overblown. He got beat in a couple of games of rock-paper-scissors on Monday, but that’s only the second time Stafford has been picked off three times since Cooter took over as offensive coordinator. Matt Patricia is losing the teamWe can thank good old Carlos for this one. The narrative started early in training camp thanks to a baseless claim from Mr. Morrarez that Matt Patricia was in danger of losing his team for overrunning his players during training camp.While the notion seemed ridiculous at the time (and still does, honestly), NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo gave the theory more legs late last week, prior to Monday’s disaster.“Up there in Detroit, Matt Patricia went really hard on these guys in camp,” Garafolo told ‘Good Morning Football’. “There was a lot of contact there, there was a lot of harsh criticism from what I am told. There’s not a lot of, ‘Hey, good job.’ There’s a lot of, ‘Hey, bad job, bleepity-bleepity-bleep.’”And according to Garafolo, some veteran players are not happy about this and other strict rules such as Glover Quin Jersey , according to Garafolo, no pictures inside the locker room are allowed to be posted on social media.“Matt Patricia is trying to establish some kind of a culture there and veterans are not very happy,” Garafolo said. Now I don’t doubt that what Garafolo says is true. Any time a team makes such a drastic management change from a guy like Jim Caldwell to a hard-nosed Matt Patricia, there is going to be some unhappy folks. There is undoubtedly a culture change underway in Detroit, and not everyone is going to be prepared to immediately buy-in.Hell, we’ve seen some players come out of New England and complain about the culture there. Just this offseason,Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson hammered the team for being arrogant and a “fear-based organization.” Former Patriots defensive end Cassius Marsh said he considered retirement because he hated the Patriots’ culture so much. New England’s methods aren’t for everyone, and because Matt Patricia doesn’t have the results yet, it’s going to be hard to convince some of his players right away.I don’t deny any of that, but any management change in any business is going to rub some leftover employees the wrong way. At this point, there is no indication that Patricia has lost the entire team. In fact, there is no indication he has lost anybody. There are just a few players frustrated by his methods, but there’s no indication they’ve given up. At this point, we only have a single source in Garafolo indicating any sort of resent, and it’s hard to tell from his reporting just how many players are taking the transition slowly. Garafolo took things one step further after the Lions’ loss to the Jets, suggesting that an agent of a Lions player felt a blowout was coming, because he believes they were overworked in camp:Maybe it’s true that the Lions player felt this way http://www.lionscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-ricky-jean-francois-jersey , but what I don’t buy is that the Lions’ poor performance was because they were overworked. That’s an overly simplistic excuse, and it’s honestly just lazy thinking. That being said, if players are thinking that way, it’s bad news whether it’s true or not. And Patricia certainly is doing himself no favors by sporting a team that got blown out in a home opener. This absolutely could blow up into something bigger if the ship doesn’t right itself.But it’s just Week 1. Winning cures all, and there are 15 games left on the schedule. If there are any Lions players truly jumping ship on Patricia after one (admittedly horrible) loss, then I’m not sure they belong in the NFL to begin with. Adversity happens everywhere in the league, and if you jump at the first sign of it, you’re not going to make it anywhere. If the wins don’t eventually come, this story may eventually have legs, but this early in the season, this is just connecting dots that aren’t necessarily related. Management overhauls always have bumps in the road, and that doesn’t mean the team has already given up on Patricia because they had one bad game. It means Patricia needs to justify his methods, and he still has plenty of time to convince his players and fans of that.Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Monday Night Football open thread The Pittsburgh Steelers travel to Tampa Bay to take on the Buccaneers on Monday Night Football. The game will air on ESPN and can be streamed on the Yahoo! Sports app; kickoff is at 8:15 p.m. EST.Both teams have surprised this year. The Steelers were expected to dominate the AFC and challenge the Patriots for the AFC crown, but they’ve gotten off to a rough start. In Week 1, the Steelers tied 21-21 with the Cleveland Browns, who hadn’t won a game since the 2016 season. The next week, both the offense and defense sputtered against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs got off to a 21-0 start in what seemed like an instant Cheap Ziggy Ansah Jersey , and while Pittsburgh eventually tied it at 21, the Chiefs got rolling again and the Steel Curtain couldn’t keep up with Pat Mahomes and the Chiefs’ high-octane offense. To make matters worse, the Steelers have faced a lot of drama with their struggles. Star running back Le’Veon Bell has been in a holdout since the offseason, and rumors have come about this week that the Steelers are fielding trade offers. On top of that, All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Brown has been visibly frustrated with the offense, even skipping a practice this week.The Bucs have been the complete opposite. Expectations were low going into the season, and with starting quarterback Jameis Winston suspended for three games, expectations fell even lower as journeyman quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick manned the helm. Fitzpatrick lit the league on fire, however, becoming only the third quarterback in league history to throw for four touchdowns and 400+ yards in back-to-back weeks. On top of that, he leads the league in total QBR going into Monday night’s matchup. Most importantly, he’s doing it with swagger. With the Steelers’ defense bleeding and Ryan Fitzpatrick on fire, expect a high scoring and very entertaining game tonight as we watch to see if the Fitzmagic continues. What do you want to see tonight? Can the Steelers defense step up? Will James Conner put the nail in Bell’s coffin with the Steelers? Will Ryan Fitzpatrick seal the deal and win the starting job? Let us know that and anything else on your mind in the comments section.