Matt Patricia to Lions fans: I understand their frustration

Not Sunday

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After the game, the user Twitter @WorldofIsaac wrote: "THIS SEASON LIONS IS GONNA BE SOME HOT TRASH Y 'ALL"

A reader sent me an email: "I'd love to hear (General Manager, Bob) Quinn explain why fans should have patience with the new diet, including him, when he comes just set up his former coach (2 playoffs in 4 seasons). . "

And I thought I was supposed to be the negative.

But that's the heart of Patricia's problem. He and Quinn promised that things would be better than they were under Jim Caldwell, who was 9-7 last year and has played in the playoffs twice. They promised an improvement under Patriot Way.

Admittedly, Patricia and Quinn have not set a deadline for this improvement. But fans do not care about delays and patience. All they know is that they exchanged their boring and dependable Ford Taurus for a 1968 Ford Mustang, two dudes from a luxury dealership promised they would manage to restore one of these days .

The fans are not stupid. They can read a schedule. On Sunday night, the Lions play New England Patriots on national television. Next week is in Dallas. The following week, Green Bay arrives in town. The following week, everyone gets fired. Joke. (Kind of.)

I wrote after the 30-27 loss Sunday in San Francisco that the Lions would start 0-5. The best scenario, Matthew Stafford, is confused, thinks he's still playing for the Highland Park Scots, they beat Dallas and started 1-4.

Not much better, is not it?

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On Sunday night, NBC cited a statistic that since the NFL realigned its divisions in 2002, 11% of the teams that started from 0-2 have played in the playoffs. I asked Patricia on Monday what were the chances of her team and why the fans should stay encouraged.

"I think we are trying to improve, we are trying to improve, we have a lot of work to do, we know it," he said. "We are ready for the task. …

"I can not predict the future. I can not tell you what will happen in two months. But what we need to do now is repair the mistakes we made yesterday and prepare to play another game this week.

Coaches must be short-sighted, or at least they claim to be public. But sports writers think about the past, the present and the future, and all possible hypothetical situations, like cows chewing their asses. It's disgusting but necessary.

So the best I can offer you is this: Yes, the playoffs are out of the question for Lions, statistically or not. But after facing the New York Jets, they at least showed an impetus to San Francisco. That might be enough to beat Miami, Seattle, Chicago, Arizona or Buffalo, but probably not much more.

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