How Michigan Football is similar to the Detroit Lions

Michigan, Lions have same problem

For the Detroit Lions, their defensive coordinator was head coach Matt Patricia. Yes, Lions fans know that Cory Undlin was technically the defensive coordinator (in title only) but everyone knew that Patricia was the one calling the shots.

Similar to Don Brown, Matt Patricia was hired by the Lions because he was supposedly a defensive “guru” or genius. He came from the New England Patriots coaching tree under Bill Belichick, who was one of, if not the greatest coach in NFL history. He was no-nonsense and demanded complete cooperation out of all of his players.

The 2020 Lions defense had a lot of problems. They could not get to the quarterback almost at all. Pretty much every team lit them up for a lot of passing yards. The struggle to generate a pass rush was similar to Michigan’s problems in 2020 as well.

After Kwity Paye and Aidan Hutchinson went down with injuries, it was a real struggle for Michigan to generate any kind of pass rush around the edges or up the middle.

The Detroit Lions lost a lot of their gap assignments in their front, and as a result, gave up a lot of rushing yards and/or quarterback scrambles to opposing offenses.

It was a real struggle to generate turnovers as well. The 2020 Lions defense, just like the 2020 Wolverines defense, had opportunities throughout their campaigns to come up with more turnovers. They both just couldn’t do it though. It was maddening.

Suffice it to say, it did not work out at all. The Lions’ defense got progressively worse every season under Matt Patricia.

Patricia was stubborn, just like Don Brown. He didn’t put his players in the right scheme to succeed at all and ultimately was fired after three short (or long, depending on your perspective) seasons as head coach and de-facto defensive coordinator for the Lions.