Thanksgiving was a rough one for Matt Patricia.
The embattled coach, whose Detroit Lions got lambasted by the Deshaun Watson-led Houston Texans, 41-25, on national TV, did not find any respite after it was all over. Postgame questions to him and his players saw his job status as a hot topic, and no one seemed to want to answer them.
“It’s not my decision,” quarterback Matthew Stafford told reporters. “That’s for somebody else. If you want to ask me about the game, you ask me about the game.”
The game was the latest egg laid during Patricia’s two-and-a-half season tenure in Detroit. At 13-29-1, questions about his future aren’t unwarranted, especially after Lions GM Bob Quinn fired coach Jim Caldwell to hire Patricia in 2018.
Seemingly, no one in the Detroit locker room wanted to provide a vote of confidence.
“Obviously, I can’t say,” tight end T.J. Hockenson said. “I’m not going to comment on somebody else’s job. I’m just here to do mine, obviously. Matt Patricia gave me a chance to come into this organization. So, for that, I owe him. Obviously, that’s up to the front office — all that other stuff. You guys can talk about that, but he’s still my head coach. He’s still my head coach. If he’s not, he’s still the guy that gave me an opportunity to be a Detroit Lion. So, for that, I’ll forever be grateful.”
For his part, Patricia — a former New England Patriots defensive coordinator — channeled former boss Bill Belichick when asked about his short-term job outlook for Week 13’s tilt in Chicago.
“I focus on one day at a time,” he said. “That hasn’t changed. So, we’ll focus on today and go from there.”
