Detroit Lions fire Matt Patricia odds: Home loss on Thanksgiving vs. Texans could be last straw for ownership
Matt Patricia could be coaching his final game for the Detroit Lions on Thursday.
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There is no word more apt to describe the effort the Detroit Lions put forth last Sunday at Carolina other than embarrassing as the Motor City Kitties were shutout 20-0 by a bad defensive team, the first time the Lions were blanked since 2009. That has put embattled head coach Matt Patricia on a scorching-hot seat and it's quite possible that Detroit's Thanksgiving afternoon game vs. Houston is Patricia's last on the sideline. The Lions are 3-point underdogs on the William Hill Sportsbook NFL odds, and SportsLine oddsmakers heavily favor Patricia as the next NFL coach fired.
The media in Motown this week all were calling for Patricia's head (and that of GM's Bob Quinn) after that Panthers loss as Carolina played without starting QB Teddy Bridgewater and star running back Christian McCaffrey (among a few others) and still dominated. Former XFL star PJ Walker made his first start under center for the Cats and completed 24 of 34 for 258 yards and a TD against Patricia's defense.
Detroit had just 185 total yards and was 3-for-14 on third down against a defense that had been historically bad this year on that down. On two consecutive drives in the second quarter, the Lions punted from inside Carolina territory, and they never reached the red zone once. It was the third time in the last four weeks that the Lions lost by at least 14 points.
Patricia is 13-28-1 as head coach, with as many losses in 2½ seasons in Detroit as his predecessor, Jim Caldwell, had in four years. Patricia would have to win 23 consecutive games to match Caldwell's winning percentage.
The annual Thanksgiving game is Detroit's signature home matchup of the season (no fans this year), and if the Lions play like that again it seems rather likely that new principal owner Sheila Ford Hamp fires Patricia – the team has declined interview requests for Hamp in recent weeks. There is ZERO doubt that Patricia is fired after this season.
Firing Patricia now (maybe not on the holiday but Friday) allows a bit of a transition in a pseudo-bye week ahead of Week 13 and also would allow the Lions to get a bit of a head start in a head coach search – Thursday's opponent Houston and the Atlanta Falcons already got their head starts in the job market by firing their coaches weeks ago.
Via SportsLine NFL oddsmakers: Who is the next head coach fired?
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