Author: Paula Pasche

DETROIT >> It was a preseason loss, but no matter what lens you look through the Detroit Lions looked tired and listless.

That is unacceptable.

“There’s no such thing as tired. We should not be tired for no reason. You’ve got enough time to go home, you’ve got enough time to go to sleep, you’ve got enough time to study, you’ve got time to take care of your body,’’ defensive tackle Ricky Jean Francois said after the Lions lost 30-17 to the New York Giants at Ford Field.

It’s not the loss. It’s all about the execution or lack of it.

“There’s no excuses, we have no excuses. We’ve got to come in (Saturday), we’ve got to come together as a group. We’ve got to look in the mirror at ourselves, we’ve got to get this done right,’’ said Francois who was wearing a T-shirt that read “Bad decisions make good stories.”

The veteran, starting his 11th NFL season, was steamed and maybe that’s what this bunch needs after 15 days of training camp.

“You want to execute everything in the preseason … If you don’t do all those things, the season is nothing,’’ Francois said. “We can’t look at the season, the season is too far ahead. What we can control now is how we correct this tape against the Giants.’’

(Photo courtesy of Detroit Lions)

Coach Matt Patricia has been preaching physicality and intensity from Day One and it was clearly not apparent on Friday.

What did he like about the game?

“I’d say for me right now I’m not going to be overly pleased with anything at the current moment. Maybe in a couple days if you ask that question I’ll find something on the tape. Right now it starts with me, I have to coach better and do a better job of getting these guys ready to go,’’ Patricia said.

Five thoughts from the loss:

1. The coach makes no apologies for working the guys hard during training camp, often making them run sprints after a hard practice. “We’re out there trying to get better everyday. The practices are critically important and that’s where we have to make improvements and get better. We’ll be able to do some things in practice that we can’t do in a game. It’s important we get those looks, it’s training camp that’s how it’s supposed to be.’’ The Lions practiced for nearly three hours on Tuesday and more of the same on Wednesday in joint practices with the Giants. That’s a lot of work but no excuse.

2. Patricia thinks they are getting there when it comes to conditioning. “I think overall as a team I’ll say this, I thought from a conditioning level standpoint it didn’t really look like we were tired,’’ Patricia said. “I’ll look at the film and evaluate that. From a conditioning standpoint it looks like we’re moving in the right direction. We’re not there, we haven’t arrived but we’re moving in the right direction.’’

3.  Defensive end Ziggy Ansah saw significant time in the first half, after sitting out last week’s game. Looks like he’ll be a good fit in the new defensive scheme which shouldn’t be a surprise. “I obviously noticed him on a couple plays but I’m going to have to look at the tape. It was good from the standpoint of he was out there working hard,’’ Patricia said of Ansah. However, the pass rush which was an issue a week ago did not look like it had improved. None of the Giants quarterbacks were sacked while Lions’ quarterbacks were sacked four times.

4. Patricia wasn’t happy, he hates to lose. But he is not in panic mode. “When you do evaluate your team you never go too far left or right, because you understand it is a constant competition. What you want to do is get to the end of that preseason mode and take a look at the full pie and see what the full picture looks like. It’s too early to go into that mode,’’ Patricia said.

5. Still not too much is known about the run game which has gotten most of the focus since last year’s miserable effort. In the first half the Lions had 10 carries for 23 yards and overall 22 carries for 67 yards. Theo Riddick and Ameer Abdullah combined for just 13 rushing yards. Ouch. Rookie Kerryon Johnson showed a little sizzle in the Week 1 preseason loss at the Raiders but on Friday had just four carries for nine yards. LeGarrette Blount got most of his work in the second half. He was the Lions’ leading rusher with 11 carries for 32 yards.

ALLEN PARK >> Matt Patricia will coach his first game at Ford Field when the Lions host the New York Giants at 7 p.m. on Friday.

The Lions coach is geeked even though it’s a preseason contest.

Under that bushy beard, Patricia has a plan as the next few weeks develop to find the best players for each position. The quest continues in the second preseason game.

He wants to see improvement from the Week 1 loss at the Oakland Raiders.

“Trying to keep a basic game plan from that standpoint and just trying to increase the level of execution, see if we can improve from that standpoint,’’ Patricia said on Thursday before the walk-through with the Giants.

“We’ll add a couple new things that we maybe didn’t look at last week just to take a look at them on the field and see how that goes. But, for us, it’s just going to be that constant improvement. The overall operation—hopefully that goes off better than it did last week, and then the on-field performance, too,’’ Patricia said.

Five things to look for in Friday’s contest:

1. Matthew Stafford did not play a snap last week and may not get on the field on Friday either. Patricia was non-committal when asked if his quarterback will play.  “Everybody’s going to be ready to go,’’ Patricia said. While Stafford will most likely get in at least one preseason game, remember he has gotten valuable experience from joint practices the last two weeks with the Raiders and the Giants.

2. Patricia also would not say how long the starters will remain in the game. It depends on the flow and, of course, different position groups will see more time than others.

3. Against the Raiders, Ameer Abdullah got the bulk of the work at running back in the first half, while Kerryon Johnson opened eyes in the second half. Theo Riddick and Dwayne Washington did not play at all. So who will get the most carries against the Giants? Tough to tell. Abdullah again had many carries with the ones at camp this week. LeGarrette Blount may get a carry or two along with Zach Zenner.

4. Defensive end Ziggy Ansah did not play last week, but has practiced all this week. His tendency toward injury, could keep him on the sideline on Friday. Once the season starts, he may play on the inside along with his typical spot outside. “I think he’s obviously a tremendous player and causes some different issues across the board. So, getting an advantage or getting an opportunity to look at him in some of those different alignments, I think, is good for us. I don’t really know what it’s going to shape out to be when we get to the regular season,’’ Patricia said. “But, from a standpoint of just giving him some different ways to pressure an offense or put the offense under duress, is always a good thing for us. So, he’s long, he’s a really long guy, he’s very strong, and he has a real good quickness about him, too. Which, when you can match him up against different offensive linemen across the board, you can get some advantages there.”

5. Cornerback Darius Slay had a few match-ups in the joint practices this week with Giants’ superstar receiver Odell Beckham Jr. But don’t expect to see them match up in the game.  Beckham is not expected to play on Friday night, according to the New York Post. Beckham, who said he’s feeling good, is coming off a fractured left ankle that occurred in October forcing him to miss the rest of the season. If Friday’s game mattered he would be on the field, but no need to push it.

ALLEN PARK >> Graham Glasgow was back at practice on Wednesday, after going down with a knee injury on Tuesday.

However, the Lions center didn’t take all the reps at center. Rookie Frank Ragnow was snapping the ball to Matthew Stafford during team drills toward the end of Wednesday’s session with the New York Giants.

Here’s the thing, no matter what happened to Glasgow, that role at center might have been planned for Ragnow who started at center as a junior and senior at Arkansas.

“All those guys on the offensive line know multiple positions, and however we do it in practice, we’re going to try to get everybody a certain amount of reps,’’ coach Matt Patricia said on Wednesday.

The coach said practice is scripted.

“We’re not really in the mode where we’re just calling against each other blindly. And (Tuesday) was a scripted practice where there might be particular plays that we want guys to see in certain positions, so that affects where they get lined up,’’ Patricia said.

During camp and since he was drafted, Ragnow has taken most of his reps at left guard. It’s expected that’s where he’ll start when the season gets under way.

“So, there’s a little bit more to it than just kind of throwing guys in there and throwing them around in a certain set. So, again, let’s just say hypothetically Frank was at a guard position and I wanted to see one of his pulls, and see how he went and attacked the edge, maybe on a particular run play or a particular protection against an individual player that the Giants have – you weigh the value of moving the guy to a different position or leave him where he is and get the valued rep that you need to evaluate and see him do. So, a lot of that goes into that decision there,’’ Patricia said.

When GM Bob Quinn drafted Ragnow in the first round, it was expected that he would start at center. But it appears that Glasgow, who started a few games at center in 2017, has won that spot.

“We can put Frank anywhere, which is great. We can move him to center, guard, tackle, or put any of those guys all the way across the board. And again, it’s so early in the stage of what we’re trying to do from all positions that these guys are still going to play multiple positions and get a lot of reps,’’ Patricia said.

“And there are going to be guys that are playing positions this week that will play completely different positions next week just to get another evaluation. The good thing is that we have quite a few more weeks here before we get to the regular season, so we have a timeline of how we have to evaluate all those guys,’’ the coach added.

Thursday will be the third and final practice against the Giants at the Lions’ facility. Detroit is coming off two practices at the Oakland Raiders last week.

Going against different competition in camp should especially benefit Ragnow and all the young guys.

“I think it’s the biggest thing for the young guys to see—the increase of what the competition looks like on game day. And for us to have these practices where they can kind of see it a little bit more and get a little bit more experience with that helps every bit,’’ Patricia said. “I would also say that the more we can get on tape of competitive reps against different people, different teams, our own guys, we can coach and teach off of that. And that’s the most important thing, where we can—not just a, call it a walk through or tempered down sort of mentality—where we’re actually teaching live or coaching off of live reps. I think that’s where we make our biggest improvements.”

Thursday’s practice at 9 a.m. is open to the public.

The Lions and Giants play a preseason game at 7 p.m. on Friday at Ford Field.