Detroit Lions notes: Getting in regular season mode in preparation for Bucs

No panic about the 0-2 start

ALLEN PARK — Matt Patricia made it clear that while it said Monday on the calendar it was a Wednesday for him.

The Lions coach has scheduled this week, leading up to Friday’s preseason game at Tampa Bay, as close as he can to a regular season week as far as practices and meetings.

“It feels more like a normal week, kind of get into a routine, it’s a little different you’re still in training camp but not in training camp. You’re looking at it as a regular season game as far as preparation,’’ safety Glover Quin said.

With a new coach, the day-to-day workings will change at the Lions practice facility.

“I think it’s very important to figure out a routine, this is as close as we can simulate Week 1 as we possibly can,’’ wide receiver Golden Tate said. “It’s imperative we figure out our routine, the game plan, how we’re going to study film because it’s something we’re not familiar with.’’

While the Lions are 0-2 in the preseason, there didn’t seem to be a sense of panic in the locker room prior to Monday’s practice.

“It kind of depends on how you look at it, obviously we go out to win every game we don’t put in all this work to lose, so yeah we would like to be 2-0, unfortunately we’re 0-2,’’ Quin said. “A lot of it has been self-inflicted things we know we can do better at and clean up to execute at a high level.’’

The offense has looked better than the defense so far. It’s hard to tell without the starters playing consistently.

The offensive line, which should be improved this season, has not looked all that strong. Left tackle Taylor Decker said as a line they will improve and get better.

“Me as an individual I’ll be just fine I’ll improve and get better. Going into this next week however much we play, we play, and I think it’ll be good for us to grow moving forward,’’ Decker said.

“I think moving forward I’ll be a lot better. I’m comfortable with saying that. Overall I’ll be OK.’’

The Lions starting offense hasn’t been together much on the field. Matthew Stafford played on Friday night in 17 percent of the offensive snaps.

“For me personally, there are some things we need to fix for sure but I’m confident with the personnel we have in here and the coaching staff we have in here that we’re going to get better and get better fast,’’ Tate said. “We have a very high standard, it’s not going to be lowered. We have to dig deep, fix what we need to fix and come out and play. The good news is that it’s a new week.’’

Defensive backs added

The Lions have signed three defensive backs and subtracted one in the last two days.

On Monday they signed free agent cornerback Dexter McDougle, cornerback Sterling Moore and offensive lineman Beau Nunn. They have placed linebacker Steve Longa (torn ACL) on reserve/injured, released vested veteran defensive lineman Cornelius Washington and waived cornerback Antwuan Davis.

On Sunday, they announced the signing of safety Marcus Cromartie.

 

 

Detroit Lions: One veteran not afraid to speak out on defensive woes

Ricky Jean Francois says what is on his mind

Apparently Ricky Jean Francois didn’t get the message that Lions players are to be seen and not heard.

While there is no hard evidence, that the new coaching staff has silenced the players, it certainly appears that way.

They all talk the same now. We’ve heard the tired old phrase — “We’re just trying to improve every day” every day. “Last year is last year.” We get it.

It was stunning when Darius Slay talked to the media on Tuesday: “Blah, blah, blah.” Nothing. Big Play Slay has personality galore and used to enjoy talking to the media, not just about his game, but also about his guy, Kobe Bryant. He’s a character and there’s nothing wrong with that. Coaches and his teammates have always said Slay is all business out on the field. This week he wouldn’t even bite on going against Odell Beckham Jr., in the joint practices.

So on Friday night, when veteran defensive tackle Ricky Jean Francois spoke from the heart after the preseason loss to the Giants, it was stunning in its own way.

Francois, who played in New England for Matt Patricia for half of last season. He’s 31 and nearing the end of his career so perhaps he has nothing to lose.

Certainly the defensive line, which is mostly comprised of younger guys, needs a teammate who will tell it straight.

Here’s a bit of what he said in the locker room after the game: “It’s disheartening to see us not perfect our technique. It’s disheartening to see us not execute what we executed the whole week. It’s hard not to see certain things that you sit in a building from morning to night going over, then when we get on the field, we don’t see it done. But like I said, we got two more weeks, and we have tomorrow, the first day to start—to start correcting these situations and start correcting to stop that run. Because if you don’t stop the run, you have a lot of great NFL teams in the League that have good running backs and O-lines that can just move that ball whenever they choose to.”

Francois played 17 snaps or 29 percent of the defensive plays in the 30-17 loss to the Giants. In the preseason opener at Oakland he didn’t play.

While he was tough on his teammates, he was careful to say he needs to improve his game too.

On a media conference call on Saturday, Patricia said he trusts Francois because he knows him. He also hinted that Francois is not a lock to make the 53-man roster.

“He has a great value from that (leadership) aspect,’’ Patricia said. “He understands different teams, different programs and organizations and understands what it takes, but in particularly with me in the scheme and what we’re looking for. He has a lot of good insight to give to some of the players, some of the things that he had to do or has gone through, from the aspect how to play some of the situations, he can hand the knowledge down to those guys which is great.

“(He’s) certainly a guy though that has a lot of work to do. He’s working hard to get caught up, we got him here right as training camp got going. Working very hard, he’s a guy I trust and rely on a lot,’’ Patricia said.

Will he make the cut? Stay tuned.

 

Five things to know about Detroit Lions 30-17 preseason loss to N.Y. Giants

Francois steamed; Patricia not happy either

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.