When the Lions fired head coach Matt Patricia on Saturday, they might have taken away Mitch Trubisky’s last life raft.
For parts of three years, the Bears quarterback has torn apart a defense littered with subpar players and, even worse, a head coach too stubborn to change. Patricia insisted on playing man coverage because that’s how he rose to notoriety as the Patriots’ defensive coordinator.
It worked, like most things do, in New England. It failed, like most things do, in Detroit.
No one benefited more than Trubisky. In four games against the Lions since coach Matt Nagy’s arrival, Trubisky has gone 4-0, thrown 12 touchdowns and one interception and totaled a 124.