It’s well-worn territory at this point, holding up the bare statistics of Matt Patricia’s Lions tenure against that of his prematurely fired predecessor, Jim Caldwell. It’s obvious that stubbornness disguised as pragmatism is the only thing keeping the current staff there as the team plays out the string on a season that was supposed to be revelatory in its legitimization of Patricia’s body of work.
Instead, we’re treated to more moments like the one we saw in the third quarter of Sunday’s blowout loss to the Minnesota Vikings: Dalvin Cook taking an ISO handoff and breaking through the first wave of Lions defenders with both of his lead blockers still intact, free to scrape up any of the minor speedbumps on Cook’s way to an easy touchdown.