LANDOVER, Md. _ Matt Patricia won't give a straight answer as to whether he's calling plays for the Detroit Lions defense, but if he's going to go down as head coach it appears he's going to do it running the defense the way he sees fit.
Watching Patricia and Lions defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni on the sideline for long stretches of Sunday's 19-16 loss to Washington, it appeared Patricia was calling defensive plays.
Patricia held what appeared to be a laminated defensive play sheet close to his mouth, covering the microphone on his headset, and talked regularly into the microphone when the defense was on the field.
Pasqualoni held a different paper in his hand during parts of the game, but rarely referenced it when the defense was on the field and appeared to talk much less frequently into his headset.
Patricia, the former New England Patriots defensive coordinator, has been asked on several occasions about the play-calling responsibilities this year.
In October, he gave Pasqualoni a vote of confidence as play caller, saying the former Syracuse head coach was doing "a great job" running the defense, and noting it was important for him to keep play-calling duties separate so he could "do my best as the head coach to manage the game."
Asked if he called plays Sunday, Patricia did not directly answer.
"Again, like I've said before, I have a lot of different roles on game day and certainly from that standpoint, I'm very active in the communication from all phases of the game, all three phases," Patricia said. "So there's going to be plays out there that I can call, there's going to be plays out there Coach P's calling, there's going to be plays out there that certainly are just kind of automatic calls for us."
Asked what percentage of plays he called Sunday, Patricia said, "I don't know. I'm not going to get into that stuff."
When a reporter asked if it was 100% or less, Patricia said, "Again, like I'm not really going to get into the details of all that stuff. It changes week by week."
No matter the play caller, Patricia is very hands-on with a Lions defense that ranks near the bottom of the NFL in most categories.
The Lions held Washington, the NFL's worst offense to 230 yards and no touchdowns _ Washington scored it's only TD on a kick return _ but gave up two fourth-quarter field-goal drives to squander a late three-point lead.
Rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins led Washington on a nine-play, 54-yard drive to tie the game with 1:49 to play, then after Jeff Driskel threw his second interception of the game, led a six-play, 33-yard drive for the winning kick.
"He just want us to trust his call and whatever he calls we can get done," cornerback Justin Coleman said of Patricia's role on defense. "(He gives) us some leverage on what we like to play. I feel like it's been working well and we're just going to have to continue to get rid of the extra plays that we're giving up. The big plays, third down, that we let get away and get more hits on the quarterback. Get more turnovers. We got to do everything."
