ALLEN PARK, Mich. _ Before you can coach the players, you have to coach the coaches.
And if there's a lesson learned the hard way from Matt Patricia's debut as an NFL head coach, it probably starts there. A late hire and a harried arrival from New England helped lay the groundwork for a regular season that exposed all sorts of cracks in the foundation here in Detroit.
But that's not going to be an excuse this time around. Especially on the defensive side of the ball, where so much of the Lions' optimism for a 2019 turnaround is rooted.
The addition of free agents Trey Flowers and Mike Daniels to a defense that was trending upward after the Damon Harrison trade last season is one factor. So is the point that coordinator Paul Pasqualoni reiterated Monday when asked to compare what it was like a year ago to now, as the Lions prepare for Sunday's opener at Arizona.
For starters, the meetings are shorter. And better, really.
"Because everybody knows what everybody's talking about, you know?" Pasqualoni said, smiling.
What he's talking about is the sort of thing that often gets overlooked when a new coaching staff sets up shop and the employees all are asked to learn a new menu. The terminology, the verbiage _ whatever you want to call it _ it all changes, and even if the concepts are similar, "It's like I'm speaking French and you're speaking Italian," Pasqualoni said, "so what does that mean?"
What it meant for Patricia was obvious, at times, beginning with that embarrassing debut against the Jets at Ford Field. Mistakes were made, clearly, and some of them were due to the mixed messages the Lions were sending on and off the field.
