One of the most critical of several Detroit Lions gaffes that led to the improbable comeback by the Arizona Cardinals to tie the Week 1 game was a timeout called just before Matthew Stafford completed a swing pass to J.D. McKissic that would have cemented the Detroit victory.
A visibly angry Matthew Stafford stormed off the field after the drive stalled, clearly fuming about the timeout that came from the sideline. After the game, head coach Matt Patricia took culpability for the call.
Patricia explained his rationale for calling the timeout in his postgame press conference.
“That’s a got-to-have-it situation,” Patricia said. “The first down was critically important for us, and the play clock was running down. Call it zero or call it one, whatever it was in that situation, we’d rather be in third-and-five then third-and-10 in that kind of got-to-have-it situation. So, we’ve just got to go out and execute. It doesn’t matter at that point, it’s a play where we’ve got to go finish no matter what happens, so that’s where we were.”
He also admitted he called the timeout and not offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, who was seen signaling on the broadcast feed. Bevell cannot call a timeout; it has to come from the head coach.
“I’m calling the timeouts,” Patricia said. “We were looking at the play clock trying to get that stuff down and get it figured out at that point. Stafford did a great job of getting it off, but really, whether the play clock was at zero or one, either way, the mechanics, the way that works with the officials – the guy back there is staring at the play clock and he sees it. So again, we’d rather be at third-and-five then third-and-10 in that got-to-have-it situation, so we’ve just got to go out and execute the next play.”
