Sunday’s devastating loss in historic Lambeau Field in Green Bay was noteworthy in the pantheon of negative accomplishments from the Detroit Lions. Given the franchise’s relative lack of success during the Super Bowl era, this one is a doozy of a downer.
With the loss in Week 2, Matt Patricia’s record as the head coach of the Lions dropped to 9-24-1. Through his first 34 games, Patricia has somehow sunk below the winning rate of former Lions coach Rod Marinelli.
In 2006-2008, Marinelli went 10-24 in his first 34 contests as the Lions head man. The 34th game was the second loss in the winless 2008 season, which Marinelli finished to drop his overall record in Detroit to 10-38.
Patricia now has a worse winning percentage than the man who ineptly presided over the first 0-16 season in NFL history through the same points in their Detroit careers. The Lions have now lost 11 games in a row, the longest current streak in the NFL.
Jim Caldwell, Patricia’s predecessor, went 19-15 in his first 34 games. Jim Schwartz went 10-24 in his first 34 games as Lions coach after taking over the winless team Marinelli left behind. Schwartz’s Lions won the first two games of the 2011 season after going 8-24 in the first two, and they eventually made the playoffs with a 10-6 record. It would be a stunning turnaround for this current Lions team to taste the postseason in 2020.
