OAKLAND, Calif. -- You're not surprised. Of course you're not. How could you be?
After all these years and all these seasons it's just the way things are. Here is your quarterback, playing the best football of his career, and he's led his team down to the 1-yard-line with a second left in the game and the chance to get to overtime.
In other cities, in other stadiums, maybe a receiver finds his way to a little daylight, or maybe the offensive line gives that quarterback a little more time.
But in Detroit? The ball is always going to be a little high. Or a little low.
The quarterback is always going to be under duress. And when it comes time to win the game, fall a little short.
Again.
Not that it's Matthew Stafford's fault the Detroit Lions lost to the Raiders on Sunday, 31-24. It's Matt Patricia's.
It was he, the team's coach, who couldn't figure out a way to stop Oakland. And it was he who hasn't been able to get this defense right all year.
As for Stafford, sure, don't even start. He couldn't make the final pass, but then he didn't have much time or an open receiver or even his best receivers on the field.
He is the reason the Lions had a chance. He is the reason -- along with some terrific playmaking from those receivers: Marvin Jones and Kenny Golladay -- that the Lions were at the goal line with a chance.
And his coaches knew it. Which is why Stafford came out throwing from the first snap, threw on the first three plays, in fact.
He had to.
Then kept throwing, occasionally handing it off to give the Raiders ... what?
A breather? How thoughtful.
Despite the lack of a running game, Stafford still threw for almost 200 yards in the first half and if not for a fumble by running back J.D. McKissic (Arkansas State) on the first drive and an acrobatic interception by the Raiders' Daryl Worley in the end zone, he might have thrown for more.
That Stafford is back here in this spot, without much of a running game, without much of a defense, must feel like purgatory to him. Though he'd never admit it.
How many times has he watched from the sidelines as the other team marched down and won the game? How many times has he thrown for 406 yards, three touchdowns, and it still wasn't enough?
Too many. That's how many.
And so it goes.
On a day when the Raiders were down two starters and the Lions still couldn't get to Derek Carr. Not even a little. Oh, sure, they sacked him once. But, really, they couldn't bother him on Oakland's last drive. When it was time to make a play.
Nor could the defense do much to keep the Raiders from running. Up the middle. Around the edges. Anywhere, really, where there was green.
Oakland's rookie running back, Josh Jacobs, ran for an easy 128 yards. His associates in the Raiders' huddle ran for another 51.
By my math, that's 179 yards, and that won't do. Not for a team led by a coach who specializes in ... defense. And adjustments, of which Patricia made a few after halftime, when he shifted alignments in his front seven and actually forced a couple of punts.
Still, 31 points?
Some 450 yards?
These weren't the Chiefs -- though not even the Chiefs are the Chiefs at the moment.
But you get the point.
Patricia deserves credit for bringing in Darrell Bevell and finding a system to unleash the Stafford we've seen this year. But he deserves plenty of blame for fielding a defense that's worse than it was a year ago.
That defense is why the Lions are 3-4-1 and just about out of the playoff race.
Sports on 11/04/2019