From turnovers to an absent running game, the Detroit Lions saw a lot of things go wrong in Week 1's loss to the New York Jets.
Tipping off plays to an opponent, however, is apparently not one of them.
After numerous Jets players said they knew what plays were coming, Lions coach Matt Patricia downplayed the opponent's postgame comments and attributed the Jets' success to execution.
"I think we're talking about something that's pretty common to when you have to face an opponent, there's going to be things there that you're very familiar with," Patricia told reporters Tuesday in a teleconference, via the Lions' official website. "And obviously, I would say on both sides of the ball there's some high familiarity with some of the things that they do that we worked. They just obviously out-executed us and that was the biggest problem."
Patricia raises a valid point on familiarity, of course. The head coach pointed out in general terms that throughout the course of a game, situations will come up that are identifiable to players based on seeing and hearing things from previous studying of game film or scouting reports.
There is also a matter of knowing an opponent's tendencies, and Patricia and the Jets are accustomed to each other from Patricia's previous tenure with the New England Patriots.
"I would say that was very much, on the flip side, a Dennison run game, it was a Bates' offensive pass game," Patricia told reporters. "It was a Todd Bowles and Kacy [Rodgers] defense. So, I think on both sides of the ball we knew exactly what everybody was trying to do. They obviously executed a lot better than we did."
If it's a matter of execution without regard to if an opponent recognizing a play, the Lions have the remaining part of the week in practice to get it right before squaring off against the San Francisco 49ers.
