I’ve covered the Detroit Lions for nine seasons now at the Free Press. This is the least encouraging preseason I’ve ever seen. I don’t know what that means for the regular season. These are exhibition games, after all, so they don’t count for anything and barely matter, and first-year Lions coach Matt Patricia has been clear about his intentions: To work on fundamentals and put players in specific situations where he can evaluate them doing different things. But that doesn’t change the fact the Lions have been bad this preseason. How bad? In the first 28 minutes of Thursday’s 35-17 loss in the preseason finale against the Cleveland Browns, they had two first downs, and both came on penalty. Defensively, they barely got any pressure on rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield despite Greg Robinson — yes, Greg Robinson, the former Lion — starting at offensive tackle. The Lions played a bunch of backups Thursday, most of whom won’t be on this team come Saturday. But so did the Browns, and as anyone who watched the first three preseason games can attest, the Lions’ starters weren’t much better when they were on the field the previous three games. Matthew Stafford led the starting offense to three field-goal drives (and had a couple of drives stall in the red zone) in his eight series of action this preseason. The first-team defense couldn’t stop the run and barely laid a hand on opposing quarterbacks. And on Thursday, with roster bubbles popping all over the NFL, almost no one showed any urgency. The comedy of errors included four first-half penalties, a Matt Cassel interception returned for a touchdown and the home fans booing their own team in the fourth preseason game. Read more on the Lions: Lions to add three former standouts to ring of honor Lions receiver Kenny Golladay: 'I want a breakout season' Cassel, to his credit, actually led a nice drive when he replaced starter Jake Rudock before the two-minute warning, but he proceeded to throw a pick-six on a third-and-1 play when he tried to soft-toss a pass to Hakeem Valles in the right flat. The Lions open the regular season Sept. 10 against the New York Jets. Maybe they’ll be fine, but right now there isn’t much reason for optimism. More observations from Thursday’s first half: • If you’re looking for a bright spot, Eli Harold, in his first action as a Lion, made a nice one-handed tackle to stop a Browns running back for a 3-yard loss. Harold played as a stand-up rusher at left end for most of the night, and he fought off a block from rookie Austin Corbett to make the tackle. • Dontez Ford broke a tackle on his 26-yard catch on the Lions’ two-minute drive, and I thought Dwayne Washington had a couple nice runs, though you wouldn’t know it by the stat sheet (four carries, 7 yards in the first half). • That’s about it for the highlights. Seriously. • No projected starters and only a few players expected to play rotational roles this fall played in Thursday’s first half. Among the notables who were on the field: Anthony Zettel, A’Shawn Robinson, Teez Tabor and DeShawn Shead. • The Lions are still looking for the right backup mix on the offensive line, and rotated their interior linemen, with Wesley Johnson, Joe Dahl and Leo Koloamatangi all playing both guard and center, and Kenny Wiggins seeing time at tackle. Dahl had one forgettable moment when he stepped on Rudock’s foot as he pulled from his right guard spot, effectively tackling Rudock in the backfield before he could hand the ball off. • Finally, two players on the roster bubble — safety Rolan Milligan and running back Zach Zenner — didn’t get much of a chance to make an impression, as both left early in the first quarter with injuries. Milligan suffered a chest injury and did not return. Zenner left with a back injury. Analysis:Predicting Lions 53-man roster: Ameer Abdullah in or out? Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Download our Lions Xtra app for free on Apple and Android!<doc-sep>By Matt Schoch Special to The Detroit News Allen Park — After three uninspiring preseason performances, Lions head coach Matt Patricia nudged reporters to look up preseason numbers of “some of the teams and see where they finished.” The trail of breadcrumbs could lead to his Patriots, which went 1-3 last preseason with Patricia as defensive coordinator, with the win coming in Detroit. New England then rolled off a 13-3 season and another Super Bowl berth. “I think our fans totally understand that this is a hard-working team,” said Patricia, whose team is 1-2 heading into Thursday's preseason finale against the Cleveland Browns. “Hopefully whatever the team looks like now in preseason, it’ll look better in September. And then hopefully in September, then it’ll look better in October.” The Patriots defense struggled in September, allowing an average of 32.0 points per game in a 2-2 start before winning 11 of the last 12 games, never allowing more than 27 points the rest of the regular season. Last season, four of the 12 playoffs teams finished 0-4 or 1-3 in the preseason. Only Pittsburgh (3-1) finished with a winning record. “There is definitely a flow to this, I would say, that is a little bit normal,” Patricia said. “How long that process takes, I’m not going to put an answer on that.” Matt Schoch is a freelance writer.<doc-sep>Jamie Samuelsen Special to the Detroit Free Press Jamie Samuelsen, co-host of the "Jamie and Stoney" show at 6 a.m. weekdays on WXYT-FM (97.1), blogs for freep.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Detroit Free Press nor its writers. You can reach him at jamsam22@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @jamiesamuelsen. Read more from Jamie. How concerned are you, if at all, about the Detroit Lions after watching their performance this exhibition season? I’m not sure what the Lions are expecting from me, but they’re sure as heck not getting a positive prediction. That’s about the extent of what I can say about this team after watching three rather lackluster performances through three exhibitions. I wrote three weeks ago I really didn’t want to see anything during the preseason just because we all tend to overreact so wildly to any positive or negative trend that we see. But I wouldn’t mind seeing a few positives to overreact to just for old times sake. Perhaps the Lions playbook is so vanilla that we have no idea how they’ll game plan for the season opener against the New York Jets. Trending Lions news: Jake Rudock has done enough to earn backup QB job Golden Tate likes Odell Beckham's deal, wants extension Perhaps the transition into playing for a new coach is taking a little longer than expected and all will be well once the season starts. Perhaps Matt Patricia is playing the long game: The entire preseason is a rope-a-dope, and the Lions will show their true selves once the season begins. If one of those things is true, so be it. But that’s about all we can hang our collective hats on if we’re searching for the good. The Lions will have a good passing game. We know that because the Lions had a good passing game last year and nothing happened from last year to this year to make you think it will get any worse. You can say the same about the secondary, even though Glover Quin is another year older. Beyond that, can you point to any area the Lions were deficient in last year and point to solid proof, either through personnel or performance, they’ve improved heading into the 2018 season? That’s not to say that improvement can’t still happen or may be in the process of happening — but it hasn’t happened yet. The running game should be better. Taylor Decker is healthy. Frank Ragnow looks like a stud, and Kerryon Johnson and LeGarrette Blount have joined the backfield. Offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter stressed he plans to employ the run more frequently than he has in the past. That all sounds good. Friday night against Tampa Bay, the Lions had first-and-goal from the 6-yard line and had to settle for a field goal. Sound familiar? General manager Bob Quinn added Devon Kennard and Christian Jones to second-year linebacker Jarrad Davis to shore up a weakness from last season. Opposing teams have run at will and have burned Davis in particular with blown coverages and missed tackles. We’ve seen that movie before. Ziggy Ansah is healthy and back for a contract year. Sylvester Williams is here to play the role Haloti Ngata abandoned after he was injured and then left for Philadelphia in the offseason. The Lions didn’t sack a quarterback until Friday's third exhibition, and haven’t been able to plug the run. So if we’re checking items off the wish list, we haven’t used our marker yet. Understand what I’m saying here: All hope is not lost. The Lions can theoretically turn all of this around. But if your entire rationale for believing this team has improved is “it’s only the preseason,” that’s faulty logic. It’s like saying the next Star Wars movie will be good simply because “it’s not The Last Jedi.” There have to be tangible signs and obvious reasons, and none of those signs or reasons are there. At least not yet. The good news is to this point, nobody has gotten seriously hurt. The better news is the only place the Lions can go is up. The optimistic take is the Lions have given their opponents nothing to prepare for because they really haven’t put anything good on tape. Patricia deserves time and patience to show us what kind of NFL head coach he is. We’ll certainly give him that. But as we’re waiting, we’ll be looking for signs he has the team heading in the right direction. And to this point, we haven’t seen any. But hey, it’s only the preseason. Right? Download our Lions Xtra app for free on Apple and Android!<doc-sep>The Cleveland Browns have won the barge back! It wasn’t quite a shutout, but the Browns still dominated the Detroit Lions in the final preseason game of the year, winning by a score of 35-17. They finished the preseason with a record of 3-1, and now it’s on to the regular season. Rookie QB Baker Mayfield guided the team in the first half. How did it go? Let’s just say the team led 25-0 at the intermission. In fairness to his teammates, it wasn’t all Mayfield. Nick Chubb got things going with a 3-yard touchdown run on the team’s first drive: A field goal from 39 yards out by K Zane Gonzalez on the next drive made it a 10-0 game. Then, RB Matthew Dayes took over at running back and ripped off a 42-yard touchdown run to make it 17-0. The Lions were in position to score before the end of the half, until LB Nate Orchard got a pick six by stabbing a pass from QB Matt Cassel from close range: In the third quarter, Gonzalez hit a 45-yard field goal to make it a 28-3 game. Detroit got a touchdown in the fourth quarter, which was the first one Cleveland allowed since the first preseason game, to make it 28-10. QB Brogan Roback threw a perfect bullet to WR Blake Jackson with under seven minutes to play in the game to make it 35-10. Detroit threw another touchdown pass to make it 35-17 before the game was all said and done. Quick Hitters<doc-sep>
It wasn't quite Aaron Rodgers' R-E-L-A-X, but Lions coach Matt Patricia delivered a similar message to Lions fans frustrated by the team's choppy preseason Tuesday. "I think our fans are, I think they totally understand that this is a hard-working team, and this is a hard-working area, and this is definitely something that is a process," Patricia said. "And we’re going through that process right now. We’re trying to evaluate the team, we’re trying to put a good team together, and hopefully that whatever the team looks like now in the preseason, it’ll look better in September. And hopefully it’ll look better in October than it did in September. So, I think there’s definitely a flow to this. I would say that's a little bit normal." The Lions are 1-2 this preseason, with their final tune-up against the Cleveland Browns coming Thursday at Ford Field. They beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 33-30, in exhibition action last week, but had to rally from a 27-6 third-quarter deficit and managed just two field goals all preseason with starting quarterback Matthew Stafford on the field. Stafford and most of the Lions' other starters are not expected to play Thursday. More Detroit Lions: Lions release DE Robert Ayers a day after signing him Lions' Ziggy Ansah 'grateful' to play, even with franchise tag "I would say you could probably go back and check what the records were last year in preseason for some of the teams and see where they finished," Patricia said. "So, I think it’s a process. I think that’s what we’re trying to figure out. And how long that process takes, I’m not going to put an answer on that because we’re trying to really just get the best guys we can for the long term to improve.” Patricia's old team, the New England Patriots, reached the Super Bowl last season after going 1-3 in exhibition play, their first losing preseason record since 2012. Three of the other 11 playoff teams last season had losing preseason records, including the Atlanta Falcons, who went winless at 0-4. But more concerning than the Lions' record this preseason is the way they've played. Neither the offense nor defense has looked sharp, the Lions haven't been able to generate much pass rush, and last week, in Stafford's only extended action of the summer, the offense twice failed to reach the end zone on drives that stalled inside Tampa's 10-yard line. Asked if he was concerned about his team's play so far, Patricia said, "I think I’m concerned every day I walk in this building." "I try to make sure I do a good job of coaching the team," he said. "That’s my major concern, is to try to make sure we’re improving everybody that we have from that standpoint. And like I said, the guys are working hard, they’re trying to do the right thing, and they’re getting better and they’re learning, so that’s the most important thing." Briefly Both tight end Luke Willson (knee) and center Graham Glasgow returned to practice Tuesday. Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Download our Lions Xtra app for free on Apple and Android!