Vikings will be sad when Matt Patricia gets fired

Minnesota embarrasses Detroit at US Bank Stadium on Sunday

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If there are some days that you feel like you didn’t give 110% to your job, don’t feel bad, it could be much worse. You could be Matt Patricia, who has never been slightly good at his.

And when he ultimately gets fired by the Detroit Lions for consistently performing like he did on Sunday at US Bank Stadium, it will be a sad for the Vikings, who have whipped him every time they’ve matched up against the Belichick wannabe.

If you think the Vikings’ organization has had its moments recently, be thrilled your squad didn’t fire a quality coach like Jim Caldwell, who had some epic battles with Mike Zimmer before he was bafflingly canned.

Since Patricia too over, every time the Vikings have played the Lions, the coaching matchup might as well have been Vince Lombardi against your gym teacher. It was no different Sunday in the Vikings’ 34-20 win in which they posted 487 yards on offense.

Sunday’s NFC North contest began as you would expect from a Patricia-coached team: With an easy Vikings touchdown drive.

Detroit attempted to load the box to slow down Dalvin Cook. Not only was that a complete failure as Cook gained 13 yards on the first play from scrimmage, it made play-action life easy for Kirk Cousins, who won’t have a single bruise on his body after this game.

Cousins hit Justin Jefferson for 22 yards on a play-action pass and Cook easily slammed through the middle and reached across the goal line for a touchdown.

In terms of things going as expected, the Vikings’ banged-up cornerback group allowed Matthew Stafford and the Lions’ offense to move the ball. But Stafford, who will never, ever get these last three years of his life that were stolen by Patricia back, was asked to repeatedly hand off to Adrian Peterson.

Whatever is left of Peterson had zero impact. He ran six times for 21 yards in the first half, including getting stuffed on a third-and-1 at the goal line.

The Vikings’ second touchdown drive of the day was even easier than the first. Detroit players were looking around baffled after each gash by the Minnesota offense. Cousins hit Adam Thielen for a 30-yard gain and then found Irv Smith Jr. in the end zone wide open to take a 13-0 lead.

Toward the end of the first half, the Lions realized they could pass the ball against the Vikings and Stafford got rolling. He found Viking killer Marvin Jones for an 11-yard touchdown to bring Detroit within one score.

But whatever schemes the alleged defensive guru drew up to stop the Vikings from driving for a touchdown with just over one minute remaining in the first half were not nearly Belichickian enough. See, Bill Belichick is famous for taking away the other team’s top player. Not Patricia. His defense forgot about Dalvin Cook, who scored four touchdowns last week. Cook caught a pass underneath and went for 29 yards.

Two plays later, Ameer Abdullah probably felt extra thankful that the Lions released him two years ago as he found wide open spaces and got into the end zone for a 22-yard touchdown.

On the second drive of the second half, Cousins eased back in the pocket with no fear in the world of the supposedly great Everson Griffen getting after him and found Justin Jefferson for a 35-yard bomb in which Detroit’s safety was slow to get over the top.

Cousins finished off the drive with a play-action touchdown pass to Smith again to put the Vikings up 27-10.

The Vikings’ offense looked exactly like last year at Detroit when Cousins went for 338 yards and four touchdowns. Except the Lions were supposed to be much better this season. They invested a top draft pick on a corner and spent money on free agents like Jamie Collins. But that doesn’t matter when they have a coach that makes Adam Gase feel good about himself.

Not that Detroit’s offense deserved any praise. Even driving down by 17, Stafford missed a throw short to Peterson and then D’Andre Swift dropped a sure-thing catch that would have been a first down. Two plays later, Stafford threw an interception right into the hands of Eric Wilson.

On the following drive, the Vikings got a Britton Colquitt punt blocked but Stafford quickly returned the favor with another interception on third-and-goal, more or less ending any chance the Lions had at a wild comeback.

And boy the Lions made darn sure there would be no comeback. Cook slipped a tackle and went 70 yards for a touchdown to completely ice the game. The effort from Detroit’s defenders on the play was about as strong as their coach’s scheme. It felt like the type of play that would get a coach fired.

Oh, it gets funnier. The Lions only had 10 men on the field.

Not great, Everson.

As if the Lions hadn’t done enough to embarrass themselves, Chase Daniel — in for Stafford — threw another interception with the Vikings playing prevent defense.

Make no mistake, the Vikings played well in many areas. The offensive line was strong again. The stars were the stars. Cousins executed on throws to open receivers. The Vikings didn’t blow it when Detroit served them a victory on a silver platter.

They also didn’t play a game that would inspire you to say they can get back in the race. They allowed Stafford to complete nearly every pass in the first half, had two punts blocked and gave up 115 yards on the ground.

But Cousins and the Vikings are at least still in the race, unlike Detroit. And boy he and the skill players are going to miss these days when Patricia is gone. Maybe that will even be before they see the Lions again in Week 17 (or right after the game?)

All the Vikings can do is hope that Patricia is still around when they head to the Motor City and there’s a playoff spot on the line.

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