After another embarrassing loss, it's time for Detroit Lions coach Matt Patricia to go

Coach Matt Patricia stood at the 40-yard line, alone, staring out onto the field. His Detroit Lions had just given up another touchdown, pushing Houston’s double-digit lead to 24 after a fourth-quarter trick play.

In that moment -- in so many moments during Houston’s 41-25 waxing of Detroit on Thanksgiving Day -- one thing became clear: It’s time. This is over. Patricia needs to go. Now.

Progress will never come. This team -- Patricia’s team -- will never improve. All the Lions do under his guidance is play the bad football that was on display Thursday.

At this point there’s no reason for Patricia to return in 2021. Realistically, there’s little reason for Patricia to be Detroit’s coach next week.

The problems for the Lions have been consistent and they’ve been the same. Patricia’s love of man-to-man defense continually saw receivers open on crossing routes because Detroit could muster little-to-no pressure from its defensive front. Its linebackers seemed out of position often. The offense was inconsistent and largely stubborn -- although Thursday the Lions at least pulled out a couple of trick plays to make things mildly interesting.

This is a critique of Thursday but could be a critique of almost any game in his tenure.

With Patricia, it has been the same over and over, trying to essentially do the same thing with the same players, hoping for different results that will never come.

This entire tenure has been a mess. The Lions, in almost three seasons, have yet to win three games in a row at any point. With loss No. 7 this season, Patricia would have to win out to equal the record of Jim Caldwell, the man he replaced, during his final season.

And there’s no real tangible reason for him to even be allowed to get that chance. At 13-29-1, Patricia has lost more games in less than three seasons than Caldwell lost in four. And for the Lions, Caldwell’s three winning seasons in four years was not good enough. What Patricia has done shouldn’t be, either.

Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp said in June “major improvement” was the goal. Back in December, when Ford Hamp and her mother, then-owner Martha Ford, decided to keep Patricia and general manager Bob Quinn, they said they needed to be playing meaningful games in December.

Detroit’s last four losses have come by double-digits. Their next game is in December. It won’t have much meaning for the postseason. There is no major improvement here. Not even minor improvement, really. In many ways, there’s stagnation and regression.

And that's why it's time for Patricia to go.