Lions Head Coach Can't Hide His Admiration for Mitch Trubisky

Matt Patricia may be a defensive guy, but he's been in the presence of quarterback greatness his entire career. His defenses practiced against Tom Brady for years. He coached against Peyton Manning when he was still setting records. He's gone against Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers several times. Now he's coaching Matthew Stafford, a former Pro Bowler up in Detroit. When this guy offers his opinion on quarterbacks, it's worth listening to. That's why his rather extensive answer on his impressions of Mitch Trubisky was interesting. This will mark the first time Patricia has personally gone against the second-year quarterback. However, he's kept close tabs on him since taking over the Lions for obvious reasons. In a conference call with the Chicago media ahead of his teams' showdown with the Bears at Soldier Field, he went into detail about what makes Trubisky unique.

Patricia wasn't just being nice on his Mitch Trubisky assessment

One thing about Patricia is that he's not the type of coach to embellish just for the sake of it. He's rather blunt with his statements. Much like Vic Fangio is for the Bears. He calls it the way he sees it. So for him to plainly say that Trubisky is showing more confidence and calm in pressure situations isn't just interesting. It's also true. [video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://www.sportsmockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/20181109155024.mp4"][/video] Trubisky's command, comfort, and confidence have shown definite signs of growth over the past month and it's showing on the field. He's on pace for almost 4,000 yards passing with 32 touchdowns. Both would be Bears records. It makes sense Patricia would acknowledge something like this because it's also what normal people would call a good season. For Chicago quarterbacks? It would be an all-time season. Patricia is going to try to cut down some of that narrative on Sunday. It will be tough. The Lions won't have start cornerback Darius Slay, who is out with a knee injury. He intercepted Trubisky twice in their last meeting. Combined with the return of Allen Robinson, there is a chance he could have a good game. Patricia certainly hopes his assessment might be offbase.