Matt Patricia has dialed up plays or otherwise led defenses for 12 total seasons at the NFL level.
With that experience comes a long track record worth digging into as he lays claim to Ohio State’s defensive coordinator position. Patricia called plays for eight years under Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots from 2010-17, though he was only defensive coordinator in title for the last six of those as he dialed up defenses while coaching linebackers and then safeties in 2010 and 2011.
The success of those defenses led to a head coaching job with the Detroit Lions for Patricia. Three years after his firing from that position, he gained his most recent bit of DC experience in an interim role for the Philadelphia Eagles at the end of the 2023 season.
Patricia’s scheme is notoriously versatile, rolling through a variety of personnel packages and fronts to keep offenses off-balance and mold to their attacks. Ohio State will hope to get the best parts of his track record – the New England days – as he comes to Columbus.
Patriots
| YEAR | PPG | YPG | YPP | PYPG | RYPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 19.6 (8th) | 366.5 (25th) | 5.6 (26th) | 258.5 (30th) | 108 (11th) |
| 2011 | 21.4 (15th) | 411.1 (31st) | 6.2 (30th) | 293.9 (31st) | 117.1 (17th) |
| 2012 | 20.7 (10th) | 373.3 (25th) | 5.7 (24th) | 271.4 (29th) | 101.9 (9th) |
| 2013 | 21.1 (10th) | 373.1 (26th) | 5.3 (17th) | 239 (18th) | 134.1 (30th) |
| 2014 | 19.6 (8th) | 344.1 (13th) | 5.3 (12th) | 239.8 (17th) | 104.3 (9th) |
| 2015 | 19.7 (10th) | 339.4 (9th) | 5.2 (8th) | 240.8 (17th) | 98.6 (9th) |
| 2016 | 15.6 (1st) | 326.4 (8th) | 5.2 (10th) | 237.9 (12th) | 88.6 (3rd) |
| 2017 | 18.5 (5th) | 366 (29th) | 5.7 (31st) | 251.3 (30th) | 114.8 (20th) |
For coaching two Super Bowl champions and many more great teams in his time with the Patriots, there's a lot of bend-but-don't-break aura to Patricia's time as the defensive play caller in New England.
The Patriots ranked top 10 in scoring defense in seven of Patricia's eight years dialing up the defense but were 25th or worse in the 32-team NFL in yards allowed per game for five of his seasons in that role. Slowing opposing passing attacks was a particular struggle for New England, which finished 29th or worse in passing yards allowed per game from 2010 through 2012. Offenses were efficient moving the ball against the Patriots in that stretch, as New England ranked 26th in yards allowed per play in 2010, 30th in that same metric in 2011 and 24th in 2012.
Things got better from there. The Patriots won the Super Bowl in 2014 with another top-10 scoring defense, but this time with less bending as New England finished 13th in yards allowed per game (344.1) and 12th in yards allowed per play (5.3). The Patriots acquired Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback Darrelle Revis on a one-year rental and he delivered a first-team All-Pro season with two interceptions and 14 pass breakups, though the Pats still had the No. 17 pass defense in the NFL.
Where the true turnaround came for New England was in run defense. The Patriots went from 30th in the NFL for rush yards allowed per game in 2013 to ninth in 2014, with linebackers Dont'a Hightower and Jamie Collins combining for 204 tackles, 17 tackles for loss and 10 sacks despite missing five combined games.
When Revis returned to the New York Jets the following year, Patricia's unit saw no dropoff. As cornerback Malcolm Butler and defensive end Chandler Jones earned Pro Bowl nods, New England finished 10th in scoring and ninth in total defense in 2015. They held the eventual Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos to 20 points on the road in a divisional-round loss that featured two interceptions from Patriot quarterback Tom Brady.
Cornerback Malcolm Butler made his only Pro Bowl in Matt Patricia's defense in 2015. (Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images)
Finally, we arrive at 2016, the single greatest year on Patricia's résumé to date.
It's hard to do much better than the No. 1 scoring defense in the NFL and a Super Bowl ring. The unit was also the best total defense of Patricia's time in the NFL (326.4 yards allowed per game, 8th in the league) and the Patriots finished third in run defense (86.8 yards per game). Safety Devin McCourty and Hightower both made the Pro Bowl.
New England's defense was as central to its title run that year as Brady. They held the Houston Texans and Pittsburgh Steelers to 16 and 17 points to help deliver the Patriots to football's ultimate stage. Atlanta famously took a 28-3 lead on the Patriots there – seven of those points came on an 82-yard pick-six – but New England and its defense completed perhaps the most famous comeback in NFL history to win 34-28 in overtime. The Falcons ultimately only managed 388 yards of offense.
Patricia closed his Patriots tenure with another bend-but-don't-break unit in 2017. This was perhaps the biggest delta yet, with New England fifth in the NFL for scoring defense but 29th in total defense and 30th in passing defense. When he left to take the helm of Detroit's organization following that year, he became the last defensive play-caller under Belichick to hold the title of defensive coordinator.
How much credit Patricia receives for the best and worst of New England's defenses when coaching under Belichick, one of the greatest head coaches and defensive minds in the history of the game, is up to interpretation. But he gets at least a good share as the play-caller, and that will be his focus at Ohio State after his scheme is implemented.
Lions
| YEAR | PPG | YPG | YPP | PYPG | RYPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 22.5 (16th) | 335 (10th) | 5.7 (18th) | 224.9 (8th) | 110.1 (10th) |
| 2019 | 26.4 (26th) | 400.4 (31st) | 5.9 (25th) | 284.4 (32nd) | 115.9 (21st) |
| 2020 | 32.4 (32nd) | 419.8 (32nd) | 6.3 (31st) | 284.9 (30th) | 134.9 (28th) |
Patricia's Detroit defenses continued bending, but unlike in New England, they snapped like a 10-year-old twig.
The Lions fielded a respectable defensive unit in Patricia's first year as head coach, finishing in the middle of the pack in scoring but top 10 in each of the three big yardage statistics (total, passing and rushing). None of it proved sustainable.
Patricia's defense went from bad in 2019 to worst in the NFL in 2020, finishing last in both scoring and total defense the latter season. Detroit was last in passing defense in 2019 and next-to-last in yards allowed per pass attempt at 7.4. Patricia was fired midseason in 2020 after a 13-29-1 record over three years.
It should be mentioned that Patricia was not his own defensive play-caller in Detroit. That role was held by defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni in 2018 and 2019 and Cory Undlin in 2020 after Pasqualoni stepped away from football. But as the man atop the Lions' organization and a defensive-minded coach, he holds culpability.
Eagles
When Philadelphia head coach Nick Sirianni hired Patricia in April 2023, it was originally just in a senior defensive assistant role. Then the Eagles defense struggled for much of the season under the guidance of Sean Desai and Patricia was promoted to interim play-caller for the final four games of the year.
It didn't go well enough for him to retain a job in Philadelphia. The Eagles gave up 26.8 points and 363.3 yards per game across the four contests, which would have ranked 31st and 29th in the NFL if extrapolated across a full 17-game season.
With complete attention solely on scheme, game planning and play calling, Ryan Day is hopeful that Patricia can return to the highs of his track record with a talented – if inexperienced – Ohio State defense.
