Lions fire offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi

The move comes one day after the Lions fell to 1-6 with a 28-19 loss to Minnesota and just four hours after head coach Jim Caldwell said in his Monday press conference that “no changes” would be made.

“What I believe is we’ve won before, and that leads me to believe we can do it again,” Caldwell said during his press conference, while talking about his coaching staff. “We did it last year. That leads me to believe we can do it again. This year’s not over yet. We usually only focus on one game, one game at a time.”

Monday evening, though, he had changed his mind. He stressed that he made the decisions without input from general manager Martin Mayhew or owner Martha Firestone Ford.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” he said, referring to the Lions’ record. “We’re running out of time. One of the keys to this job is being productive, and we haven’t been productive.”

Caldwell said he does expect Detroit’s offense to change under Cooter, although not immediately. The Lions leave Monday night for London, meaning Cooter will have to take over the offense in the middle of one of the most chaotic weeks that an NFL team can face.

“You can’t change an offense in its entirety in two days,” Caldwell said, also mentioning that Cooter was picked to replace Lombardi because of his strong relationship with quarterback Matthew Stafford.

After facing the Kansas City Chiefs at Wembley Stadium this weekend, the Lions have their bye week, which will give Cooter a chance to tinker with the struggling offense.

Detroit is near the bottom of the league in several offensive categories, including 29th in scoring, 32nd in turnovers, 30th in interceptions, 32nd in rushing yards and 31st in rushing average. While the running game has been a major problem all season, it was the pass protection that collapsed on Sunday, with Stafford being sacked seven times out of 13 hits.

Early in the season, teams had talked about being able to predict Detroit’s plays, and the Vikings -- who beat the Lions 26-16 in Week 2 -- hinted at that again on Sunday. On several of the sacks, Minnesota pass rushers came untouched, exploiting gaps in the protection scheme.

Lions receiver Golden Tate complained after a Week 3 loss to Denver that opposing players were calling out Detroit’s plays. Two Broncos players agreed, saying they had been able to intercept passes by figuring out what route was coming.

“I’ve had a couple occasions in literally each game where they’ve called out our play, for one, and then afterwards been like, ‘Hey, we knew what you guys were doing,’” Tate said. “That’s bad.”

Tight ends coach Ron Prince will take over as the new offensive line coach, with Devin Fitzsimmons moving from helping with special teams to coaching the tight ends.