The Lions’ playoff hopes depend on fixing a running game that hasn’t worked in a decade

ALLEN PARK, Michigan – New Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia is stressing physicality to his players in training camp. He is insisting that they make every practice, every day better than the one before. He chirps grinding. He preaches passion.

And when he talks about his running game, his running backs, he says: “All those guys are working extremely hard. That group is an extremely competitive group.”

We’ll believe it when we see it.

Because the entire Lions running game for a decade now has been gloomy and wretched. The Lions and quarterback Matthew Stafford have been throwing the ball around for awhile now with trapeze-like artistry. They have been running it, though, like turtles in mud.

Their futility in the running game over the last 10 years is atrocious.

Since 2008 when they went 0-16, the Lions have featured only one 1,000-yard rusher, Reggie Bush in 2013. They have not finished in the top half of the league in total rushing yards in the last 10 seasons but have finished in the bottom five in each of the last four, including last a year ago. In fact, they have finished last in NFL rushing in two of the last three seasons.

Their record during those last 10 seasons is a paltry 65-95. It has been as bad as it sounds — even worse to watch.

Patricia garnered league-wide attention the last six seasons for piloting the New England Patriots’ defense. But if he can’t fix this Lions’ running game, he has no chance to do anything greater than Rod Marinelli, Jim Schwartz, or Jim Caldwell, Lions coaches who preceded him.

If he doesn’t find a way to get this Lions’ running game roaring, we can ignore him and the Lions this season.

The NFL is, indeed, a passing league, but no NFL passing offense can consistently win without a measurable contribution from the running game. NFL defenses are too fast, too smart, too nimble and ferocious in their pass rush for that.

The player who seems to get it best in Lions camp is center/guard Graham Glasgow.

“We haven’t been very good running the ball and sometimes it was because one or two guys weren’t sure what they were doing, other guys dropped their technique, we’d let a defender break free and cause a negative-yard play against our back and other times the back wasn’t successful making a guy miss,” Glasgow said. “Sometimes it’s been physical. Sometimes it’s been mental. We’ve been working on it. There’s been a lot of talk about it. There is a lot to do.

“I think balance is important in offensive football even though we have Matthew, who is really great at what he does. Creating balance is very important to us.”

And to any playoff hopes this season.

Stafford doesn’t seem too concerned about it.

“The running game is all about players fighting together,” he said. “Players being on the same page. I just think whatever you do you have to bring it in this league every day.”

That sure sounds like a quarterback who loves to wing it and zing it.

But it hasn’t gotten the Lions much that mattered.

General manager Bob Quinn is alert. He has drafted offensive linemen in the first round in two of his three drafts with the Lions (left tackle Taylor Decker in 2016 and center Frank Ragnow this year). He has added this season rookie running back Kerryon Johnson from Auburn and big, physical veteran running back LeGarrette Blount.

Blount won consecutive Super Bowls with New England and with Philadelphia. He is hoping to bring a third-consecutive Super Bowl charm for the Lions.

“I came here to Detroit to be a part of something special with Matty P.,” Blount said of Patricia. “We have a history. I can support his ideas of working hard and grinding. I want to help in all aspects of the run game here. The way he approaches it is the way I approach it. It’s not so much about the 30- or 40-yard run, it’s about getting all you can when you’re called.”

Johnson, the rookie, is 21. He said he has been playing football since he was five. He knows all about the Lions’ running back woes.

“I watch the NFL,” Johnson said. “I’m a fan. You’ve got to physically be able to pound it. When I’m called upon, I see my role as simple: Get yards, make first downs and make touchdowns. I guess the guy I’ve modeled myself after is Reggie Bush. I think we have a similar style.”

He would love a rookie result similar to that Bush 1,000-yard season.

Running back Ameer Abudllah returns and so does Theo Riddick, but what the Lions seek is an attitude adjustment, a renewed commitment to the running game. The rookie Ragnow said that he is taking it “a minute at a time” as he lives his NFL dream while also being tossed into this boiling makeover.

Lions safety Tavon Wilson says that talk is cheap and that the Lions will just have show what they will become in the running game. He said he expects success. But like many people, he wants to see it, see success across all spectrums of this team before any chest pounding.

It is a humble approach at a time where the Lions require a nasty slant to accompany it. Nothing happens in a successful NFL running game by accident. It’s sheer will. It’s pure execution. It’s commitment.

“We need all 11 guys on every single running play to be involved,” clever Lions receiver Golden Tate said. “Everyone doing their job is what you need. It’s harder to run the ball successfully nowadays in the NFL with the talent on defenses inside with the defensive tackles and outside with the defensive ends. They’re beasts. They’re getting bigger and faster and stronger. We have to win there. We have to attack.”