Shawn Windsor | Detroit Free Press

Dave Birkett and Carlos Monarrez, Detroit Free Press

The NFL is a results business, which means it’s a wins and losses business.

You know who said that?

You know what else he said?

“I think we have more than a competitive team to be competing for championships.”

These were Quinn’s words almost two years ago after he fired Jim Caldwell. Perhaps you remember him. He coached your Lions. Led them to the playoffs — twice. Finished above .500 in three of his four seasons. Guided Matthew Stafford to the most efficient football of his career.

Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press

That wasn’t good enough. Because Quinn thought he’d assembled a team good enough to compete for the Super Bowl.

Sound crazy?

It shouldn’t. Here is Quinn from that same post-Caldwell news conference:

“At the end of the day, it’s wanting to take this team to the next level,” he said, explaining his decision to move on from Caldwell. “To me, that’s winning championships, that’s winning playoff games and that’s winning the Super Bowl.”

In saying these things, Quinn blamed the coach.

So … who will he blame now? Now that his Lions — a team he has been assembling and tweaking for four seasons — are no closer to the Super Bowl than they were two years ago. In fact, they are much further away.

That’s what 3-6-1 this season will do. And that’s what 9-16-1 overall will do since Quinn proclaimed Caldwell wasn’t getting enough from his roster.

Mandi Wright, Detroit Free Press

He could blame the coach he hired to replace Caldwell. But then he won’t blame Matt Patricia. That would be akin to blaming himself.

He also could blame the players. But, again, that would be blaming himself; they’re his players.

When Quinn fired Caldwell, he made it clear he wanted a coach he thought could maximize the talent on the team. The problem was he was thinking about Bill Belichick, the Patriots coach, whom he worked under in New England, and who has maximized talent better than any coach in modern football.

Emulating successful coaches — and franchises — is fine in theory. It’s even fine in practice in some cases — think former San Francisco 49ers coach, Bill Walsh, and his successful disciples.

But Walsh’s protégés took a system with them to other organizations. In New England, Belichick is the system, which means his proteges would have to take him with them.

Patricia has tried to emulate the improvisational, week-to-week game-planning that has made Belichick’s defense so successful. And Quinn has tried to give Patricia the players who can adapt to different styles and change responsibilities from one Sunday to the next.

It hasn’t worked.

Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press

The Lions have one of the worst four defenses in football, by almost any metric. Yet it doesn’t take analytics to see what’s wrong with the defense: Quarterbacks have as much time as they need to throw.

This was evident again Sunday against Dallas, when Dak Prescott torched the Lions for 444 yards. Prescott didn’t just hit a handful of fly patterns down the field. He dropped back, waited, waited some more, built a townhouse, and then chose between a bevy of open receivers.

Prescott told reporters after the game that sometimes he had enough time to read through his progressions twice.

Twice!

Oh, he’s not open over there? Then I’ll wait for this guy to pop open over here.

The Cowboys have a good offense. One of the best. But the Chicago Bears do not. Yet when Mitchell Trubisky lined up across from Patricia’s defense last Sunday at Soldier Field, he looked like Prescott for a while, too.

So did the Raiders’ Derek Carr. Heck, so did the Giants’ Daniel Jones, at least for stretches. Then there is Kirk Cousins, who came into town in October and had himself a career day.

For a coach who was hired for his defensive acumen, Patricia hasn’t shown much. And for a general manager hired for his ability to identify talent and unlock the secrets of the Patriots, he has shown even less.

When Quinn fired Caldwell, he did admit he “could have done a better job (finding talent). Unless we win every game, I didn’t do my job well enough. I’m the first one to stand up and admit to that.”

Well, good for him.

But you know what his next sentence was?

That he thought his roster was better than nine wins. The number Caldwell won his last season. The number Patricia has won in 26 games.

Either Quinn was wrong. Or Patricia isn’t the coach Caldwell is.

Or both.

I’d say it’s both.

Looking back, Quinn would’ve been better off trying to find more talent for Caldwell and trusting his own eye instead of the eyes of a franchise out east that no one has managed to emulate.

Patricia deserves one more year to see if he can get this team to the playoffs. But if Quinn thought his roster two years ago had more than nine wins in it, he may not.