Sprinting worked for the Patriots. Why not for Matt Patricia's Lions?

Shawn Windsor | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Detroit Lions minicamp: Freep writers break down Day 3 Detroit Free Press writers Shawn Windsor, Dave Birkett and Carlos Monarrez break down day 3 of Detroit Lions minicamp on Thursday, June 7, 2018.

The headlines said it all. The Lions are running more than they have in years.

It was the story of minicamp last week. It's football. It happens.

The question is: What does it mean?

Um, that new head coach Matt Patricia likes players who are in shape?

Hey, I don't know if Patricia's penchant for punitive sprinting during practice will affect the team. It may help. It may not.

What I do know is that suggesting Patricia is losing the team because he's ordering more wind sprints is ridiculous.

Not to mention illogical. And myopic.

Why?

Because Patricia has coached his full team for … three days.

Three!

Not a full season. Not a full training camp. Just one minicamp.

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Yes, there are changes. Along with more running, there is more yelling. Patricia is aggressive in what he wants. Exacting in how he teaches.

Last week, he ran his guys after mistakes. He ran them after practice. He ran them to keep them sharp and condition them.

He ran them to prepare them.

For what?

A Super Bowl. What else?

It's the same reason Bill Belichick runs his Patriots in New England. Not surprisingly, the famously stern coach makes his players run up a hill after practice, as he did last week, according to ESPN's Mike Reiss.

Belichick believes good conditioning habits lead to good practice habits, which lead to reliable game habits. It's true that some players — heck, maybe most players — don't dig the extra running.

Yet here is what wide receiver Julian Edelman, told Reiss after the Patriots' historic come-from-behind Super Bowl win two years ago against the Falcons:

"We have these hills in Foxborough that we have to run, and we all bitch and complain about it," he said. "But we put in the work, put in the conditioning, and we knew we could wear on (the Falcons) if we were able to do that ... It tells you how mentally tough this team is. Down 25 points, it’s a microcosm of the season. Some adversity, we stick together, keep on playing and grinding."

I didn't hear any complaining last week in Allen Park during minicamp.

When asked about running more, quarterback Matthew Stafford said the team just wants to get better and defensive end Kerry Hyder said he just wants to keep chopping wood.

That doesn't mean everyone was thrilled with the change in strategy. Nor does it mean some didn't grumble amongst themselves.

It's not fun running wind sprints, especially during and after practice. Then again, it's not fun practicing in the first place. Because it's not supposed to be. It's football.

This isn't like other sports where practicing involves playing the actual sport. In football, practice is broken down into components. It involves little hitting, particularly during the season.

It is mostly repetition, of figuring out where your coaches want you to be at any given moment … and how they want you to react once you are there.

If your feet are in the wrong spot, if your hands are in the wrong spot, if your eyes are fixated on the wrong thing, you're in trouble, both with your coaches and against your opponent. Patricia is drilling his vision into the Lions right now and will for the rest of the summer.

Will he continue into the fall? Will he keep making them run?

That's hard to say. When asked about the noticeable uptick in running last Thursday, Patricia gave a Patriot-like non-answer:

“I mean, it’s just practice. So, I’m not really sure what was done before, but we’re just trying to practice.”

On further thought, his answer was indeed an answer.

"It's just practice," he said.

Meaning, running is part of practice. Running after a mistake is part of practice. Running at the end of practice, after a couple of hours in the sun, sheathed in shoulder pads and a helmet, is part of practice.

For a reason.

Obviously, to win Super Bowls, as Edelman suggested. But also, as part of a theme, of a philosophy, of an ethos that mental mistakes occur more frequently when you are tired. Actually, that's not an ethos as much as an observational fact of life, true in almost every occupation.

Get tired? Get unfocused.

Redskins running back Chris Thompson noticed the difference after dual practice with the Patriots four years ago. He'd wanted to know what made the Patriots different.

So, he studied.

"I paid attention to what they did," Thompson told the Washington Post. "We had just had a full, two-hour practice, but they went and lined up and did these sprints. It just happened! They did it and never questioned it."

Meanwhile, the Redskins headed for the showers.

If you've watched the Patriots over the years, you've watched a team consistently make plays late in games.

True, they've got a pretty good quarterback who excels under pressure. Yet Tom Brady isn't the only reason they win.

As Edelman pointed out after the Super Bowl win over Atlanta, his Patriots ran 47 more plays than the Falcons did. Many of those plays had come out of a no-huddle formation, which means players must drag themselves to the line of scrimmage without the benefit of a rest break.

Belichick spotted the Falcons sucking wind.

"It looked like we started to press them in the fourth quarter," he said, "… our conditioning paid off."

Why wouldn't Patricia want to model the Lions after that? Why wouldn't he want to thin the locker room of players who don't buy his approach?

Yes, a Super Bowl run in Detroit sounds like a fever dream. But wouldn't he want his guys ready if it ever got to that?

Of course. Even if that does mean risking a few players along the way. Which is partly the point. If a player doesn't want to run, he isn't likely to stick around anyway.

In the end, it's just about winning, and if Patricia wins, his players will run. If he loses, they will mutiny, and the franchise will find another coach.

Until then, it's worth a shot.

What have they got to lose?

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.