All season, Matt Patricia has responded to losses by saying the team just needs to get back to work, get better and then go win the next one. He promised improvement each month of the season and said he believed it would eventually pay off.

But Sunday’s 14-13 defeat at the hands of the Bills was a loss unlike the other eight. It meant the Lions were officially eliminated from playoff contention with two games to go.

Now 5-9, it’s a hard fall from a team that had three winning seasons in four years prior to Patricia’s arrival, including two playoff berths. And although it elicited the same general cliche from Patricia afterward, this one naturally carried a bit of a different delivery.

“Look, for us, it’s not different. We go out, we compete, we try to win and we try to f***ing get better every week,” Patricia said on the Lions Radio postgame show on WJR.

The f-bomb came when Patricia was asked how he’d address the team now that the playoffs are no longer on the line with two games still to go. It came quickly and in the normal flow of an answer.

But it’s clear that frustration is mounting around Allen Park these days, given the expectations coming into the season. General manager Bob Quinn said when he fired Jim Caldwell that 9-7 seasons weren’t acceptable any more. He hired a defensive coordinator he worked with on the Patriots who had never finished worse than 10-6 in his 14 seasons there.

But now, the best Patricia’s team can finish is 7-9, which would match the worst record the Lions had in four years under Caldwell. It’s been a year mired by injuries in recent weeks, as well as a trade of Golden Tate to the Eagles for a third-round pick, but it’s included some disappointing losses to rebuilding teams with rookie quarterbacks in the Jets and Bills.

Detroit just hasn’t been able to find momentum this season. It has won back-to-back games only once. After a 3-3 start, it has lost six of the past eight games.

The Lions have two games remaining against NFC North opponents -- home against the Vikings and on the road against the Packers -- to conclude the season. Patricia will hope they can go to work and get better now that getting better is what they have left to play for.