ALLEN PARK -- Matt Patricia has coordinated defenses for six years, and finished in the top 10 in scoring defense all six times. He began calling defensive plays two years before that. He coached safeties and linebackers too.

Matt Patricia knows defense.

And as such, he knows how tough it is to stop Matthew Stafford these days.

"As a guy trying to coordinate against him, he's very difficult to defend," the first-year Detroit Lions coach said. "Sometimes you look at quarterbacks and say, 'OK, is this a cerebral quarterback? Or is this a system quarterback? Is it a guy that has a really good arm? Is it strong? Is it accurate? How does he make his throws? Is he mobile? Is he not mobile? Does he have command of the offense or is it more coordinator-led? You kind of look at all of that. And this is a guy that's more along the lines of just totally complete.

"When you're looking at that as a defensive coordinator, he's checking all those boxes, like, 'yup, yup, yup, yup. Oh (bleep).' He's just very difficult from that standpoint."

High praise coming from a guy who has spent the last 14 years looking at Tom Brady.

Indeed, Patricia has lots of thoughts about offense. Although known for defense, he was an offensive lineman in college. His only Division I job was as an offensive assistant at Syracuse, and he got his NFL start as an offensive assistant and then an assistant offensive line coach for the Patriots.

As such, he does expect to influence the offensive philosophy in Detroit. He brought back Jim Bob Cooter to call plays, but there will be some changes to the scheme in 2018, particularly in the running game. And he's already swapped quarterback coaches, replacing Brian Callahan with George Godsey at the urging of GM Bob Quinn.

"In general, I have philosophies about offense and what I think is difficult to defend and what makes a complete team," Patricia said. "You can win some, but you can't win ultimately if all three phases play in different directions. You know, everyone's got to be playing in the right direction.

"Sometimes that changes by the year. Sometimes you're building one side or the other, and you need to be conscious of that. You need to understand, 'I need to be more in control of the game and slow things down to help this side out,' or, 'I need to be more aggressive on this side of the ball because of whatever the situation may be.' And that management is what's important. I have some ideas about that. But look, it's going to be me and Jim Bob and Matthew getting on the same page and looking at it and saying, 'What gives us the best chance to win this week?'"

Patricia said it was premature for him to offer any specific thoughts or evaluations about the Lions offense, though Stafford was a notable exception. He's played well under Cooter, too, completing 66.3 percent of his passes for 73 touchdowns, 24 interceptions and a QB rating of 98.2

His interception rate has basically been halved under Cooter. His touchdown-to-interception ratio in the Cooter era trails only Brady and Russell Wilson league wide.

In 2017, Stafford finished among the six best quarterbacks in all the major passing categories, despite an offensive line that allowed him to be sacked a career-worst 47 times and a run game that finished last in the league for the second time in three years. It hasn't produced a 100-yard rusher in more than four years.

Stafford's 65.7 percent completion percentage was sixth in the league, just behind Brady. And his 80.8 passer rating on balls thrown into tight windows -- defined as where the target has less than 1 yard of separation from a defender -- ranked second in the league.

"He's just very composed," Patricia said. "Does a great job of running and leading the offense. Very hard to scheme against him, and it'll be great for me to build that relationship with him, be able to have that opportunity to sit down and watch film and talk about things that he sees, thing that I see, and develop the relationship from there."

Patricia may have some thoughts about how Stafford can tighten up his weaknesses too. After all, in the only game he coordinated against the quarterback, Stafford completed just 18 of 46 passes for 264 yards, no touchdowns and one pick.

With a passer rating of 49.5, Patricia's defense had held Stafford to the worst game of his career.