DETROIT — It’s going to be a long, tortuous week for Patriots fans, as in five days of finger-pointing, talk-show hollering and the revival of an old New England tradition: Blame pie!

But as you tie yourself up in knots trying to figure out how the passionless Pats managed to suffer a humiliating 26-10 loss to the upstart Detroit Lions last night at Ford Field, be aware that nobody out here in Motown gives a damn about your problems.

What Lions fans care about is that their team hasn’t won a championship since 1957, which is before anyone had ever heard of the Super Bowl. They didn’t care how or why the Lions won, only that they did indeed win. And they found themselves cheering not just for their team but for their new coach, the bearded and disheveled Matt Patricia, the longtime Bill Belichick assistant who finally is running his own shop.

When the game was finished, Patricia dutifully made his way to midfield and managed to find Belichick for a quick meet and greet, after which one man went back to his celebration while the other man, the master, the teacher, the genius, was tasked with going back to the blackboard.

“Honestly, I just wanted to to find him and shake his hand,” said Patricia. “There were just a lot of people in my way. I’m most respectful of coach Belichick and everything he does with his program and the way he coaches his team and everything he taught me.”

That’s boilerplate stuff. One could have assumed Patricia, after years of being a Belichick lieutenant, would adopt his old boss’ mumbling, it-is-what-it-is demeanor when doing these postgame pressers. And yet he said something late last night that suggests he’s been doing more than watching game film and charting plays during his brief time in Detroit.

It appears he’s also been learning what Detroit is all about.

“We work really hard to get better every day,” he started to say, and sure, that’s basic coachspeak.

“I fully believe in that blue-collar work ethic,” he went on. “You know, grind it out, work hard during the work . . .”

This is when Matt Patricia seemingly spoke to every Detroit Lions fan in the history of the franchise.

“Shoot, that’s what this city does, right?” he asked. “Doesn’t everyone in this city go out and work hard every single day? So why are we any different? That’s what we’re going to do every single day, and try to work hard and try to get better.”

For a man who says little, he said a lot. He was speaking about an oldtimey industrial city that’s trying to get its groove back and is making huge strides in that direction. Talk to anyone in Detroit and they’ll tell you so. And here’s the new guy more or less saying the same thing. Shoot, that’s what this city does, right?

And then there is the matter of football. The Lions have been colossal failures for decades, usually not even making the playoffs. When they do make the postseason, the sure thing is they’ll be shown the door in short order. Generations of Lions fans have seen nothing but heartache and losing. For Mike Setlock of Grand Rapids, Mich., it’s all about following in the footsteps of his father, Ray, a 76-year-old retired steelworker at the Rouge in Dearborn who was a starry-eyed 15-year-old when the Lions won the NFL championship in 1957.

“We’re talking my 43 years and my dad’s 76 years, and now we’re talking my two kids,” said Setlock, waiting in line outside Ford Field before the game. “I brought him to the Jets game. He wasn’t happy.”

So, Ray Setlock hungers for a return to the glory days of ’57, is that it?

“He does talk about it, sure, a little bit,” Setlock said. “But it’s been dire here for so long . . . he’s sour now. He really is. He’s been disappointed for so long.”

What old Ray Setlock needs to do is bury the past and listen to Matt Patricia.

And it’s hard to imagine how Ray Setlock could not have heard Patricia last night considering the new coach of the Lions was practically speaking right to him.

It is true that Patricia isn’t much of a looker as head coaches go. He has the 1960s Cambridge Common beard, the dark, baggy clothes, the obligatory pencil perched behind an ear. And when he speaks, the words come tumbling out of his mouth at such a fast clip as to suggest way, way, way, too much coffee being consumed before he hits the interview room.

Again, not very impressive.

Now ask yourselves this question, New England football fans: How impressed were you with Bill Belichick when he took control of the Patriots in 2000?