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The Lions didn’t lose a game in the first three weeks of the season, but they’ve more than made up for it since then.

They’ve lost seven of their last eight games and take a four-game losing streak into Thursday’s game against the Bears. That means Matt Patricia’s record since arriving is 9-17-1, which is far worse than the 18-14 mark that Jim Caldwell posted in his final two seasons with Detroit.

On Monday, Patricia worked to make the case that the team is going through bad times now in order to set the stage for a brighter future. Patricia said “we’re looking at other things as far as the development of some of the younger players” as the year winds down and plans for those players to be part of the organization’s foundation moving forward.

“I would say, for me and this team, we’re fighting every single week to try to go out and do our best and make sure we’re putting ourselves in a position where we can have that opportunity to win,” Patricia said, via the Detroit Free Press. “I also know that this is a process. I know there’s a lot in play here that we’re going through, and we’re trying to build, and we’re trying to do the best we can to improve and get better.”

Trusting the process is easier with signs of progress, but the Lions haven’t offered many over the last two months and more of the same to close out the year will make it a much tougher sell for Patricia and General Manager Bob Quinn.