SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Matt Patricia raised some eyebrows when he decided to holster his timeouts late in the first half of Sunday's 30-27 loss against San Francisco.
With about 1 minute left before the break, Jimmy Garoppolo was sacked inside his 5-yard line. That set up a third-and-19. But rather than call a timeout, Patricia let San Francisco run another 25 or 30 seconds off the clock before running the play.
The Lions got the ball back with just 49 seconds left, instead of about 1:15. That's a huge difference.
But Patricia said it was by design.