Despite starting the season 6-3, then losing their next 5 out of 6 games eliminating any playoff hopes, Lions head coach Jim Schwartz still does not consider his team’s season a failure according to NBC Sports.
“We didn’t make the playoffs and I think that’s obviously anybody’s goal, so we didn’t achieve that goal. But I don’t know if I’d be as strong as to call it failure,” Schwartz said. “We haven’t done a good enough job. I mean, it’s been the quintessential close but no cigar. We’ve battled every game but we’ve come up a play short consistently, whether it was a special teams play or an offensive play or a defensive play.”
When pressed about why he doesn’t consider this season to be a failure Schwartz described himself as a “half-full” type of guy.
“I could get philosophical,” Schwartz said. “When I hear failure, I hear ‘abject failure,’ nothing goes right. That’s the connotation I get from it, maybe you feel different. But I don’t feel that about our team.”
Schwartz is right about one thing. Most people do feel different. When a team goes from first place in their division to out of the playoffs in the same season that season is considered a failure. The Lions will finish their season at Minnesota, another team eliminated from the playoffs. More than likely this will be Schwartz’s last game as their head coach.
