Head Coach Jim Schwartz’s message to the players today was that their win over Washington shouldn’t have been that close considering the way the team played.
“We should have had guys on the sideline with hats on enjoying the end of the game rather than battling at the end of the game,” said Schwartz.
He mentioned missed opportunities such as possible pick-sixes and failure to capitalize after a turnover. But the bottom line is that the Lions did win.
“A win is a win and we’re happy with a win; you’re never not happy with a win in the NFL,” he said. “But our expectations need to be higher.”
WHAT THIS MEANS
Schwartz mentioned multiple times that he doesn’t want to get too excited about this victory because, the reality of it is, the Lions are a 1-2 football team headed to Chicago in Week 4.
“We’re excited, yeah,” he said. “But let’s put it where it is: it’s a Week 3 win, we’re 1-2, (and) we need to get a win this week against a division opponent to get back to 2-2. Sorry to be so boring.”
But the truth of the matter is that the Lions did not just win on Sunday, they showed clear improvement compared with the first two games.
Even though he left the game early with an injury, running back 
In fact, in the first half, the Lions had held Washington to zero rushing yards – Ladell Betts had one attempt for two yards while Clinton Portis had four attempts for negative two – while Detroit had 116 first-half rushing yards.
“That was the story of the first half,” said Schwartz. “We were able to control the clock; we were very efficient on third downs.”
The Lions also didn’t turn the ball over, finishing the game plus-one. Rookie quarterback
From a defensive standpoint, the Lions also tackled well. Though they struggled on the first drive, when they ultimately made a goal-line stop, they settled down and played a sound game.
“They have some skill players that can make you miss,” said Schwartz. “Some of those guys – Santana Moss, (Antwaan) Randle El, Clinton Portis – they have some guys that are really, really good players. After that first drive, I think we maybe had one more missed tackle the rest of the game.
“We did a really, really good job of tackling.”
CONSISTENT COACHING
Schwartz has talked about what he wants from a team standpoint and first and foremost has been run the ball and stop the run.
The first part of that equation has improved over each game to the point that Detroit averaged 4.3 yards per carry and finished with 154 rushing yards to Washington’s 65.
“I thought the whole offensive line really took the challenge this week,” said Schwartz.
“They’ve played some very good fronts: New Orleans Saints was a very good front, Minnesota’s one of the best fronts in the league, the Redskins have a really good front including Albert Haynesworth. I think they’ve all accepted the challenge really well; they’ve played physical.”
The same has also been true of the defense. While they struggled in the first game with assignment errors and fitting correctly, the players have exponentially gotten better over the last two games.
Against Minnesota, there were a couple broken plays in which Adrian Peterson had some long runs, but Detroit contained Washington. Though Santana Moss had a big game – 10 catches for 178 yards – the Lions held the Redskins to 2-of-10 on third down conversions and 1-of-2 on fourth down conversions (the successful fourth-down conversion was the final play of the game).
“We never let the Redskins really get on schedule running the football,” said Schwartz. “We were able to sustain drives with third-down percentage, third-down conversions, and we were able to get off the field on defense on third-down conversions. That led to the time of possession and those things.
“Definite steps in the right direction there.”
