Second-half surge leaves Lions wondering ‘what if’

Allen Park — Lions coach Jim Caldwell regularly shared one of his goals for this season before it began.

After going 11-5 and losing in the first round of the postseason, the Lions must be better.

The Lions enter Sunday’s season finale 6-9, and won’t make it to the playoffs — well short of their team goals. But, as Caldwell and players reflect on a disappointing season, they believe they were close to being the team they’d hoped to be.

“We had our chances, and we just did not play well enough when it counted to get that done,” Caldwell said. “Every year is a little bit different. Our goal and aim is not to be mediocre. That’s the key.”

There are plenty of what-ifs the Lions could think about as they reflect on the season.

What if questionable officiating in losses to Seattle and Green Bay had gone Detroit’s way?

What if linebacker DeAndre Levy was healthy?

And on and on.

Instead, the reality is the Lions started 0-5 and 1-7 before showing potential during a 5-2 run.

Lions' Taylor turning the 'on' switch with his development

“It’s definitely not what we were expecting,” offensive lineman Manny Ramirez said. “Especially with the type of talent we have on the team and not being able to reach the expectations that we all believed that was achievable.”

Considering how the Lions have played in the second half, it’s fair to say the team underachieved the first half. But as the losses mounted, it was unclear what the Lions were capable of.

Entering Week 10, the Lions ranked 31st in scoring offense (18.6 points) and 32nd in scoring defense (30.6 points). They had the 26th overall offense (337.8 yards) and defense (385.8 yards) and were last with 20 turnovers.

“When you look back on it, you can say, ‘Dang, we started off pretty bad,’” wide receiver Lance Moore said. “But while you’re in it, you’re trying to do whatever you can to get yourself out of it.”

The goal each week was to win the next game. And after the midway point, the Lions started to turn things around.

The past seven games, they have four turnovers and are tied for 21st in giveaways. The offense is 18th (356.6 yards) and the defense 17th (309.4 yards), even though the Lions still rank 25th in scoring defense (25.3 points) and 18th in scoring offense (22.3 points).

The Lions also have improved from 30th to 19th in run defense (113.1 yards), a staple of the team’s success last year. And though the Lions are 31st in rushing offense (84.5 yards), they’re averaging nearly 15 more yards now than when they were last.

“Any other team, I really believe that it would’ve exploded from within,” Ramirez said. “There would’ve been a lot of finger pointing … but we never got any of that here. Everybody always stuck together.”

Ramirez understands some people might not be proud if the Lions win Sunday to improve to 6-2 in the second half. But he said that’s a better stretch than 0-5, and credits Caldwell for keeping the team focused.

Detroit News predictions: Lions vs. Bears

Caldwell, though, is far from satisfied.

“To me, there’s only one position to be satisfied with and that’s winning it all. That’s being absolutely the best one in this league,” he said. “Anything that falls short of that, I’m going to be dissatisfied with, and I can say that with full sincerity because I’ve been there on a number of occasions.”

In the first half, Moore said the Lions weren’t close to where they wanted to be, but were still close to winning some games.

Sunday’s game might not matter much beyond draft implications and next year’s schedule matchups, but after such a rough start, the Lions still hope to win their finale for the first time since 2010.

“All the guys in this locker room will be disappointed whether we win or lose that game,” Moore said. “Just knowing the guys on this team, the potential that we have and to have underachieved this year, specifically after they made the playoffs last year, everybody will be disappointed.

“But it’ll feel a lot better to have won that last game than to lose the last game.”

jkatzenstein@detroitnews.com

twitter.com/jkatzenstein