Despite their free fall against sub par opposition, Lions head coach Jim Schwartz maintains that all is not lost for his team in these final two weeks of the regular season.
In fact Schwartz believes most teams would like to switch spots with the Lions given Detroit’s position to still make the playoffs if they win out while the Packers and Bears lose at least once.
Here’s what Schwartz had to say (via ProFootballTalk.com):
“As we go in to the 15th game of the year, that scenario is there for us and there are probably 20 teams in the league right now that would like to switch positions with us,” Schwartz said. “There are some teams that three games down with two to play. Not exactly good. There are a lot of times some of them are probably eight games down with two to play. Being one down with two to play, it’s not our ideal situation, but it’s the hand that we play. We are not dealt this hand, it’s the hand that we’re playing right now and the only thing that we concern ourselves with is the Giants.”
Now although it’s true there’s plenty of teams that would like to trade spots with the Lions these final two weeks, Michael David Smith of PFT points out that Schwartz may be overstating things just a bit. For instance the 12 teams currently in the playoffs most certainly wouldn’t want to trade spots with Detroit not to mention the three teams that need to win out and control their own destiny. Then there’s the embarrassment of failing to close out the division when it was essentially handed to you (Cutler and Rodgers both out, 2nd easiest second half schedule in the league).
