Detroit Lions: It's Not the Number of Wins, It's the Type

The Detroit Lions are a paltry 3-10, and need only a 4-game winning streak to close out the season to meet my expectation of a 6-10 record.

Okay, you can stop laughing, it's not that funny.

The cold fact is that the Lions' record doesn't scare anybody. And although they beat the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, they really shouldn't have. It was ugly, lucky, and just all kinds of general-purpose hard to watch.

Think I'm getting down on the team after a big win? I'm not. I'm just saying the Lions won a football game by the count of 7-3, in a game where Greg Jennings torched Amari Spievey deep and then let a touchdown pass bounce off his hands and into Spievey's.

Even though Spievey showed great hands and awareness picking off the deflection, nobody can argue that the result of the play should have been seven Packer points. And if it had been, the mathematical conclusion is that the Lions lose by three.

Yet even knowing this, even with another Lions team that won't come close to sniffing .500, even with a starting quarterback that will have played for less than four total games this year, even with question marks galore on all sides of the ball and over a dozen players on injured reserve, I can't help but be encouraged.

Now don't worry, I'm not drowning in Kool-Aid with a 3-10 team. Saying the Lions still need work is an understatement on the approximate level of "the Sun is still a little warm."

But even though the Lions have won only five games since the start of the 2009 season, they have all been very different wins.

The win over Washington last year was one in which the Redskins would have won with about 30 more seconds on the clock. They were charging back, the Lions were collapsing, and only the clock halted the late-game comeback.

The Cleveland win was a high-scoring shootout decided by an unlikely pass-interference call on a Hail Mary heave.

The win over St. Louis was total domination in every facet and the Lions' most complete outing in at least three years, but it did nothing to diminish their reputation for crumbling in close games.

This year's win over Washington was characterized by the Matthew Stafford-Calvin Johnson connection keying a fourth-quarter comeback and a huge, game-clinching defensive play. Granted, that play was against Rex Grossman, not Donovan McNabb, and that got most of the game's press.

Then there was Green Bay. Ugly, close, hard-fought,  low-scoring, injury-plagued, and a bit lucky. So, exactly the kind of game that Detroit is used to losing.

While the Lions have not found more ways to win than they've found to lose,  they certainly have won in a variety of ways in the Schwartz/Mayhew era.

That's a good thing.

The buzzphrase for the last few seasons has been that the Lions must "learn how to win."  I'm growing tired of the phrase. What they need to do is not give away hard-earned leads through turnovers, allowing big plays on defense, egregious mental lapses, etc.

For the last couple of seasons, the Lions taking the lead in a game has meant an opening of the floodgates. The Lions went up 17-0 in the first quarter on the Seattle Seahawks last year, and lost that game 32-20.

Last season, the Lions' two wins came because 1) time ran out before Washington could complete their rally, and 2) the Lions took a one-point lead over Cleveland with 0:00 on the clock.

This year?

St. Louis: Domination, never letting off the gas pedal.

Washington: Defense stepping up late. Alphonso Smith picked off McNabb in Redskins territory to set up the go-ahead TD, the Ndamukong Suh fumble recovery-TD  on the following drive sealed it.

Green Bay: Defense stepping up for the entire game, allowing only three points, almost giving up the go-ahead TD in the waning seconds, but holding.

You know how they say the good teams always find a way to win? Despite injuries, weather, poor performance, stiff competition, and long odds, good teams win football games in any circumstance.

The Lions are not yet a good football team. But when they've won this season, they've won the kinds of games good football teams win.

Yeah, I know, hope springs eternal, blind optimism, and so on. Don't worry, I'm not getting ahead of myself. The Lions are not out of the woods until they get their quarterback on the field and string together a few in a row. This team is what it is, and it is a team with more questions then answers.

But they've won some quality games this year in quality fashion (and believe it or not, the Green Bay game was quality fashion, considering there was a go-ahead scoring drive and major defensive stops in the fourth quarter), two against teams in the thick of the playoff race. That's what good teams do on a consistent basis.

Of course, good football teams also win road games...