Why Jim Schwartz's Detroit Lions Are Too Undisciplined to Win in Playoffs

After years of mediocrity mixed with a few seasons of downright awful with an 0-16 campaign thrown in for good measure, fans of the Detroit Lions finally have something to cheer about this season, as the Lions opened the season with five consecutive victories and actually had their supporters speaking a word they'd nearly forgotten how to pronounce.

Playoffs.

That enthusiasm has been tempered somewhat of late, as the Lions have now dropped three of their last four games, including getting shellacked by the Chicago Bears Sunday in a chippy game that featured a full-on donnybrook between the two teams. With that latest loss, the Lions now find themselves deadlocked in a battle to secure one of the NFC's wild-card spots.

A large part of both the credit and blame for the Lions current situation lies with head coach Jim Schwartz, whose fiery demeanor certainly seems to have rubbed off on his players. However, sometimes that aggression and passion can reach a tipping point where it becomes detrimental to a team and reckless abandon becomes just that, leading to missed assignments, poor decisions and stupid penalties.

All those gremlins have manifested themselves during Detroit's recent skid, and while the Lions are still a very talented team quite capable of making the playoffs and this certainly isn't the only problem they face (the lack of a running game comes to mind) the simple fact remains that if the Lions are serious about making an appearance in the postseason for the first time since 1999, they need to get their proverbial act together.

Passion is great, as is aggression and "fire," but if the Lions use those things as a replacement for discipline and not a compliment to it, then Detroit may well find themselves in an all-too familiar spot come playoff time.

On the outside looking in.