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One thing you can count on with the Detroit Lions is that they are never, ever boring. Follow the latest news including injuries, roster moves and more here daily from Oakland Press beat writer Paula Pasche. Plus you'll find regular commentary about the team.

12/22/2011

Jim Schwartz: We're halfway there

One of the best weekly NFL shows on TV is “Turning Point” on Versus. Hosted by Dan Patrick, he and Tony Dungy break down four of the most interesting games from the previous weekend.

The Lions win at Oakland was one of the featured games on Wednesday night. It will re-air tonight (Thursday night) at midnight. They break down big plays, show game clips and pick up audio from along the sidelines. Interesting stuff. They mix it with clips of the post-game press conferences. This week it’s a great look at the always humble Calvin Johnson. Also Matthew Stafford explains why he ran the ball on fourth-and-2.

Then at the very end of the show they show coach Jim Schwartz in the locker room giving out game balls. He tells the team great game, the usual stuff. Then he shouts, “We’re halfway there!”

That had me stumped for a minute. Halfway? They’ve won nine games.

Ah, but Schwartz breaks the season down into four quarters of four games each.

So in this final quarter they are 2-0, halfway to the goal of 4-0.

That’s how he’s conditioned the players to look at the season. Sure there’s one game at a time, but this quarter view seems to work for them. Remember last season they were 4-0 in the final quarter even though they had no shot at the postseason.

This season they opened 4-0, slipped to 2-2, slipped again to 1-3.

When they’re done with a quarter, they move on to the next hoping to redeem themselves. They’re doing a good job so far in this final quarter. One more win and they're in the playoffs.

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