CHARLOTTE, N.C. — No, the season isn’t finished. Not by math. Not in spirit.
The playoffs are still a possibility. So is a winning record, which would have its own karmic reward even without a playoff berth.
Don’t even think about mentioning the phrase. You know what it is. This isn’t that. Besides, you speak it, it comes back to life.
Think about this instead: The Detroit Lions lost, 37-23 on Saturday. That’s it.
Every team in the NFL has lost this season, too. Yeah, the timing of the loss hurts. Christmas Eve. First chance to climb above .500. The opportunity to grab control of the last wild-card spot in the NFC.
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But the season didn’t end on the frigid, cement-like field, where Charlotte transformed into Green Bay in January. Speaking of which, the Lions have a game up that way in a couple of weeks. Before that Chicago, back in Detroit.
So, again, the season isn’t finished. Even if the Lions’ loss felt like the end.
You just got used to winning. And to expectations. And it was fun. And it’s still fun. As long as the Lions learn from what happened on Saturday afternoon.
Not exactly what happened as much as why it happened.
“We weren’t ready — at all,” said Alim McNeill defensive tackle.
That was obvious. To him. To head coach, Dan Campbell, who said it was his responsibility — and his alone — to make sure the players were ready, even if lots of his players disagree with that.
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“We have to be ready as players,” said McNeill.
I mean, this is true. But what Campbell said is also true, I’d argue more true, at least with this team, because they are young, a fact Campbell said he never forgets, and figured he covered in the run-up to Saturday’s game.
“I knew what we were getting ready to face,” he said.
And?
“I didn’t see that coming.”
That’s the lesson, too.
In a way, it would’ve been hard to. His team hasn’t played like this all season, except for maybe New England, though the Lions were in that game at the half and were missing several key players to injury.
That was at least partly predictable. But this?
You’ve got to look harder. The cold? Nah, both teams played in it. The half-empty stadium? Perhaps, for that meant that each team had to create its own juice, and Carolina is still in the hunt for its division title, and was coming off a home loss to Pittsburgh, and the Lions were coming off a magic carpet ride.
Again, they are young, and this is where youth can come into play. The Panthers were ready. The Lions were not.
Were they too comfy?
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Success can do that, too. It’s something the Lions had to learn. And something they struggled with last week against the Jets, though that was more nerves and tightness in the first half.
This?
“We weren’t ready emotionally, physically, mentally for that game,” said Campbell. “You say things but ultimately when you play that way, that falls on me.”
Campbell is still learning. It’s easy to burrow down on late-game — or late-half — clock management. And it’s easy to second-guess play calling. And Campbell will tell you — has told you — that he’d like some of his early-season decisions back.
It’s harder to figure out what is missing when it’s missing, and to diagnose why. It’s not a matter of finding the fissure in execution on film or where the scheme went awry. He and his staff have done a fine job of that.
What needs to be fixed for next week’s game against Chicago, along with run fits up front, is the level of mental preparedness. The Lions weren’t ready. They played like they’d forgotten how hard it is to win in the NFL.
It’s even harder to win four games in a row, as the Lions were trying to do Saturday afternoon in record-setting cold.
Yet here we were — so many of us, anyway — comfortable with the idea that the Lions could not only win four in a row but win six in a row to close the regular season.
That’s how good they’ve looked the last two months. That’s also what winning does. It makes you comfortable, at least more comfortable than you are used to being. This is something that has to be learned as well.
It starts with enjoying Christmas and the holiday, enjoying time with family.
“That’s important,” said Campbell. “Because they will always be there, no matter what happens.”
Then it’s time to flush what happened on Christmas Eve. To remember, as Campbell noted, that “you get what you deserve in this league. It’s heartbreak, but it’s also why I love it, we love it.”
The Lions got what they deserved against the Panthers. They got what they deserved, too, when they won six of seven.
When they return from their mini-Christmas break, Campbell promised they would be ready, and be ready for Chicago next week.
“That’s what’s gonna happen,” he said. “I’ll make sure.”
Saturday afternoon helped teach him that.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.