Detroit Lions: Surviving is good, but finishing is better

How to finish off opponents

Surviving games does build a certain resiliency and confidence. But the thing about surviving closely contested games is that both teams have the same opportunity to survive it and the odds dictate that the more closely contested games a given team plays, the more the odds are against that team to keep winning them.

This is why the Lions really need to learn how to finish off opponents.

It should not be lost on any of us that the Lions have had opportunities in each of their first three games to finish off their opponents and just take the win rather than having to survive with it. The killer instinct is what makes good teams great.

Finishing off opponent’s is that innate ability to come up with the play that breaks the other teams’ spirit and virtually guarantees victory mathematically as well. It’s the ability to play at their very best when they need to the most. Whether it’s that big first down to keep control of the ball and the clock or that scoring play that would end the competitive stage of a game rather than having to punt and breathe new life and hope into an opponent.

The Lions had scoring opportunities in all three of their games so far that would have ended the contest before the final gun. And while they made some big defensive plays in all three games to help ensure victory, they also failed to make some plays as well.

No team, not even the seemingly invincible New England Patriots, makes every play or wins every game. But the true contenders make those plays more often than not. The pretenders tend to watch them slip away.

Focus and execution during those moments that games are won or lost is in essence what the killer instinct is and what the Lions need most. Where we should see a Honolulu Blue and Silver lining is that these Lions haven’t executed that well overall as yet. As they become better at doing their individual jobs together like a well-oiled machine, then the execution should improve greatly.

The question is will they learn to execute at those big moments?

Learning that killer instinct and how to close out opponents would be the most important lesson these Lions could learn and would catapult them from pretender status to being contenders. Which is what Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia believe they are building. If they can coax these Lions to seize hold of those opportunities to close out opponents, then perhaps the dreams of all  Lions fans may finally come true.